10 Steps Politicians Need to Take to Engage

I was reading Scott Gould’s blog post My vote for sale: Price: Engagement. And it got me thinking.  What would you do if you were a politician?

Politicians are utterly petrified of a combative media, and saying the wrong thing, but what can they do to engage?

10 Things Politicians could do:

• Admit fault – When was the last time you heard a politician do this well? Humility is powerful.
• Be Human – Cameron engaged people with a family tragedy, but it was accidental. It showed that we want human politicians not robots.
• Empathise – “I understand” is about the most powerful thing you can say to someone who is feeling let down by you.
• Ask Questions – Wouldn’t you like it if a politician asked you what to do?
• Avoid attacks – I’m not saying don’t disagree but, we need to restore that grown up respect that came from being Right Honourable. I want to respect my MP, give me a reason to
• Explain – Policy is difficult, and complex. The public struggle to grasp that, yet there are great ways to explain complex problems. It’s called leadership. It’s there, it’s just terrified of being eaten alive by our media.
• Kill the Press Office – Alistair Campbell made British politics less human. We need to reverse that trend.
• Embrace simplicity – Again, taking lessons from copyblogger and social media – We want simplicity, preferably in 140 characters.
• Support Local Heroes – “Social Enterprise” still feels too much like an election ploy from the conservatives, but local is back. Who’s doing great things in your constituency? Champion them, give them a platform.
• Be THE voice for your constituents – We have become a presidential style nation, which is very London centric. People feel disengaged because they don’t know who their MP is, or how those local issues are being solved.

Where did this problem come from?

The 3 main parties have huddled around the centre ground, to chase an apathetic public. They had a lot of success with by being stage managed with Tony Blair… New Labour was effective in being very centrist and at not making any decision that was too controversial.  The result was apathy.  We’re not engaged because politicians became very effective at saying nothing.

Politics now lacks a “big idea” to get behind on all fronts. The most engaging message getting to voters at this time is “We’re not Gordon Brown”.  The party leaderships are reactionary, fear public opinion and fear the media instead of leading it.

Where is the Leadership?

We the public, want to get behind a movement, and want to engage at a local level.  The desire has never been missing, the mechanism has.  Politicians ducking answers, fearing the public and media are creating more apathy, not solving it.

We can make the public care again, by making politics relevant, on a local scale and engaging on the human level.  What do you think will help? Do you think there is anything else politicians need to do?