Of all the animals of prey, man is the only sociable one.
Every one of us preys upon his neighbour, and yet we herd together.
The Beggar's Opera: John Gay

Monday 1 May 2023

Pin the Tail on the Donkey

 With less than three days to go until the Council elections, I have to admit to being rather baffled.

I’ve searched the internet and scoured the local news websites but, for all intents and purposes, our independent candidate doesn’t exist. He’s named in the official lists, of course, but apart from that, there is nothing out there to indicate his policies and principles.

Since I, like many others, am thoroughly disgusted with party politics, his independent status should make him an appealing option, but what if he’s passionately committed to meat-free council catering or low traffic neighbourhoods? That appears to be the case for those independent candidates who, in the local paper’s cursory and county-wide rundown of party policies, banded together to explain how they aligned with the Greens on certain issues but, as our candidate wasn’t one of them, there’s no way of telling.

As for leaflets, we’ve had one from the Conservatives and two from the Lib Dems, all mainly telling us how the other parties have got it wrong (the Lib Dems, with a certain cavalier attitude to veracity, state that the requirement to show photo ID is “part of a Conservative government plan to make it harder for people to exercise their right to vote”). The local community magazine is no help - although it’s good to know that the WI are holding a coronation-themed cake sale on Friday - and the nearest thing I’ve found online is a supporters’ forum for the local football club which is trying, with limited success, to ascertain what each candidate thinks about their plans for a new stand.

It seems incredible that, in a nominal democracy, voting in local elections can be a matter of either blind party loyalty or selecting - apologies to the gentleman concerned - a pig in a poke. If our political masters really supported our right to choose those acting on our behalf, at the very least one would expect the Council website, along with the required details of the candidates’ proposers and agents, to include a short statement from each candidate enumerating his or her priorities and intentions; since they took the trouble to write and tell us we’d need photo ID to vote, they could even have printed the statements on the back of the letter.

With virtually no information on which to base the decision, it becomes a random choice on a par with a blindfold guessing game or a once-a-year-punter’s bet on the Grand National - except that there’s no big payout if you win and the horse won’t have a say in how local services are run for the next four years. Still, to be cynical, it probably won’t make much difference in the long run: as the world-weary Polish saying on elections has it, ‘Same trough, new pigs’.


Update: further digging in the Council archives has revealed that he stood (unsuccessfully) for election in a nearby local ward in 2016; he was representing UKIP then, so I’m guessing it’s a ‘no’ on the vegan dinners and the road-blocks.

12 comments:

  1. I'll vote for anyone who is not a member of one of the parties already represented in the HoC.

    At the moment that looks like Reform UK. They will do, it's just a protest vote against the damage done by party loyalty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be very interesting to see how many voters reject the main parties this time round.

      If only there were some way to stop them being involved at all at a local level!

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. My internet searching suggests this is astonishingly widespread; with no obligation for Councils to offer an equal platform for all candidates, only those with a big party machine backing them can afford to get their message out via leaflets and publicity campaigns.

      I suspect that the last thing the big parties want is voters actually thinking for themselves; far better to make it all about faith and blind loyalty.

      Delete
  3. Living in a ward where the choice is between a Lib Dem, a Tory and an Independent I was going to vote for the independent provided that they were not a nutter. Unfortunately it appears, after actually seeing her election communication that they are indeed a nutter of the worst type. She's not just a deep green but so deep green that she doesn't seem to be accepted by the actual green nutters of the local Green Party. For the first time in ages I'm going to be faced with the possibility of voting either for a Tory candidate I really don't want or spoiling my ballot papers. I agree with the ATL comment that too many independents don't make their policies all that easy to discover.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the first time in my life, since I was of voting age, I'm not going to bother.

      Delete
    2. I suspect that many people are facing similar choices (or lack of them).

      Here we have a kind of ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’; unless enough people vote for the Independent candidate to give him a majority, a spoiled ballot or a vote for him risks handing victory to the party whose current Council policies are severely damaging local businesses.

      Delete
    3. Julia, I don’t think you’ll be alone; I suspect that turnout is going to be very low indeed.

      Delete
  4. It's easier for me. We have three candidates from the usual three parties and no-one else. So it's no voting for me

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    Replies
    1. In a truly democratic system, there ought to be a box on each ballot paper for ‘None of the above’.

      Delete
  5. We've had not one single leaflet through the door. Not one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Judging by the quality of what we received, you haven’t missed much; a maximum of PR-speak and photo-ops and a minimum of information.

      This lack of information from candidates - which seems to be a widespread thing - suggests they are treating the electorate like a kind of fruit machine; just put your deposit in, spin the wheel and see how many votes you get.

      Delete

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