None of the Above

Is it possible to express your dissatisfaction with politics without seeming apathetic?

People who don’t vote in elections fall into several camps. There are those who don’t like any of the candidates on offer, those who don‘t like the political system per se, those who are so unaware that they neither know nor care that an election is happening, and those who know but don’t care. Whichever you are, there are a number of ways you can express your view without just staying at home. Because the problem with passive abstention is that it makes no distinction between the high-minded, the genuinely disillusioned, the lazy and the ignorant.

After the 2005 General Election, a MORI poll of non-voters found that 13% were ‘very interested’, in politics, 43% were ‘interested’, 30% were ‘not particularly interested’ and 14% were ‘not at all interested’. Interestingly, though, these non-voters still professed the same concerns as the rest of the population – crime, health, money and so on – but they just didn’t necessarily see this abstract thing called ‘politics’ as being the answer to their problems. So, with only a minority of non-voters actually appearing not to take an interest in politics, there must be something else turning them off. The same poll also asked people’s reasons for not voting, of which the largest group (19%) was the ‘not bothered’, followed by 13% who expressed a lack of trust in politicians and 9% who claimed a lack of choice.

The campaign Positive Abstention may appeal to you – it lobbies for positive abstention to be included as an option on ballot-papers. In 2005, the campaign Abstain 05 suggested wording for a sticker to be put over the ballot-slip, At the moment, this would count as a spoilt paper, but at least it is counted. Writing ‘None of the Above’ on your ballot-slip has exactly the same effect – and if enough people in a constituency did it, then think of the message it would send out. By the way, nobody can stand as candidate for the 'None of the Above Party' - the actual words 'None of the Above' as part of a political party's name are prohibited under the Registration of Political Parties (Prohibited Words and Expressions) (Amendment) Order 2005. Spoilsports.