MARKETING consultants nowadays offer a more incisive guide to contemporary radicalism then leftist theoreticians of the more traditional variety, and the prediction seems to be that we will soon see a lot more of the youth protests now sweeping Spain and other European countries.

Gerald Celente, seemingly something of a celebrity in the US trend forecasting milieu, believes that the ‘los indignados’ phenomenon will ‘go global’ by this winter. Whether you have the man down as a genius or a neosurvivalist crank – and opinion on that score seems mixed – this is clearly not a difficult argument to mount. If anything, the timescale looks far too cautious.

I am, of course, far too old for this camping in public squares malarkey. If I do show solidarity in any such instances, it will be through booking a room in a moderately comfortable hotel with a good view of the street scene. But as a former long-term unemployed youth many years ago, my sympathy is total.

Already there have been attempts to bring M-15 to our colder climate in towns such as Brighton. If student politicos are not planning similar actions in London even as I type, they bloody well should be. But the key to success will obviously be to broaden the appeal of the movement to the sort of young people not currently involved in activism.

Clearly, that will be a challenge. The default assumption on the right will be that none of this could happen on any significant scale in the UK, where depoliticisation has been widespread since the 1980s.

That need not be a permanent state of affairs; there are obviously turning points in history where social consciousness does change, and an inspiring example set by peers in other countries is often a catalyst. But there is nothing automatic about such processes, either.

If things do take off, another obvious question is what impact this development could have on mainstream politics. M-15 is in part a protest against the policies pursued by PSOE, the local equivalent of Labour. At least in Britain the focus will be on a rightwing government.

Yet telling those involved that they should get stuck into routine social democratic party membership and work for change at the next election will persuade few.  Nor will it help if the unions decide to ignore a social layer from which they can expect to draw few membership subs.

Unlike Mr Celente, I am not in the prediction business, and I have no idea how things will pan out, in the UK or elsewhere. But buena suerte to the kids in Plaza del Sol, and the best of British to anyone out to emulate their example here.