On Saturday 10th January a ‘Free Palestine’ protest marched through Southampton, in solidarity with similar protests in London. The crowd, around 200-strong, marched in a peaceful and orderly fashion down Above Bar Street and past West Quay Shopping Centre.

As the crowd moved down the high street, shoppers clutching Primark bags meandered across their path. Others merely contented themselves by eyeing them with hostility from a distance.

Whilst watching the protest from a coffee shop, bits of the conversation taking place on the adjoining table drifted over, as a women crossly, and rather loudly, announced that "they shouldn’t be allowed." Still reeling from this, the next comment to reach my ears was "I’m not being funny but they’re all...you know...like that." Her companions around the coffee table murmured in agreement.

It is doubtful as to whether these women knew of the cause of this demonstration or the political and humanitarian crisis surrounding the conflict between Israel and Palestine. They were certainly not aware that to stage a peaceful protest is not (yet) a crime in our society and that to ‘not allow’ this protest would be undermining one of the most fundamental elements of our democracy - freedom of speech and of opinion.

The contented ignorance, contempt for our diverse ethnicity and an individual’s democratic rights demonstrated by this incident are unfortunately becoming staples of our society, and is in turn influencing the actions of our government. Everywhere you look there are serious breaches of an individual’s democratic rights.

In our country today, a terrorist suspect may be held for 28 days in prison without trial - a time period that the government has been doing its utmost to double. At the Labour Party Autumn Conference in 2008, an eighty-year old Jewish refugee was arrested for ‘heckling’ Jack Straw under the anti-terrorism legislation. Even more recently, the government have decided to destroy seven hundred homes to build a new runway for Heathrow airport, refusing a vote on the issue in parliament.

Actions like this show the government’s complacency and disregard for the democratic rights of the public they represent.

Unfortunately, this disregard practised by the government takes place because it is uncontested by the vast majority of our society. For a country with a democratic government, the British public could only muster a feeble 61% turnout in the last general election, and an even weaker 36% in local elections. Even amongst the students in our own University, turnout for the Students’ Union elections at Southampton has never exceeded 22% - a worrying statistic.

In a survey of democracy in 2006, The Economist rated the UK at only 23rd out of 28 countries, behind the USA and just ahead of Costa Rica.

Why do we not vote? Have we become so used to our democratic rights that we no longer value them? Instead we chant racist slurs at those who have fled less democratic countries in the hope of a freer, more tolerant society. As a national body we only voice our opinions on really important issues - such as whether or not John Sergeant was forced off Strictly Come Dancing.

Why we are condemning something like this peaceful protest when in reality we should be applauding the fact that such protests are allowed to take place?

I would like to say that the racism and ignorance I experienced in the streets of Southampton is an isolated incident. I fear that such sentiments mark a wider spread of public sentiment however, which we should endeavour to stop before it begins to erode all respect for democracy within our country.