Minggu, 06 Mei 2012

David Cameron, Ed Miliband, and Nick Clegg: None of them deserves our vote

David Cameron, Ed Miliband, and Nick Clegg: None of them deserves our vote

By Suzanne Moore

PUBLISHED: 15:52 EST, 5 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:11 EST, 6 May 2012


The only punter in the polling station.’ I could imagine Morrissey wailing that. There I was in the giant gym with a stubby pencil, X marking the spot, exercising a right that people died for.

But I was in a minority. For all the internecine post-election analysis, the real verdict on the political weather is that most people don’t vote. Despite the symbiosis between the media and the political class, the truth is that  politics is a strange hobby akin to metal-detecting.

Merriment has been had with the fact that a man dressed as a penguin polled more votes than the Lib Dems in Scotland. The Lib Dems have progressed from punchline to punch bag.

Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg. Both their parties suffered in the recent polls

Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg. Both their parties suffered in the recent polls

There is a website devoted to pictures of Nick Clegg looking sad, with comically surreal  captions such as: ‘Nick Clegg tried to pay you in exact change, but you pointed out that one of his coins was Canadian, and he had no other way to pay, so you made him put his one item back on the shelf.’

I hope Danny Alexander is a keeper of man-size tissues, as I feel sorry for Clegg. Don’t sweat: I think it’s hormonal.

Nonetheless, it remains in the best interests of both the bruised Tories and battered Lib Dems to keep the Coalition going, though many Tories are looking for a ruck. For,  in times of austerity, the  voters like to kick out whoever is in charge. Look at Greece, Spain, Ireland and, today, France.

The last Budget was a disaster. If  anyone is in charge, it appears to be Leveson. Various ‘posh boys’ jibes seem to have stuck. But if we can’t have competence, we can at least have comedy. This is why we got Boris, the most ruthless of politicians, who gets away with it by pretending not to be a politician.

What, though, does the fact that two-thirds of us failed to vote signify? Dismissing this as apathy is, in itself, lazy.

The lower you are in class and age, the less likely you are to vote. This is hugely detrimental to a functioning democracy. If you don’t have to sell your  policies to the young and the poor, you get what? A generation cast adrift, disproportionately affected by the cuts â€" education maintenance allowance, tuition fees, unemployment, lack of housing â€" while older people keep their free TV licences. The youth have to suck it all up. Voting is a habit unlikely to be acquired late in life, so do we make it compulsory? That is draconian and would work only if a ‘none of the above’ opt out was included on the ballot form.

Something has gone drastically wrong when people are offered more say via local mayoralties and reject them as just extra bureaucracy. There is a sense that the Government is not in control anyway. It’s the banks, Europe, global forces.

The things that might make us feel part of a political process, the Big Society ideas if you like, are the province of the haves â€" not the have-nots who live somewhere called Broken Britain.

The rise of smaller parties is part of the anti-Westminster backlash. No big party has a vision beyond crisis-management. The democratic deficit has been exacerbated by the real deficit.

How low does turnout need to be for the political class to see that it is itself disenfranchised, that government is broken, that the mandate is really one of utter disenchantment?

Bjork...mad, bad, or just another gifted female musician

Icelandic singer Bjork will forever remain interesting

Icelandic singer Bjork will forever remain interesting

Adele outsells Michael Jackson, but people remain obsessed with her weight. The goddess that is Kate Bush reappears and snide comments are made about her.

Bjork reveals her range of influences, which are called, of course, ‘obsessions’. Lily Allen takes some time out.

Why do we not accept our great female artists as artists? Bush, having been hothoused, chose to stay out of the limelight and raise a son. Adele  did not sell herself as an emaciated sex machine. Bjork remains at the cutting-edge, forever interesting.

Why do we have to pathologise these women as mad, bad or ‘unable to cope’ if they play the game on their own terms?  
Actually they are all making, in their individual ways, eminently sensible choices.

   ............................................

To shave or not to shave? That is the question. It is amazing that in 2012 the sight of armpit hair can cause a fit of the vapours, as  it did on daytime TV.

But we live in a culture where fakery is now the aesthetic, where even  if you work in a supermarket, you wear false eyelashes. ‘Natural beauty’ is a recherché joke.

Many years ago, I ventured into this hairy territory, but felt I should get an ‘expert’ opinion on my decision. So I rang Martin Amis.

I think Salman Rushdie was otherwise engaged. Martin kindly told me he didn’t really mind, but didn’t like stubble. Being Martin Amis, he also said he felt the armpit was underused erotically. And, being me, I dropped the phone.

Mountains of debt â€" and zero empathy

Defence Secretary Philip Hamm ond tells us that ordinary families who took out loans are responsible for the financial meltdown.

