Ballots or Bollocks?

Unfortunately, returning to work yesterday has left me knackered and demoralised. I don't even have the energy to pick up where I left off with last week's rants. The trouble with work is that nothing ever changes. After two weeks away, the same stupidities are carrying on, the same idiots are mouthing the same, increasingly offensive to anyone who has a brain cell, platitudes. Everybody knows what the problem is, but nobody wants to do anything about it. Not even me - I'm past caring and completely alienated by all the bullshit. It all sounds like the supposed state of British politics - if you believe the press, that is. Of course, the difference between work and politics is that we can have some influence on the process via the ballot box.

So why, then, do people seem so reluctant to exercise their democratic rights? I went to vote in the local election and voting reform referendum today. It was just before six o'clock, so I would have expected quite a few people to be visiting the polling station on their way home from work, as I was doing. Well, there were two of us in the polling station when I voted, the other voter being a friend of mine who was casting his vote on the way to the pub. As we left, one other lady was coming in. As we walked up the road, I looked back a couple of time - nobody else was going into the polling station. Now, for all I know, there could have been an early morning rush, or, right now, there could be a late surge to the polls. But somehow, I doubt it.

The question is - are people really so disillusioned by the political process that they can't be bothered to vote? Or is it that they've been browbeaten into believing that it isn't worth voting by the media's relentless assaults upon our political culture? Now, I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of things wrong with the current state of British politics, but the fact is that it is nowhere near as bad as the media would have us believe. The core of their argument is that thee isn't really any difference between the main parties, so it is pointless voting for any of them. To believe this is to betray a fundamental ignorance of British politics. Even during the height of New Labour's success, there were still clear ideological differences between the two main parties. But, of course, a large part of the problem is that people don't actually listen to what politicians are saying, but rather what the media reports them as saying. As bad as the prevalent cynicism of the media, is its relentless 'analysis' and 'interpretation' of what political figures are 'really' saying - as if we're too stupid to grasp it for ourselves.

Obviously. no political party's manifesto will ever perfectly match one's own individual political beliefs and aspirations. But if we take the trouble to actually listen to what they're saying, look at what they do when in power and try and identify their core beliefs, then we'll generally find one that satisfies more of our beliefs than the others. Believe me, the 'a pox on all your houses' approach, resulting in the currently fashionable non-activity of not voting isn't at all constructive. All it results in is our political futures being decided by an ever smaller minority, as increasingly only the party die-hards turn out to vote. But hell, why should I care? If you are too stupid to be bothered to vote, then you don't deserve to have any say in these matters.