The Mother Of Parliaments
Egad, who would ever have believed that Great Britain, that staid and regulated, officiously entitled leader of the Commonwealth (good grief, creator of that vast body; a wealth of uncommonly-odd nations linked by a heritage of empire-outreach), would be so shabbily incapable of investing itself with the fundamentals of enabling its great electorate to take part in that most elemental of democratic activities.What's this? Hundreds, perhaps thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Brits ignominiously, unceremoniously (odd, for a country so given to ceremony) turned away from inadequately-numbered, poorly staffed and insufficiently balloted voting booths. Isn't this the kind of thing that happens in third-world countries aspiring to lift themselves out of authoritarian rule into quasi-democracy?
This is something we've seen, say, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. It's a failing that is known to occur with regularity and deliberately in countries of the world where control is the order of the day not freedom of access. And where other democratic countries send out electoral overseers to ensure compliance with democratic ideals.
But yes, Britain's recent election which saw a peculiar outcome of a minority government in the offing, which still hasn't been established, failed its voting populace.
The voting public that listened avidly to first-time televised political debates. Which left them still debating their choices and lack thereof. And despite the fact that there existed a great number of people who were undecided, they were still determined to cast their vote. For whomever they wished. Determined, but unable. Due to circumstances truly beyond their control.
But not beyond the control of the electoral commission which - although it has had ample and historical traditions in the methodology of mounting an election process and furnishing the means by which people are enabled to make their choices count - dismally failed.
Pity, that.
Labels: Britain, Political Realities, That's Life
posted by Pieface @ Monday, May 10, 2010
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