Bless ’em, it seems as if the ‘traditional media’ are struggling to cope with the vagaries of electioneering in these modern interconnectivity-driven times. First the formerly ‘great ignored’ Nick Clegg gets a 10-point bunk up due largely to appearing on the gogglebox and not coming across as a complete twat. Then all hell breaks loose, as the Tory-cheerleader press goes apeshit at the thought of Facebook campaigns causing the ‘natural party of government’ to miss out on the heralded and therefore inevitable coronation, thus unleashing hell against those they used to deride as sandal-wearers.
Call me insanely optimistic if you will, but there does seem to be something in the air to indicate that this year’s poll will not simply be a rubber-stamping of ‘business as usual’ across the next Parliament. There are websites where you can research what your MP has been up to for the last five years and what might happen on 6 May where you live, campaigns seeking to engineer a hung parliament, or pressing for electoral reform here and here.
If you are of the belief that they are all the same, that ‘none of the above’ is the only viable option, get to the polling station with a marker pen and deface that ballot. Make sure that your refusal to engage is taken for ‘visible and vocal abstention, not apathy.’ Because after all, as a fellow lover of fine malt whisky once said,
The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop.
–P. J. O’Rourke
It is also heartening to note that, in amongst all the new media shenanigans, the old skool medium of egg chucking still getting a look in. Seems some things will never change, after all.
