Beautiful day today. I woke up, had a bath whilst reading a book, got dressed in black jeans and a red Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy t-shirt and then at 11 am took a leisurely stroll down to the polling booth in the village hall.
As usual there was no one else there apart from the election officials. I don’t know if it’s due to the time when I vote, usually mid-morning, or if my village is just one of those places with a very low voter turnout.
There were however a few old folks in the vicinity so I guess they had just voted. I gave a smile and a ‘good morning’ to the grey-haired lady by the door and the gentleman by the desk who gave me my ballot papers. I marked the papers using the pencil provided (it’s only just occurred to me the potential for voting fraud that a pencil gives) stuck them in the box then made a hasty exit as a half-dozen more voters arrived.
Now I shall sit back and wait for Michael Ancram to be returned as my Member of Parliament despite my vote for the Liberal Democrat named Hornby.
In many ways I feel I’m residentially disenfranchised (a phrase stolen from historian Simon Schama) in that I live in a constituency where the MP has such a large majority that whichever way I vote has very little effect on the outcome. In addition there is also very little choice in parties to vote for, just the big three and the UKIP so in many ways my vote is for the best of a bad bunch.
