Election rant

“Decisions are made by those who show up. So are we failing you or are you failing us?
Presedent Bartlett, The West Wing.

So another general election is over. Uncle Tony the Grinning Idiot has won a “historic”(hysterical?) second term in office and Willy Hague has packed it in.

But the real winner was voter apathy. This election saw the lowest turn-out in about a century. Everyone is wondering “Why?” Well I think I know.

This was, without doubt, the most boring election I have ever witnessed. Can anyone honestly tell me what any of the parties policies were? Does anyone even have the slightlest idea? This election (and I am seriously tempted to start typing erection instead) was about spin, hype, soundbytes and presentation.

All the other parties were worried about was slagging of the opposition and how they looked. John Prescott gave us the only bit of honesty. (BTW with Labour looking to stamp down on crime, why has Prescott not been charged with assault?) There was no honest incentive to vote.

The political parties may try to claim that people are not as interested in politics as they were. People are, they have just lost interest in the parties.

But despite this, I did vote yesterday. Why? Voting is a privilige and should therefore be used. Also if you do not vote, you cannot complain about who is in charge. And, as one journalist in my local paper said, there may not be anyone you want to vote for, but there is probably someone you want to vote against.

Which is why I do not agree with the idea of voting becoming compulsory. I have heard that this is the case in Australia, and they have my sympathy. In fact, if it does become the case in Britain, I am going to refuse to vote on principal.

The reason is that if you have the democratic right to vote, you therefore have the democratic right not to vote. If that right is lost do we still have democracy? I say not.

Are they failing us or are we failing them? I know where I lay the blame.