With less than a month to the General Election, how does this election campaign differ from the last one, in 2001? Well, Tony Blair is less popular, largely due to the Iraq war, and there’s a much stronger feeling of “Blair out whether Labour win or not”; in 2001 his main detractors were anti-Labour in general, but now he has plenty of enemies among previously loyal Labour voters. Meanwhile, the Tories are even more hopeless and divided than they were in 2001 and 1997. (Good. I grew up in a country which was run for the benefit of the rich, greedy and unprincipled… the slow demise of that party is fully deserved.)
But you know what is shaping up to be one of the big differences between 2005 and 2001? Apart from the widespread use of political blogging? It’s… Ebay. Yes! Having pervaded just about every other aspect of modern life, Ebay has now entered the world of politics, albeit rather hesitantly. The first few “buy my vote” auctions appeared this morning, although it seems that all but one have since been withdrawn, no doubt as the sellers realised what they were doing was illegal.
Still, one remains… seller “subynesimean” of Derbyshire would like you to buy his vote. Of course, that’s illegal, but that obviously doesn’t deter the bidders… as I write this, 21 bidders have taken the price to £1000, with 9 days to go. No, really!
(And just in case Ebay decide to delete the auction before you see it, here’s a screengrab)
Clearly more wary of the legality of such things, “paulj866″ is promising *not* to vote for whoever the winning bidder chooses (screengrab).
And even more tenuously, someone has set up a new Ebay ID, “themindisaterriblething”, just for the purpose of selling the use of his/her mind “or the 1 minute it will take to enter a polling station during the 2005 UK General Election and put a cross in a box next to a political party” (screengrab).
A sad indictment of a dwindling respect for the democratic system? Just a bit of fun to lighten the day? The future of British politics? Vote now!