Heartening. It's particularly grotesque when young people without families or disabilities or jobs or money have been the very people who have lost most from welfare reform under New Labour and the Coalition (and I say this as a New Labour partisan). Universal benefits for pensioners were not quite as well-intentioned as claimed. They did solve an important problem that existed into the 90s of the destitute and neglected elderly (but not the most fundamental problem, which is the erosion of family responsibilty and social atomisation) but they effectively sucked money from the support structures of the working-age, single poor, or whatever money there was for them (or could have been). This is to a large degree a naked and easy vote-winner, only exacerbated by voter apathy amongst the young. This will be far worse very soon, if the last Tory conference is any indicator. Engagement, therefore, is very, very important.
If Brand really wants a revolution then extreme slashing of the welfare state and minimal taxation will be the quickest way to get what he wants, as people starve and homeless shelters and food banks spread across the Kingdom. If he wants to improve social security and social mobility for the poor, he could do far worse in every respect than urging people to vote Labour and even join the party. Or even vote for anybody. The Greens won Brighton last time, and Galloway won in Bethnal Green once. It makes a difference, even in very small ways. Even on the level of local councils. Brand may be clever chap, but he is so bored by politics in the UK that I don't believe he truly understands how it actually works. Like Luke, it's all just fucking details to him; where's the romance, the grand drama, the flames? For somebody who is getting so much press for his ideas about discarding British parliamentary democracy, this is a bit of a problem.