Nothing has changed, so what's the point?

Earlier this year I had a chance encounter that was the catalyst for this project. Just after May's local elections, a woman I was chatting to told me she had not voted. When I asked why, she replied that she had voted in the 2024 general election but that since then "nothing had changed, so what's the point?" It was only a short conversation, and she was in a hurry, so I never had the chance to ask what she meant. But her statement stayed with me. What would have been enough to convince her that her vote had made a difference, I wondered. What changes had she expected to see? I have no idea which party she supported, or even whether she supported one at all. The question that interested me was broader than party politics: what meaningful change can voters realistically expect in a democracy like the UK? The 2024 general election produced huge political change. Labour replaced the Conservatives after 14 years in government and campaigned under the banner of "Change". Their manifesto promised to "change Britain and start to build it up again", offering hope for a better future. The Conservatives, meanwhile, campaigned on "Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future".

Reading both manifestos, I was struck more by their similarities than by their differences. Both promised economic growth and stability, investment in the NHS, improvements to the education system, cheaper and cleaner 'green' energy, and stronger border security. Other parties naturally had their own priorities, but the two main parties, which together won 57.4% of the seats in Parliament, shared many of the same broad ambitions. Laudable goals, of course; who would not want these things? I'm no politician, but I would bet a penny to a pound that these were the goals of the other parties too, one way or the other. So if the goals are roughly the same, the devil must be in the detail. However, if the main political parties offer more or less the same things to the majority of people, what change could occur to differentiate them? Are both parties not making the same political promises proposed at every general election?

I am then, no closer to understanding what changes could have happened to persuade my voter that she had not wasted her time. But one thing does strike me, and that is that she might have got it the wrong way round in expecting change as dictated by national party policy. Perhaps local politics is more important for voters than national politics. Local policy, when effective, can produce realisable change in a person's environment, whereas national governance, by focusing on the country as a whole, makes changes on such a scale that the effects are either long-term or not immediately apparent to the populace. I still do not know what answer she would have given had I been able to continue the conversation. But I suspect it is a question worth asking many more people, because before we can judge whether politics has failed to deliver change, we first need to understand what people believe change should actually look like.