In Rhondda Cynon Taf, Tonyrefail community centre is buzzing with people waiting for their breakfasts to be served. Among them is 32-year-old plasterer Lewis Watt, who has never voted in an election and has no intention of changing that this Thursday. “I’ve got too much going on in my life to listen to what’s happening in the Houses of Parliament,” he explains, adding that he’s spending most of his time looking for work or spending time with his family. “Because my time is taken up a lot through that, I haven’t got much interest in politics.”
Rhondda Cynon Taf’s Rhondda and Ogmore constituency had a voter turnout of 59% in the 2019 election, one of the lowest in Wales and well below the UK average of 67.3%. At Scoops and Smiles ice cream parlour in Ferndale, some feel that there is nothing for them on the political menu. Mark Barnes recently moved to the area after a period of homelessness and said he would not be voting because he has not found a political party that shares his views and concerns. “They haven’t got anything in the manifesto for people like myself,” he said.
Barnes’ daughter, Tracey, has voted in the past but is also likely to stay at home this time. “I suppose it’s being nervous of just being let down and them not providing what they say they’re going to provide,” she says. “In the future if a party was to come along and say we’re going to change this, we’re going to make this better for the future of your children… and it actually started happening, then I would more than definitely vote.”
Back at Tonyrefail’s community centre, Jane Ann Williams, 80, and her daughter Debbie Bowen, 62, say they will both be voting despite their experience of politicians over the years. “You can’t criticise if you don’t vote,” says Williams. A candidate who recently visited the center has won her support, but generally, she finds politicians do not deliver on what they promise at election time. “When they get in they don’t keep the promise. They’re entirely different,” she says.
Gideon Skinner, head of political research at polling company Ipsos, says that while distrust and lack of engagement in politics is nothing new, there are signs that trust in politics was at a particularly low level going into this election campaign. “Trust in politicians fell to a historic low of 9%,” he says. Skinner emphasizes the importance for politicians to overcome barriers such as “a sense of apathy or disillusionment in the political system” and demonstrate that “political engagement can make a difference, and that government and politicians really are listening to what people have to say.
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