Election Reflection

So there we go… it’s all over.

It’s difficult to tell how many people are putting on brave faces, but judging by radio interviews this morning, all three parties are happy in their own ways. Labour have their third term while both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have improved their standings in the House of Commons. And being pragmatic, I’m fairly satisfied with the outcome. Although a (recently rather disillusioned) Labour person, I was keen for the party’s majority to be substantially reduced; partly as a reminder to the Dear Leader of how atrociously he’s behaved over the whole Iraq thing, and partly just to restore an element of competition and debate to the Commons.

Of course, it would have been fun to see a Lib Dem government, but that was never really going to happen. They’ve made some gains, and although Wee Charlie is proclaiming a new era of three-party politics, closer inspection reveals a more mixed picture. Of 16 gains, 12 were in previously Labour-held seats, while their 5 losses were all in favour of the Tories. The overall share of the votes matches this pattern… the Lib Dems have done exceptionally well in Labour seats, where, in the aftermath of the Iraq and ID card debates, their “more left than Labour” stance has won them plenty of protest votes. But everywhere else, they’ve seen their vote significantly eroded by the Tories. They should not be complacent about this… if the Tories continue their revival, and if Gordon Brown eventually leads Labour, regaining the dissatisfied lefties, the Lib Dems could find themselves back in the doldrums again.

Complacency certainly seemed to be the problem here in Sutton and Cheam where a fairly unlikely Tory target has now slipped back to being a fairly dramatic marginal seat once again. Apart from a smattering of leaflets from all three major parties, I’ve seen no electioneering here whatsoever. A couple of Labour people wandered past yesterday, clearly on their way to somewhere else, and I saw a sole Conservative activist at the train station last night, although he seemed to be waiting for someone, rather than doing any actual campaigning!

One of the main talking points this time has been the potential security risk of postal voting. I’m just not keen on the idea of postal voting; even less so on the suggestion of SMS voting. If I’m going to trust the security of my vote to anyone, it’s not going to be the Post Office or the mobile phone networks!

Seriously, though, I think the scandals in the run-up to this election have provided enough ammunition for a reversal of postal voting facilities… when the mighty John Humphrys finds that someone else has fraudulently used his vote, you know things are bad. As far as I’m concerned, any form of remote or proxy voting should only be used in the most desperate circumstances. Polls suggest that young people would vote in greater numbers if it was easier to vote… well, tough luck. How much easier does it need to be than spending a couple of minutes down at your local polling station? If you can’t manage that little effort, I don’t want you playing a part in deciding my future, okay?

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