Richard Caborn: The People's Politician

I just watched The People's Politician on the BBC:

After a shocking year for relations between people and politicians, two retiring MPs, Ann Widdecombe and Richard Caborn, are challenged to heal the rift between them and us. Could giving us more of a say over our MPs - using the internet, for example - help bring back any of the 17 million who didn't vote at the last election?

Richard Caborn, the affable MP for Sheffield, confronted a room full of politically apathetic young men in an attempt to light a political fire in their bellies, the old union firebrand was sure he could awaken their inner Scargill. In fact, he'd stake his reputation on it.

He didn't. It was a disaster because he could not even convince one listless youth that he or the British political process had anything to offer them. They met him with blank stares. It was painful to watch. They still wouldn't be voting because it was pointless, they informed him. Caborn was crest-fallen, slightly humiliated; he couldn't understand why youngsters these days thought that politicians were a bunch of unprincipled, thieving, lying bastards - he took that personally. Why wouldn't they engage?

I'm a young person passionate about politics, or at least I was a young person when I began campaigning for an English parliament. Almost every MP I contacted fobbed me off and told me that my concerns were trivial or not salient. Some even said that the problem that I saw with England's democracy wasn't actually a problem, it was simply an anomaly. I was stonewalled or ignored, and often they did the exact opposite of what I was wanting them to do, usually by concentrating solely on Britishness, forgetting England completely.

Richard Caborn was one of those MPs who ignored me. I wrote to him several times in 2004 about the Government's abolition of the English Tourism Council to create VisitBritain. He never answered and had one of his wonks at the DCMS fob me off with non-answers. I was passionate about something, I tried to engage, he fobbed me off.

Ultimately I feel vindicated because in 2009 Caborn's policy was reversed and Visit England - a stand alone English Tourism Council - was recreated, presumably because 2009 was the year that regional assemblies died (not that they'd ever admit that regionalism had anything to do with their original decision). All of which just goes to show that Richard Caborn is a daft beardy twat (seen in the programme drinking bitter out of a half-pint glass) who shouldn't complain too much that people can't be bothered to engage with him. Good riddance, Richard.