Disillusionment with politics

Across the world, politics is shifting.

- Evelyn Tweed

There is a growing unease that I hear more and more frequently on doorsteps, in community centres, and at events across Stirling: a deep sense that politics is no longer working for people.

And I understand it. That disengagement isn’t down to apathy. It’s a response to a system that too often feels closed or distant. It’s what happens when people don’t feel heard, when debate becomes more about point-scoring than progress. When politics grows so polarised, so angry, that there’s no room for compromise or understanding.

More and more people are saying it doesn’t matter who they vote for, as all politicians are the same. This is reflected in the plunging turnouts since the highs of the 2014 independence referendum and the 2015 General Election. This is a challenge to democracy itself. And it supports the status quo.

The election of Trump in the US and his open disdain for democratic norms was fuelled by economic stagnation, inequality, and the erosion of trust in institutions. That same mix is taking root here.