I didn't vote. I'm not indifferent or apathetic & it had nothing to do with the election being in November. What's more I'm quite cross that those excuses are being put forward by the politicians, press & media. What do they know? At best they guess. If I'd known how to spoil a ballot paper I'd have done that.
People fought & died for my right to vote so I don't take my freedom lightly.
Less than 15% or 1 in 7 voted. Between 2.5% & 4.5% of voters spoilt their papers. (Anything over 2% is accepted as deliberate action). The Electoral Commission is to hold an enquiry. This debacle cost £100million to set up & the inquiry will add substantially to that total.
41 Police & Crime Commissioners have now been elected - 16 Conservatives, 13 Labour & 12 Independents. So we now have a majority of commissioners who are Political. They will have a 3 year tenure before they have to go to the people again. So we have perpetuated our government model which mitigates against long term decision making in the greater interest of the country. If you want to be re-elected are you really going to make the best decision, or will you go for expediency? No contest. Just look at America.
The Police Authorities, which have now been replaced, were not elected & were largely anonymous, so I'm not necessarily arguing for their retention. What I'm very annoyed about, apart from the politicising of this important area, is that I had no idea who was standing or anything about them. I don't get a newspaper & I didn't realise that I was supposed to go to the Home Office website for the information. (What about all the people for whom that isn't appropriate anyway?) I didn't realise that no pamphlets were going to be delivered. (Considering all the junk mail I get through my letter box that is ironic). Apparently there was no information at polling stations either for obvious reasons.
I wish I thought that this government of "bright ideas" would take notice & actually really engage with people. Sadly I haven't seen any evidence of that at all.
I didn't vote either, for exactly similar reasons. I value my right to vote and have voted in all elections, both general and local, except when I was living in Sweden. This one, however (even had I known anything about the candidates who were standing) was a different matter, and gave me no confidence whatsoever that the outcome could make a difference, and if it did, whether it would be just the result of another arm of government interference. It was insulting to be told by the PM that the low turn-out was because people didn't understand what it was all about: voting numbers are always low where I live, but the very low turnout was because folk like you and I chose not to vote.
ReplyDeleteI so agree about the patronising & arrogant attitude that we, the voters, didn't understand. What's to understand - it isn't rocket science. Their problem is that many of us understood only too well, and wanted none of it!
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