There was an outcry from the press earlier this week when Ed Miliband met with controversial comedian Russell Brand for a one-on-one interview in his kitchen. David Cameron dismissed it sneeringly as a joke. Both were branded clowns. There were outlandish cries from the Daily Mail comment box proclaiming that all respect whatsoever had been lost for the Labour leader (whether they had ever intended to vote Labour in the first place is less than likely).
So in the face of this backlash, why did Miliband agree to meet with Brand?
If you’ve never stumbled upon Brand’s YouTube channel, you won’t be aware that he has amassed just over a million subscribers; his viewers presumably composed of politically minded young people who don’t mind flailing arms or tattoos or long hair like the older generation seem to. They don’t find him ridiculous or absurd. They see him in something that they can’t find elsewhere – someone discussing media and politics in a real and engaging way.
Yes, Brand isn’t perfect. He has made infamous mistakes and has many widely discussed failings. But Brand is the first to discuss, apologise for, and admit to his weaknesses and blunders, and this honesty sets him apart from the hoards of disingenuous politicians dominating the scene today. We belong to a generation of young people who were let down by the government before most of us were old enough to vote. As Brand says in his video, Are the Lib Dems the most Pointless Party?, the last coalition ‘annihilated political faith in a generation’. We don’t want to be lied to, talked down to or dismissed.
Enter Miliband, who didn’t write off Brand as irrelevant, and instead saw in him the potential to reach out to a disillusioned demographic. 3.3 million people have the chance to vote for the first time in this election; what is so laughable about trying to reach out to them?
The point that Cameron seems to have apparently missed – and Miliband (at least tentatively) grasped – is that more often than not, young people are not apathetic for the sake of it. First time voters and those young enough to not yet have been swallowed into the dark void of taxes and mortgages and pensions just shouldn’t be as cynical and downcast as we are, both about our prospects and politics in general. Engaging the young is more than important – it is essential in ensuring the participation of a generation in future elections. The fact that Miliband’s efforts have been jeered at, whilst offering no alternative and inciting nothing in the young whatsoever, is not only insulting but arrogant, too.
In defense of his meeting with Brand, Miliband said ‘I will do anything and engage with anyone to try and persuade people to vote’. Whatever your opinion of him, Labour, Brand, or next week’s election itself, that is surely an admirable sentiment. He is not above adopting a Mockney accent and sitting uncomfortably close to a pop-eyed comedian so long as it inspires even a few people to head down to their polling station on Thursday.