Transcript

RUTH LEVITAS

In relation to participation, we are trying to look at economic, social, cultural, and political participation. And of course, we ask people questions about whether they voted in the last general election, but actually, that's an incredibly thin measure of political participation. So we have got some questions which attempt to push a little further at people's sense of being able to influence the circumstances of their own lives.

I would say I think there's a very tricky issue here, because if you ask people directly about political participation, a lot of people will immediately switch off and say they're not interested in politics, and they may nevertheless be involved in forms of community participation and organisation which might be deemed to have at least a political aspect to them. So I think the question of establishing what constitutes political participation is actually very, very tricky indeed.