Choice For Whom?

One of the possible reasons people are put off voting - a key obsession here at X Marks The Box - is the way in which the vocabulary politicians use (or are forced to use) seems so at odds with that used by the rest of us.

Nicholas Winterton's rant about second-class carriages, in which he totally fails to get that most people don't have another option, is just one recent example of this. It's symptomatic of a deeper malaise.

One of the most frequent manifestations of this is politicians' abuse of the word "choice", which could all too frequently be replaced with the word "money" to give a clearer idea of what they actually mean.

"Choice" in education is a prime example. Politicians of all colours are guilty of spouting forth on this one. I might choose whether to have tea or coffee, or whether to have a Rich Tea biscuit or a Garibaldi. I don't "choose" my children's school in the same way.

Parental "choice" has proven to be an absolute nightmare, putting so much pressure on more popular schools that they are forced to use mobile classrooms to accommodate the overspill, and leaving the less "reputable" ones (to use odious estate-agent-speak) with tumbleweeds blowing between the rows of empty desks.

Most parents don't want "choice". Often they are presented with a good school, a mediocre school and a failing school, and the good school is already so over-subscribed that it has to turn away children with siblings there, or it is too far away by public transport to be a realistic option. Surely parents just want the school on their doorstep to be a good one. It's not rocket science. Indeed, X Marks the Box wonders whatever happened to just going to the school you live nearest to. This was what used to happen in the 1970s and 1980s - before the advent of the dreaded exam league tables, a blunt tool loathed by parents, children and teachers alike and loved only, it seems, by politicians.

What's depressing is how readily the electorate buys into this politician-speak, doesn't challenge it and even adopts it by stealth. Only this week, debaters on a well-known parenting site were resurrecting the allegation that "vitriol" is thrown at the children of those who have exercised the "choice" to use private education. This surely misses the point that it is not the children who are the target of the vitriol, but the smugly middle-class assumption that this expensive option is available to everyone?...

Second Class Citizens

Just when X Marks The Box was starting to wonder if politicians were finally "getting it", along comes Sir Nicholas Bufton Tufton - beg your pardon, Sir Nicholas Winterton - to declaim that he should of course be entitled to use public money to travel first class on the train. Apparently "standard" class contains "a totally different type of people." We feel a Sir Humphrey Appleby voice coming on here: "Yes, Sir Nicholas - they're called voters."

Some callers on today's Jeremy Vine programme on BBC Radio 2 were springing to the MP's defence. Well, naturally, he has a point, as "standard" class is full of oiks who may have gone to comprehensive schools and who perhaps smell and have the temerity to be accompanied by children, and they apparently stop him from getting any work done. It's a well-known fact, of course, that NHS managers, head teachers, college lecturers and IT consultants never have to take any work on the train and never have to find a way of using a laptop while putting up with the rest of the world carrying on around them.

Conservative Central Office has predictably gone into a bit of a flutter about Sir Bufton's utterances, and has been issuing damage-limitation statements of the "no, please, come back, ABC1 voters, he doesn't mean you" variety.

Sir Nick ought to try National Express. That would be an eye-opener for him. But he is retiring at the General Election. Just as well - because if he were not, then the voters would probably be giving him a first-class, fast-track ticket to obscurity anyway.

You May Know Me From Such Programmes As...

John Prescott - you know, the easily-recognisable former Deputy Prime Minister, the one best remembered for thumping a voter in 2001 - has admitted that more people know him from his appearance in mildly amusing Welsh sitcom Gavin And Stacey than from anywhere else. Given that he's been involved in political campaigning for 40 years, doesn't that make you want to do this?

On the other hand... surely anything that helps voter recognition is good? People of my generation will remember the time Neil Kinnock popped up in a Tracey Ullman video. And then there was Mrs Thatcher's appearance on Saturday morning kids' TV, where she tried in vain to silence a tenacious little girl who was arguing that we didn't need to spend so much on the nuclear deterrent. (Where is that girl now? Let's hope she went into politics in some form.)

In a week when it's been revealed - shockingly - that one-third of students, first-time voters and supposedly educated ones at that, don't know that Gordon Brown is leader of the Labour Party, we perhaps need more politicians popping up on prime-time comedy shows to boost their profiles. What next - Nick Clegg on BBC3's Two Pints of Lager and One Almost Funny Joke, or Caroline Lucas of the Green Party doing a turn on Mock The Week?...

Those same students, by the way, thought the lovely Joanna Lumley would do a good job in politics - presumably inspired by her sterling work for the Gurkhas. X Marks The Box thinks Joanna would be a good choice, too - but in her role as Sapphire from fantastic ITV sci-fi show Sapphire And Steel, where she frequently battled the forces of Darkness, read minds, and could turn time back by the sheer force of her will. Now what politician wouldn't want her on side - blue dress or no blue dress?...

