This morning I gritted my teeth and took the bracing cold shower which is my metaphor for visiting Dr. North at his EU Referendum site. (He does have a tendency to shower you with streams of ice-cold, unpleasant and uncomfortable facts which, frankly, if you are a paid up member of the softy class, like me, you would rather avoid!) Today he allowed Brendan O'Neill at The Telegraph to spell out the facts but happily the pain they contained was mainly aimed at the politicians:
If you needed any further proof that the political class inhabits a different moral universe to normal human beings, look no further than this morning's analyses of yesterday's elections. "It was a good night for Labour," chirp Ed Miliband's delusional cheerleaders. "It shows that Cameron must re-engage with traditionalists," say Tory desperadoes. "It confirms the British public's rejection of the mayoral system," intone deathly dull political studies lecturers. All of these yawn-inducing attempts to decipher what message the British electorate was trying to send to the political class yesterday overlooks what the majority of us chose to say to them: absolutely nothing. Zilch. Diddly squat. [My emphasis]
Well, it's obvious that the vast majority of us had absolutely nothing to say to the ratbags and rascals of the political class because - by a huge majority, we failed to vote! This in itself is a worrying tendency because politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. However, let Mr. O'Neill spell it out:
Sixty-eight per cent of eligible voters did not vote in the elections, a bloc of people so big it could be described as "the vast majority", or certainly "most people". Most people chose not to take part in these elections, and in doing so they implicitly rejected the political class in its entirety; its ideas, its policy proposals, its representatives – all were very publicly and humiliatingly cold-shouldered. What we witnessed yesterday was a silent, withering rebellion against the political elites of this country. A good night for Labour? Are you kidding me? Labour got roughly 39 per cent of the vote on an estimated turnout of 32 per cent. This means around 12 per cent of the eligible electorate voted Labour. To put it another way, 88 per cent of us – the heaving mass of society – did not vote Labour. If that's a good night for Labour, I'd hate to see a bad one.
I agree with his analysis of what happened on Thursday and he goes on to describe the chasm that divides the 'great unwashed' from the political class. He obviously thinks that it is, in Sellars & Yeatman terms, "A Bad Thing" but there is, I think, an argument to be made which would uphold the view that it is "A Good Thing" and I will try to sort out my thoughts on it when I have more time later today. In the meantime, here is some of the rest of his article for you to chew upon:
People are already starting to wring their hands over the "apathy" of the electorate. What an insult, to be branded "apathetic". Apathy, coming from the Greek apathes, means "without feeling, without sensation". It means cold, indifferent, phlegmatic, "indolence of mind, indifference to what should excite". This is how the political class now views the mob: as a sensation-less bunch of no-marks who can't be arsed to peel their eyes away from Jeremy Kyle for five minutes once every few years to go out and vote. But it isn't the public's "indifference to what should excite" that explains plummeting voter turnout levels – it is the failure of politics to excite us, to enthral us, to engage us, and I mean engage us on a properly cerebral level, not through one of those focus groups that asks questions like "do you feel queasy on bendy buses?" or "would you vote for a politician who wears a beard?"
There’s nothing peculiar about the majority's refusal to vote. It’s perfectly logical. At a time when the political class is fantastically disconnected from everyday people, when mainstream political debate has been almost wholly colonised by suits and PR people and media darlings, it makes sense for people to deduce: “This has nothing to do with me.” Just look at some of the allegedly burning political issues of our time: gay marriage, media ownership, the Educational Maintenance Allowance, the question of whether the Lords should be stuffed with old farts from the Shires or right-on blokes who play tennis with Tony Blair. These are not real issues. They’re the myopic obsessions of political and media types who know a great deal more about their own navels than they do about the real world. Even worse, when they do make an effort to engage with “ordinary people” it’s always at the level of trying to save them a bit of money, as with Ken loudly promising to cut Tube fares in London. Because that’s all that “ordinary people” think about, isn’t it? Not democracy or the future or war or progress; just how to avoid having to spend £3.50 to go from Uxbridge to Piccadilly.
Happily we have a decent Independent to vote for.
Posted by: dearieme | Saturday, 05 May 2012 at 11:18