I was watching one of those BBC Four documentaries on American rock music the other day. It was mostly about all those LA hair metal bands and then it started talking about more ‘authentic’ musicians like Springsteen, Tom Petty and John Cougar Mellencamp and one phrase just jumped out at me. The voiceover was saying how they, especially Springsteen and Mellencamp, were “speaking up for those affected by politics”.

It was a strange lightbulb moment where entire theories and concepts were triggered by that one phrase, theories and concepts that just popped into my head complete like Nikola Tesla’s designs were reputed to do. The difference is that Tesla was able then remember and write out his designs but I’m not sure I can explain all the thoughts that “those affected by politics” gave me.

Firstly it just summed up so well the situation that our society is basically divided into those affected by politics and those who are not. It seems a decent refinement of the idea of dividing between haves and have-nots. For a start it includes those who do have, but live with an ever-present possibility of losing it entirely.

Of course, everybody is affected by politics to an extent, but I think there is a group of people for whom politics affects some aspects of their life and another group where politics can affect their whole lifestyle or even life prospects. There are the biggies, like those who get killed when politicians start wars, the whole towns that decline when a mine or large factory closes, but also all those who can get pushed over the edge by things like increases in prescriptions or VAT.

There is another divide in society: those who are involved in or interested in politics and those who just ignore it, and what struck me was the likelihood that those most affected by politics are those least likely to get involved in it. At a fundamental level, those most affected are generally less likely to even vote. Remember that if you vote you are straightaway in the top 60% to 70% of political involvement, and if you vote in local elections you are up in the 25% to 40% of most politically involved people!

This was a show about American music and turnouts are even lower there, with quite large numbers of people actually stopped from voting even if they wanted to by being an ex-convict or by some of those dubious practises in places like Florida where lare numbers of black people get removed from the registers.

I was doing the usual bit of wondering how you get those with the most to gain from it to actually get involved in influencing politics and I realised that it does happen but usually in the form of revolution. I shall remember that when I hear people in the Westminster bubble deploring the fact that so few people take any interest in politics and say quietly to myself ‘careful what you wish for matey!’