‘People say to me, “It was the banks.” I say, “Hang on, the banks had to lend to someone.” ’ Go there, you multi-millionaire. These Tories know how to crash the economy of empathy all right.

Will.i.am, the rambling ‘innovator’ with a big heart

At the Royal Geographical Society last week, I attended a lecture by will.i.am. Him off The Voice. Who is an innovator, apparently. He rambled on about technology, geekery and the ghetto in an entertaining way. It was like listening to a hyperactive child showing off to his cooing relatives.

What did impress me, though, was will.i.am’s brand of philanthropy. Not for him the usual rock-star route of trying to save the Amazon or raising money. He directly gives his own money back to what he called the ‘under-served’ community he comes from. The hood. He gives free scholarships, and pu shes science and engineering skills in a programme set up with Steve Jobs’s widow, Laurene.

Will.i.am gives free scholarships, and pushes science and engineering skills in a programme set up with Steve Jobs¿s widow, Laurene

Will.i.am gives free scholarships, and pushes science and engineering skills in a programme set up with Steve Jobs¿s widow, Laurene

His project, I Am Auto, is about training  young people to make cars. We may see him  on The Voice as just another talent-show judge  and Cheryl Cole’s manager, but he is important  enough for David Axelrod, President Obama’s communications chief, to call him up to ask  for help.

There is more leverage there then than we  credit him with, when people are complaining that his mentoring on The Voice consists of tweeting from first-class flights. All in all â€" to  use his own phrase â€" he was dope.

 

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

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Treat people with contempt and expect them to vote for you,HA HA HA

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Don't just write about it: start a campaign to have future ballot papers feature a 'None Of The Above' option! Who knows, maybe being able to finally express contempt for our politicians will lift the voter turnout?

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The usual distortion from Moore! Hammond did Not say ordinary borrowers had "caused the financial crisis"! What he Did say was, that excessive and incautious borrowing had Added to the problem of debt, with those borrowers finding themselves unable to cope because they had lived on "tick" and maxed-out on credit cards for years, in that "easy-money" boom time created by a spend-thrift government - and all without thought for the inevitable consequences when all that funny-money has to be paid back! Remember the, "We have beaten Boom and Bust" mantra? Well, they certainly beat the boom bit!

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If ANGEL at 8.29 and her husband will be "losing" £470 pm, then they are obviously receiving a substantial income to have prompted this situation , and will be retiring much earlier anyway, than those future pensioners she refers to? They will be working longer, and unlikely to receive an income which would entail Them in "losing" £470 p month when They retire either!

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"Something has gone drastically wrong when people are offered more say via local mayoralties and reject them as just extra bureaucracy. There is a sense that the Government is not in control anyway. It’s the banks, Europe, global forces. " The electorate has finally rumbled that the EU and the Banking Oligarchs have stolen what little semblance of Democracy we had. Power has been transferred by our politicians to an undemocratic Supra-National EU without our mandate and the EU is completely unaccountable to us. There IS no point voting LibLabCON because the EU makes all the decisions. The only party worth voting for is UKIP because it will regain our Independence. People were right to reject City Mayors. They are another layer of government which we don't need. We need fewer politicians (starting with the EU) not more.

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For the first time since being able to vote, I spoilt my ballot paper on Thursday. Three choices: Tory, Labour or Lib/Dem. The Tories have proved to be a disaster and to punish the elderly, as done in last budget, is beyond shameful. Labour can't be trusted on immigration and doling out benefites to anyone disinclined to work. The Lib/Dems? Not in a million years. Make that a billion. Why was the turn out so low? Because so many thought like me but couldn't be bothered to waste their time. Cameron. Milliband, Clegg. You are all useless.

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I think most of us would agree with the sentiment they do not "deserve" our vote. But, SOMEONE has to run the country and from time to time you are left with poor options. The US, a country with a population of 350 million, could only come up with Bush or Kerry in 2004 and McCain and Obama in 2008. I would rather Cameron, for all his faults ( many of which are being forced on him by the Liberals) than Balls , Cooper and Miliband, three inadequate people who allowed a madman to run the country down for three years. As for those who say UKIP. Who would be Home Secretary? Who would be Foreign Secretary, Chancellor? Are there 22 people in UKIP who could do these jobs?

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John Bull they can force us to vote - but we can ruin the paper!

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if voting becomes compulsory, just tick, `none of the above`.

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Election: You're right, but isn't it curious that the politicians themselves fail to see it? Probably they do; but they're just whistling in the dark for now. Of course, when we had the PR referendum, we should have been able to vote for the NoTA option; and there ought to have been an attempt to define a minimum turn-out validation.

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