It is often suggested that the fight has gone out of British
politics. That we are living in a period of consensus and that the
adversarial approach which dominated until around the early-1990s
is dead and buried.
That may be the case for some issues but for those involved in
public affairs campaigns, there often remains a need to 'take
on' government and engage in a fight.
The suggestion that adversarial politics is at an end appears to
be a very Westminster village view of the world. Actually if you
look at a local level there are a number of real fights taking
place over genuine issues of principle. Look at the debate over
HS2, post office closures, changes to local services and provision
and you then start to see a very different picture. Individual
citizens remain highly motivated at a local level and this can then
spill over into the national political debate. Issues can escalate
from the local to the national if not handled properly.
