Democracy inaction
May. 6th, 2005 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webofevilFat white kid in “bling” tracksuit on the Tube this morning:
KID: Who won da fing?
MATE: Uh?
KID: Who won?
MATE: Labour.
KID: Who’s dat?
MATE: Tony Blair.
KID: Oh, did he get in?
At the other end of the spectrum, the very politicised sister of an old friend went to vote in London yesterday afternoon and was told that she had already voted by post. After she had raised hell for half an hour they eventually admitted that they had had over 200 similar incidents at that polling station alone. She ended up having to leave without casting her vote, and obviously there was no way for her to find out how her doppelganger had voted. This morning it's becoming clear there were two main scams in operation: first, abuse of the postal vote system [Crowd: “Gasp! It cannot be!”]; secondly, and rather more oddly, punter turns up to discover they’re not allowed to vote because someone has informed the polling station that they’re Irish.
However, even the postal fraud pales beside the sheer number of people who couldn’t be arsed to vote. I don’t mean those who feel disenfranchised, betrayed or even just miffed and actively didn’t want to vote for anyone; rather, it’s those who are smart enough to be vaguely aware they should probably be doing something but, as someone I was talking to said yesterday, “I meant to vote this evening, but then I went to buy records instead”. They tend not to be natural Tory voters, and I strongly suspect that if they actually had to spend any time around The Natural Party of Government® they’d have been queuing at the polls before they even opened.
KID: Who won da fing?
MATE: Uh?
KID: Who won?
MATE: Labour.
KID: Who’s dat?
MATE: Tony Blair.
KID: Oh, did he get in?
At the other end of the spectrum, the very politicised sister of an old friend went to vote in London yesterday afternoon and was told that she had already voted by post. After she had raised hell for half an hour they eventually admitted that they had had over 200 similar incidents at that polling station alone. She ended up having to leave without casting her vote, and obviously there was no way for her to find out how her doppelganger had voted. This morning it's becoming clear there were two main scams in operation: first, abuse of the postal vote system [Crowd: “Gasp! It cannot be!”]; secondly, and rather more oddly, punter turns up to discover they’re not allowed to vote because someone has informed the polling station that they’re Irish.
However, even the postal fraud pales beside the sheer number of people who couldn’t be arsed to vote. I don’t mean those who feel disenfranchised, betrayed or even just miffed and actively didn’t want to vote for anyone; rather, it’s those who are smart enough to be vaguely aware they should probably be doing something but, as someone I was talking to said yesterday, “I meant to vote this evening, but then I went to buy records instead”. They tend not to be natural Tory voters, and I strongly suspect that if they actually had to spend any time around The Natural Party of Government® they’d have been queuing at the polls before they even opened.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-06 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-06 06:11 pm (UTC)punter turns up to discover they're not allowed to vote because someone has informed the polling station that they're Irish.
I believe the correct response is to claim to be dead. Dead Irish people are allowed to vote.