The US presidential elections - any lessons for the UK

Four years ago I watched Barack Obama accept the Presidency, give his inauguration speech and dance with Michelle to Beyonce's rendition of At Last. Like many I had read President Obama's books and followed his progress from Senator to Democrat candidate for POTUS. I read politics at university, so I have a general interest but Barack stood out for me for lots of reasons as the kind of candidate I would back because of his ideology and his character and obviously like many I wanted to be a part of the historic moment when America elected its first African American president.

Now I am safe in the knowledge that President Obama will stay in office for another four years (yeah 4 more years of The Obama's in the White House means even more Michelle). And because I'm awake at 4am, I've started to think about what lessons we (Britain) could learn from the elections; where we saw an immense turn out from minority voters, where the young came out and voted in droves and people queued for 5 hours in some parts of the country to cast their vote. If you compare that with the turn out for the last parliamentary elections here you can see a marked difference. With numbers at all time lows for participation, it would appear that inertia has set in.

So what needs to be done to reengage voters in the British political system - do we need to look at the way political parties connect with the public, get celebs to encourage participation, have a more representative Parliament i.e. less Eton and more local comp and stress that we want a little more real world experience from candidates (your only job references shouldn't be your local pub and the parliamentary office)? What do you think and were you wishing you could vote for President Obama (to say no to Romney), whilst your name is omitted on the electoral roll - and therefore unable to vote?!

Just food for thought but the political parties and organisations with interests in the political process really need to think hard about how they get the British public vested in its own democratic process.

Nadie x

Ps Favourite bits from the President's 'I did it' speech

'We have to change that' - at times I thought I was watching a nation voting for the first time. I really couldn't believe the queues. It's obviously an indication of how many people turned out but that's crazy. For a minute there I thought Apple had launched a new iPad (not funny I know).

'Everyone has got to love Michelle as I do' - its super cute when someone just says this at a wedding, anniversary or birthday but on the world stage it's just beautiful and as you know I'm very much #teamMichelle.

'One dog is enough' - you can always identify with something in an Obama speech - humour, empathy, real ness. Such an amazing orator, once again back to his best.