What marks the box?

Very interesting page here from the Electoral Commission about what can and can't be accepted as a legitimate, unambiguous mark on a ballot paper.

As you'll see, it doesn't always have to be an X - but two strikes and you're out. You must make your intentions plain and you mustn't do anything that could identify you.

Get your FREE X Marks the Box ebook now!

For a limited time only - until 4th March 2010 - Daniel Blythe will be giving away, entirely free, without any restrictions on its use and in full, the ebook version of his new book X MARKS THE BOX: HOW TO MAKE POLITICS WORKS FOR YOU from his site.

X MARKS THE BOX helps the ordinary citizen to negotiate the political maze. In this political primer – designed to allay fears, explode myths and shake up apathy – self-confessed born-again voter Blythe argues that politics often has very little to do with Westminster. In his role as irreverent but informed guide to the workings of politics, he offers practical ways in which everyone can politicize themselves to fight for the things that they believe in.

As the most tightly-contested general election for 30 years approaches – and one which will be fought more than ever on local issues – Daniel Blythe gives an enjoyable, useful and penetrating insight into how to make your vote count.

Daniel Blythe says: ‘I went through a period of being cynical about politics, of being disenchanted and not voting. I know that was wrong, and it was because I didn't really understand what politics was about. So I’ve written this book to try to get other people excited about politics again. 2010 will see a general election that is likely to be the most closely contested in recent memory, and not just by the party leaders but by the hard-working candidates, party members and activists battling in their constituencies. I'm taking the opportunity provided by the internet to spread the message of this book. I want as many people as possible to read it and, with any luck, feel as inspired as I was to get interested in the world around me once again. Because if you’re worried about the issues that affect you – schools or crime, traffic or planning permission, MP’s expenses or your own bank balance – then you *are* interested in politics. And I’m looking forward to discussing the book and how to make politics work for you with anyone who’s interested on my blog.’

About the author:

Daniel Blythe is a graduate of St John’s College, Oxford. His published work includes novels, non-fiction and TV tie-ins, including the acclaimed Encyclopedia of Classic 80s Pop. As well as writing, he leads creative writing workshops for adults, young people and children.

The ebook version will also be given away via Waterstones.com/ebooks

The print version will be published by Icon Books on 4th March 2010 and available from all good bookshops, and in particular Waterstones.com.

Alternative History with Alternative Vote

This is terribly interesting.

Under the Alternative Vote system on which MPs are to hold a referendum, nothing would have changed in terms of who was in charge in the last six elections - but the Liberal Democrats would have been the second largest party, and Paddy Ashdown leader of the official opposition, from 1997-2001.

One can't help wondering if he'd have done a better job than William Hague, who often bested Blair with humorous barbs but failed to transform his winning Commons ways into ballot-box victory.

Twitter Ye Not

Politicians should always be looking at new ways of interacting with the electorate, and this becomes especially clear as we enter the unofficial run-up to the campaign for the first ever Multimedia Election proper. Yes, a lot of people had Broadband internet in 2005, but there was no Facebook, no Twitter, and it's fair to say the potential of the Internet had not been fully embraced.

A lot of MPs and would-be MPs now blog - such as, to choose a non-partisan selection, John Redwood of the Conservatives, Tom Watson of Labour, Lynne Featherstone of the Liberal Democrats and Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party.

If your MP doesn't have an email address for their office - and they don't all - then you should be asking yourself why not. Technophobe, old-fashioned or just not wanting to be easy to get hold of? In the 1970s, when I was growing up, my parents' generation could still be heard asking, 'Are you on the phone?' This increasingly redundant question came to be replaced by tentative talk, in the 1990s, of 'electronic mail addresses'. These days, we expect to see email addresses given routinely, often alongside a link to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. (Adjust according to generational preference.)

Some people hate Twitter and can't get on with it. Comedian Ricky Gervais came out against it recently, and even famous Twitterer Stephen Fry has taken a step back from it while he writes the next volume of his autobiography.

Twitter can be a two-edged sword for politicians. It can make you look hip, happening and in touch, part of the multi-media age - but it also means people can stalk you as they do other 'celebrities' on the site. Just today, Speaker's wife Sally Bercow has become a little irritated with those who are following her every move as she goes out on the school run and eyes up scaffolders.

Unless there is a double election in 2010 - and don't rule that out - then the next General Election after this one will probably be in four or five years' time. And by then, everyone will be talking about a new method of communication and networking which hasn't even been heard of yet.