Vote, Damn You, Vote

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

The lovely One Woman (Without Blog) and I got up early(ish) this morning and trooped down the road to cast our votes. It was not great hassle. The Lewisham polling centre is just off our normal route to the station, just around the corner from our newly-opened branch of mass chicken-slaughterers Nando’s. Curiously, the polling station was a Baptist Chapel, which might have been a problem for those of other faiths and thus possibly an insensitive choice, but that’s local democracy for you. Still, we’d done our bit to keep this democracy running smoothly and exercised the rights our ancestors fought for.

I just wish there had been more people in the polling station. The media coverage of the elections has been shamefully thin, often assuming a low turn-out rather than encouraging a high one. Hopefully, the people of Britain will prove me wrong today, but let’s wait and see.

I’m a great believer in the local aspect of democracy, and voting for people because you think they’ll represent you well, rather than as part of some great popularity contest for political organisations with no real link to your local area. If you haven’t voted yet, when you look at your ballot paper, look at the candidates’ addresses. You’ll find some interesting “local” addresses, I’m sure.

David Carr gives a really good assessment of why Brits should be getting their lazy behinds down to the polling stations to cast their votes today. While I don’t completely agree with his assessment of the European Union, he does make the point that this is one of the few times we can give those complacent power-seekers who claim to represent us something resembling a scare.

That *has *to be a good thing.

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Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 30. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.

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