Day of Days
Well, here we are then.
Another birthday.
Actually, this one has been great (so far) and I’m looking forward to the rest of the day. Although it coulded over yesterday evening leading me to think our sunny spell was over, today I awoke to bright sunshine again and it’s stayed the same all morning. The garden looks unkempt but is at least full of flowers and smells, and I had my breakfast outside again before toddling off down to the polling station in St Catharine’s Church Hall to cast my vote in the Elections for the European parliament.
We won’t get the results of that election until Sunday because different European countries are voting on different days and the results are only announced when all polls are closed. I’ll be in Copenhagen on Sunday so will have to catch up on the news from there. Other parts of the United Kingdom are also voting for their local Councils too, and those results will be out tomorrow.
I’m not an expert political analyst but it seems to me these elections could go one of two ways: either the major political parties get a complete drubbing or the population is so disgusted with the political establishment that they don’t turn out at all. When I went to my polling station it was completely deserted apart from the two ladies keeping track of the ballot papers. On the basis of that observation, it could be that apathy will carry the day.
Incidentally, I’m very old-fashioned about voting. I don’t agree at all with the trend of encouraging on-line or postal voting. I think it’s part of one’s civic duty to cast a vote and that means getting off your arse and putting a cross on a bit of paper. It gives a sense of participation to vote in person and most excuses for not doing so just amount to laziness. There are polling stations all over the place, they open from the early morning until late at night, and it only takes a minute or so to vote. So get out there and do your bit.
Now I have time to do mark a few more examinations before having a shower and getting ready to get on the train to London. As a birthday treat, organized by Joao Magueijo, a bunch of us are off to the posh seats at Covent Garden to see the opening night of the Royal Opera‘s new production of Alban Berg‘s Lulu, which I’ll review when I get back tomorrow.
ps. A package arrived in the post on Tuesday from my Mum with my usual birthday gift. It turned out to be a raincoat – usually a useful thing for someone living in Wales – but on a sweltering day it seemed a bit comical. No doubt I’ll get a chance to wear it before too long…
In the Dark 
June 4, 2009 at 11:45 am
Happy Birthday Peter! I hope your mother doesn’t read your blog… on which topic, a Jewish friend of mine told me this superb Jewish mother-in-law joke: on his birthday his mother-in-law buys him two ties, so he puts one on to go round and thank her, but got the instant response: “So what’s wrong with the other tie?”
Online voting is insufficiently transparent, and both it and postal voting are insufficiently private from family members. So I agree, let’s keep it old-fashioned. I have been through one election at which I would have felt my hands dirty had I voted for anyone on the ballot paper, but I agree that voting is important; perhaps one should spoil one’s ballot paper in such circumstances.
Anton
June 4, 2009 at 11:58 am
They could put a “none of the above” box on the ballot paper. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they did that!
In fact, there were about ten names on the ballot paper when I voted, so plenty of opportunities to protest votes. The paper was huge, in fact. I had to fold it several times to get it into the box.
June 4, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Philip,
Spoiling one’s ballot paper is a statement that clearly differs from staying at home if the number of spoilt papers is read out at the return.
You wrote: “in sensible countries with PR, the whole idea is to vote for a concept, not a person”. Political parties are what make it possible to vote for a concept rather than a person, and they have become far too powerful in my view, with MPs seen merely as lobby fodder rather than humans with a conscience.
I think that the issues of first past the post vs PR, and voting for a concept vs voting for a person, are distinct. Regarding the former, PR-run countries live in a permanent state of political horse-trading compared to first past the post. Neither system is trouble-free (see Arrow’s Theorem about the contradictory axioms of democracy). In any case, the people who invented democracy, the citizens of classical Athens, would not have regarded our present system as democratic. They would have had referenda amongst themselves on all significant issues.
Anton
June 4, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Happy Birthday Peter!
June 4, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Peter: If ballot papers had a “none of the above” option then plenty of candidates would change their names to Mr Noneoftheabove in an attempt to win votes by confusion…
Anton
June 5, 2009 at 4:01 pm
It appears, as I suspected, that the turnout was indeed very low. Labour is clearly losing heavily in the Council elections mainly to the Tories. It will be interesting to see how the smaller parties do in the Euro elections.
June 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm
For our Student Elections, there is always an option to vote for RON (re-open nominations), and believe it or not, RON atually beat two other ‘contenders’ for one of our MCR posts, amid much embarassment.
Whilst he’s a little bare on policies, he does have that universal appeal.
Shame there wasn’t that option on my form!
June 5, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Arrow’s theorem shows that the desiderata of democratic voting are not all jointly achievable. We could debate indefnitely which to prefer.
That the Athenians had slaves does not discredit the idea of referenda on most topics as a way to do democracy. It does raise the question of who should vote. For the sake of definiteness I disapprove of slavery, but for the sake of controversy I suggest one vote per household.
Anton
June 8, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Division of labour is the operational definition of civilisation. But I do not agree that “Anyone who has to work for a living doesn’t have the time to inform himself on “most topics”.” People in my local pub have views worth listening to on a wide variety of subjects of interest to national life (many of which are ignored by the major parties today). What I am advocating is the ultimate in democracy, the ultimate in proportional representation. Today this is readily achievable, so why should I be represented by a proxy in Westminster who often does not vote the way I want?
Real power under this proposal would lie with those who frame the questions to be put in referenda. No system made up of human beings is proof against human corruption, which is why no political philosopher from Plato through Aquinas to Hobbes, Locke and Mill has ever devised the perfect system. But this is worth a try.
Anton