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For this election, poll cards were delivered to me at both my home and university address. As I understand it, people with two adresses are allowed to vote in both places in local elections but only once in the general election.

I went to the polls in the morning at university, and then went home to vote in the county council elections there as well. When I went to the polling station at home, I pointed out that I should not be given a ballot for the parliamentary election, because I’d already voted in it. An official warned me very sternly, “You will be breaking the law if you exercise your right to vote in this constituency”. I thought this a slightly strange thing to say; it can’t be my “right to vote” if do so would be breaking the law! Anyway, if had I been intending to break the law I could have done so quite easily without bringing it to their attention. I asked if I was able to vote in the county council election, and at first the guy seemed slightly uncertain, but eventually said to the woman handing out ballots “He can have a yellow one”, as if giving me the benefit of the doubt over a point that was debatable.

I’m now not sure that I should have voted twice, because both my addresses are in the same county (but in different divisions). So does anyone know if I broke the law after all, and if so what I should do about it?

For tactical reasons, I voted Conservative at the general election, and mine is one of the marginals that the tories won from Labour. I don’t mourn the demise of the Labour man, a left-winger without the balls to rebel when it could have made a difference. (He was initially against the war and top-up fees, but was whipped into line in time for the important votes.) But I am left feeling slightly dirty at having voted for the conservatives, especially after their xenophobic campaign. Mind you, I felt a bit tainted after having voted Labour in 2001, only to find them returned with another massive majority. Everyone knows that power corrupts, so maybe I’m feeling slightly corrupted by my vote, the atom of democratic power that the system calls upon us all to exercise once every five years. Is my conservative vote any different from the rejection of principles and “means to an end” pragmatism that I deplore so much in the Labour party? Who knows? Who cares? We could go over this time and time again, but I believe that now is the time to draw a line under the issue, and move on

I got back from the pub on thursday night at about 11:30, and watched BBC1 from then till about 6am. I’d bought a bottle of shiraz especially, in order to conform to shiraz-quaffing liberati stereotype, but decided not to open it, because I wouldn’t have been able to stay up had I carried on drinking.

Memorable moments include:

1. Reg Keys‘ speech, made with Tony Blair standing just behind him:

“I hope in my heart that one day the prime minister may be able to say sorry. That one day he will say sorry to the families of the bereaved. And one day the prime minister may be able to visit wounded soldiers in hospital.”

Blair looked extremely uncomfortable, especially when Keys turned round to look him in the eye (picture on Keys’ website - scroll down). Was Blair just embarrassed at the political damage done, or was he actually wrestling with his conscience? I’d like to think the latter, firstly because I’m a liberal who believes there’s some humanity in everyone, but also because a troubled conscience is much more painful than a political knock.
[Update --- you can watch the speech courtesy BBC (realmedia video)]

2. Paxman and Galloway trying to out-obnoxious each other after the latter’s victory over Blair-loyalist Oona King. Now, Galloway and his massive ego are easy to dislike but Paxman’s refusal to abandon his first question, “Are you proud of having got rid of one of the very few black women in Parliament”, and Galloway’s refusal to answer on the grounds that it was “preposterous”, actually managed to make me sympathise with the big-headed scot. There was a legitimate debate to be had over whether Galloway had benefitted from racial tension in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, but Paxman’s question (was he saying that it is wrong for a white man to run against a black woman?) completely failed to address the issue.

3. The Monster Raving Loony Party candidate at Folkestone and Hythe, Michael Howard’s seat. I’m not generally impressed by the MRLP, they are a bit too Colin Hunt out of the Fast Show for my liking. For those who don’t know what I mean, I’m talking about the sort of desperate attention seeking nerd that declares “I’m crrrazy, I am!” in an attempt to make themselves interesting. However, in the early hours of the morning, I did have a chuckle at the loony candidate taking the piss during the declaration of Michael Howard’s seat. The sight of Howard trying to ignore the interruptions during his speech was very funny. When Howard expressed his pride at the first black conservative MP being elected (Adam Afriyie in Windsor), Lord Toby Jug punctured the general unctuousness of the occasion with “Wehey! ‘Ow ’bout that then, eh?”.

I guess you had to be there.

Right then, the result. Eventually a picture began to emerge of significant swings from Labour to the Lib Dems accross the country, and swings to the conservatives largely restricted to the south. The Lib Dem’s decapitation strategy was dissappointingly ineffective; I suppose the local income tax plan and 50% top rate didn’t go down too well with affluent conservative voters.

Many Conservative gains appeared to be due to Labour voters defecting to the Lib Dems, letting the the tories in by “the back door”. Democrats should not begrudge the tories these seats: the conservatives still won fewer than they deserve from their share of the popular vote. But the major bias at this election was towards Labour at the expense of the liberals.

The eventual tally of seats gives labour a majority of 66, which is reasonably large but nowhere near their huge 2001 or 1997 majorities. Blair is already insisting he has a mandate, but with only 36% of voters having voted labour, he’s got some nerve. The case for proportional representation is strengthened by this result, but the Labour government will doubtless remain opposed while the current system favours them. The cheek of the government in playing the system to their advantage has not gone unnoticed, though, and the case for reform may become too strong to oppose.

There is reason to be hopeful about parliamentary democracy during this term. The government will have a hard time if it tries to push through an ID cards bill, and when the control order legislation comes up for review the they will have to make some serious compromises if they are to save it at all. Both these measures could get through if the tories’ concern about appearing soft on terror outweighs their desire to cause trouble for Labour, but that seems unlikely because libertarians within the Conservative party will be strenthened by the failure of the “tough on crime and disease, tough on the immigrant causes of crime and disease” strategy at this election.

The big question is when Blair will go. The aim of Backing Blair has been to get Blair out, but even if he does not go immediately, you just had to see his face at the Sedgefield declaration to know that he felt seriously weakened. Amongst the surviving Labour MPs are a fair number with rebel form, and even loyalists will be trying to distance themselves from him. Even if Blair survives a couple of years, his authority will be minimal. There can be no doubt that Iraq has cost him dear, and hopefully that will be a lesson not lost on a future generations of politicians. The British electorate has done the world a service.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 7th, 2005 at 20:46 and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.