Rearranging the deckchairs.

Two things on my mind today. Not true - lots of things on my mind today and not all of them about politics. But I'm only going to comment about my thoughts political.

An interesting editorial in The Guardian today made this observation about the way the parties are conducting themselves thus far in the false war before the General Election is officially called. According to The Guardian, yesterday's politicking could be summarised as "Everyone stuck to the script. Everyone was critical of everyone else. No-one said anything new. No wonder voters are unimpressed." A pretty depressing view at a particularly important time. We face a hugely important choice this spring. The size and role of the state may be about to change. The economy must be rebuilt. Voters know it but are they in the mood to do something about it?

The answer to the last question could be "no". Results of a national poll conducted by the National Centre for Social Research have been released today. What do they tell us? The survey suggests that the number of people who felt a pressing need to vote in general elections was declining. Some 56% of those questioned thought it was "everyone's duty to vote" - down from 68% in 1991. This fell to 41% among the under-35s. Meanwhile, 32% of people said they had "not much" or "no interest" in politics. The report's co-author, Sarah Butt, said: "Low turnout has been a feature of recent elections with just 61% of people turning out to vote in 2005. The decline in civic duty means it is possible that, regardless of whether the next election provides voters with a clear choice between parties or a more closely fought contest, we could again see large sections of the population remaining at home on election day."

My response to this is "no surprise there". And what are our politicians going to do about it all? Just rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic!