Election ‘05: It’s quiet up here
Posted by: Richard in British General Election, Glasgow, Politics, ScotlandSo far, I’ve had a grand total of one election leaflet through my letter box (an SNP one at that put out by the local councillor). Whilst the close I’m in has a temperamental entry system, I’m feeling rather left out regarding the electioneering that may not - for all I know - actually be happening in this constituency. All that I’ve seen for even the incumbent are some of those god-awful plastic sign-post posters that will no doubt still be stuck to the lamposts in six months time. Oh, and a few Scottish Socialists in the centre of town shouting at people as they walked past doubling my conviction that it’s a party that’s got the wrong end of the stick in more ways than one.
Compare this to Duesseldorf, which I recently visited. There are local elections going on there, and it was nice to see some campaigning in the centre of town (free balloons for the kids, drinks for the adults, leaflets for those of us trying to pass by), including well organised wooden signs that straddled the lamposts, could be reused (the posters were attached to the wood panels), and easily removed. For all I know they may even have been organised by the local authority itself to prevent the sort of campaigning litter we see up here.
A junction not that far from here, on Haggs road, was until recently positively awash with the A4 sized plastic “posters”. I noted yesterday as we drove past that a lot of them had disappeared, and had been replaced by SNP versions. A spot of late-night poster rigging perhaps?
On the subject of curious silence, so far I’ve not received even one letter from any party. I was under the impression that parties were able to write to every constituent in some way (I’m not sure of the detail), but so far nothing. Presumably the demographic of the location I’m registered in is such that no party feels it’s worth contacting me directly. But it’s not limited to just a lack of political lettering. Far more troubling is that - with only one more delivery before election day - I have not yet received my voting details (I confirmed I’m registered to vote back in February), so I don’t even know where I can go to cast my vote. I’ll guess it’s the local school, but for the (I guess) large numbers of people with less interest in politics than I, I wonder if they’ll even notice an election is going on?
All said and done, I’m stuck getting my political fix from the television and newspapers, and feeling - I have to say - rather left out by it all. Some might think I’m being perverse in my whinging here, but I think it reflects atrociously badly on the political system in place here that not one campaign team has knocked on our door and left an election leaflet, other than a small A5 piece of paper from the local councillor.
I’m left thinking that if the politicians don’t care to even ask people for their vote, it’s only more likely that the electorate won’t bother to cast it.
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May 3rd, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Well, it seems I spoke far too soon and a little pessimistically. Two and a half hours after posting the above, a veritable parcel of election pamphlets dropped through the letterbox along with our voting cards.
May 4th, 2005 at 11:56 am
well we had a few things through the post, but no candidates to be seen - and none at the local station either (although they were there when one of the council seats was up for grabs recently).
Of course, Lewisham East is a sure thing for Labour (otherwise we wouldn’t have a Labour Whip here) so I guess I’m not too surprised. Just looking at http://publicwhip.org.uk is enough to depress me anyway, when I see that the only things she ‘rebelled’ against were the precise wording of motions.
May 4th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
Good luck in unseating her (assuming that’s what you’ll be doing!). She’s such a Labour lovie that it’d be interesting to see how her majority is dented when the results come in.
I suppose it’s not altogether unsurprising the candidates don’t make an appearance - they’re no doubt very busy - but it’s the lack of people making themselves available or seemingly asking for our votes that bemuses me. Train stations, super markets, city centres surely make sense. Where are they?
Certainly the closest I’ve come to candidates myself in past years is the wife of Michael Evis (who was standing as Labour MP in Wells, which is a Con marginal with a strong Liberal 2nd, ie. Labour are well out of the running), and - of course - Tony Blair when I was in the Question Time audience in the 2001 election campaign.
But the lack of interest in politics by the population as a whole I suppose makes it “sensible” to keep a lower profile, assuming they can muster the activists (who are doing this voluntarily after all) to put out a significant presence. Communicating via leaflet is much less time consuming, stress inducing and more agreeable to more people than knocking on doors or lunging after time-pressed commuters.
I suppose I just wish more people cared about politics, and shared these feelings that somehow we’re being insulted by not seeing enough of the politicians themselves, other than in the mass-media.
And where are the weblogs and other, more personal, communications?