"... ‘a generation of Ms Mistrustfuls and Mr Boreds [...] hold the key to No. 10’. A combination of long-term alienation from the political sphere and short-term rejection as a result of the expenses scandal has left the political engagement of the British public at gravely low levels, with only 10% of the 2,000 voters surveyed being defined as ‘politically committed’, while 14% were active campaigners, 14% were interested bystanders and 8% politically contented. The flipside of the data is that 54% of the respondents fell into the disengaged/mistrustful, alienated/hostile, detached cynic and bored/apathetic categories. In other words, over half of the surveyed sample of the British electorate are disengaged from politics..."

"...As though in riposte to our Great Debate on electoral reform, the Conservative poll lead fell to 2 per cent nationally over the weekend - a margin small enough that, were this a national election rather than an internet poll of roughly 2,000 adults, election experts would translate this outcome to a Labour victory, with a majority of seats no less. Politics being what it is, this, more than any argument, might be what it takes to reverse Tory opposition to a more proportional form of representation..."

"...I think there are many of us from the left and the right who are tired of the atomised, individualistic, consumerist and ‘for and to’ state of society. We are reaching out for something different. Initiatives like my favourite, the Transition Towns movement have given up waiting for Big Business and Big Government to provide solutions. They are the living, emergent example of ‘with and by’ society. Local people - butchers, bakers, candle-stick-makers, teachers and mothers - doing things with each other to bring about new forms of relations, production and consumption led by the citizens. They don’t look for things to be done for them. And they are no longer willing to have things done to them..."

"...Despite the Government’s woeful record on civil liberties, the Conservatives have been for the most part silent on their substantive views towards this crucial issue. As Francesca Klug notes, it remains unclear how the promise for a British Bill of Rights will redress these faults. There is little discussion from the right of rescinding Labour’s more illiberal laws, and then-Shadow Home Secretary David Davis’ principled-if-confusing resignation over 42 days was treated with indifference or embarrassment by the Tories..."