Vote!

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I did my citizens duty this morning and participated in the referendum on the voting system. I entered the Polling Station around 7:30 and was directed by a gentleman seated at the door to the row of cheap tacky tables on my right. Behind them sat three tacky women with paper and pens at hand. On the other side of the room two, or was it three more women fussed over the arrangement of their tacky tables. No-one else was in sight!
"Form a queue," said one of the girls. And I obeyed.
After making my cross, and spelling it correctly this time, I placed the two paper forms in the box which if not empty did not as yet possess many others. To echoing footsteps I took my leave and came upon no eager voters crowding the doors demanding to vote in this important referendum. This I thought strange even for that time of the morning. While local elections, and the second form represented this, fail to inspire the locals it has to be expected that a referendum on the manner of electing culprits parliamentarians has to be regarded as important. I wonder just how many will have bothered to find their way to a polling booth today? 

As I dragged my bulk towards Tesco and their bargains, the 'Own Brand Honey' has gone up 4p in the last week and they only made £3 billion profit this year, I pondered on our reaction to democracy.  In some places in this world people queue for hours to enjoy the right to elect an individual to a position that enables them to immediately forget why they have been elected in the first place. However in the UK we care little unless there is a major talking point involved. We have the attitude all to often that 'There is nothing we can do' or 'It makes no difference' and this is very sad because by deselecting a sitting member the rest get a wake up call, and numbers are required to make this happen.

One problem is the wealth in the nation. While many of us are unemployed and purse strings are tight we still have vast wealth! Many on benefits are (the 'Daily Mail' keeps telling us) are better of than those working. Indeed some are but I for one can assure you (and how!) many are not. Outside my door a line of expensive, often new or large, cars trundle slowly home in the evening 'rush hour.' So poverty is not like it once was. Fifty years ago the road would have been quiet apart from those occasional cars or business vans, a number of motorbikes, with sidecars maybe, and a plethora of bicycles! Those passing by would also be considerably slimmer than the fat rich (and poor) folks around us today, and can I just point out that this is a very baggy shirt! In short nobody cares enough to vote because we have enough, even if we have not got work. While this is good the lesson of history is clear, wealth brings sloppiness to morals and selfishness rules, precisely what is happening around us now. A liberalism that puts the individual first replaces a society that, in general, looks to improve the nation around them. Of course the choice lies (in the UK parliament) is poor. The leaders and most of their followers come from the punk generation, and it shows! Well educated and rich with no experience of real life, unlike the majority of those who have gone before.  There are also no great political divides outside of the Independence movement in Scotland. I wonder if we will be so reluctent to vote at the next General Election after the number of unemployed increase, financial collapse and much gnashing of teeth?

Still, at least we are not talking about that wedding!


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