Author Archives: Jonathan Parrott

What is democracy?

By Jonathan Parrott | Fri 16th October 2026 - 12:43 pm

This is a question that can be asked of anyone, and will allow any person to receive a variant of the answer every time. Yet one idea remains clear, and that is the government operates under the consent of the governed.

As Liberal Democrats, we need to understand our namesake. We are democratic, we are a group that promotes liberalism and equality and importantly in relation to this, we promote a fairer system of voting; proportional representation. Everyone should have the right to feel as though their vote counts, everyone should feel valued as a participant in a democratic society.

But there is an issue in our country, as we can see in many other countries both democratic and non-democratic.

Apathy.

Apathy is the death of democracy, apathy is the death of freedom, justice, passion and of a country. A democratic state is not a right, it is something that must be fought for, something that must be defended at every opportunity. This fails when people look at an election and turn their attention elsewhere.

This is the critical state we must never allow to become entrenched in our society. We must never allow the population to allow democracy to pass them by.

Democracy is a sacred thing that must be a part of our everyday lives because it affects our everyday lives. If we permit apathy to flourish, and defeatism to become entrenched in our minds, then those who shout the loudest will claim the seat of power in this country and wrench power from the people to themselves.