Well here we are one day since Gordon Brown asked the HM The Queen to dissolve parliament in readiness for the General Election on the 6th May 2010…
In addition to any party political canvassing by the three main parties, the two major terrestrial TV stations are devoting massive amounts of airtime and website space to topic. We have the BBC News Special, the ITV News Special, the BBC SwingOmeter, and BBC Poll Tracker. That’s all in addition to the normal nightly news coverage and I haven’t even looked into any newspaper or satellite TV output.
The question now is not who should/will win, it’s more like how long will it be before the British voter gets bored with a media bombardment of electioneering?
Despite the importance of an election; especially with current public distrust about many of our politicians, there is a real danger the electorate will get fed up and bored before the main event. In addition to that public dismay there is also a real danger voters won’t turn out on the day. However, they will no doubt still be more than happy to complain about the result afterwards!
Our Country’s political leaders may have thrust their partners into the media front line, in a vain attempt to replicate the Mr & Mrs Obama type popularity campaign however; unlike our North American cousins and in my opinion, it is likely to take a lot more than a bit of ‘Celeb Reality TV hype’ to get the Country fired up into action.
Unfortunately for this Country when it comes to a General Election, we very rarely get a useful result. Some may argue (dependant upon which side of the political fence they sit) however, far too few of the voters that do turn out on the day, don’t actually apply any educated reasoning to where they put their cross on the ballot paper. And, that doesn’t even take into account those who believe they’re signing a benefits claim form!
We have probably reached a point in British Political history when the whole system could do with a major overhaul. There would appear to be precious little difference between any of the political leaders at present. They all appear to be more interested in their own status and the public opinion of them as individuals. There would appear to be a distinct lack of honesty and integrity amongst many of our MPs and after all, most of them are happy to tell us anything they think we want to hear.
Unfortunately, it would appear to be more about them as individuals than anything to do with providing a service to the Nation. The race will be more to do with who can get their hungry snout into the not inconsiderable and publically financed trough first… The poor British electorate (even if they do turn out) is unlikely to have any major influence on that, whichever way they vote!
Dave's Bankside Babble 