Electing to stay away
A WEEK is a long time in politics, according to the late, lamented Harold Wilson, but there have surely been few such periods as action-packed and unpredictable as the past seven days.
And there has been the added frisson of us all being able to add our two-penneth by voting in the county and Euro elections!
Yes, it started with Gordon on the ropes, facing several knock-downs, and it is finishing with the Scottish heavyweight having gained his second breath for several more punishing rounds.
So was the Week That Was all worth it from our point of view? Well, hardly...
To engage in further sporting parlance, on the local and south east scene, things are much as they were.
The Tories kept their noses well in front in both the county council and European elections, and there was little danger of the British National Party gaining a seat in this area of the country.
Yet, I couldn't help noting that, in Worthing, the BNP finished sixth out of the 15 voting options provided in the marathon-long, European election poll form.
That party's total of 1,080 votes is a not-insignificant total in a town with the population, make-up and history as that possessed by Worthing.
The same might be said of the Adur district, whose BNP candidate attracted 776 votes.
I don't believe that the great majority of BNP voters in Worthing and Adur are inherently racist or ultra-radical.
But so many parts of the seductive BNP agenda rang an engaging bell in many people's minds, in so many areas where the grass-root voters' views have been ignored by the main parties.
No, I think that for the majority of them, the worm turned after they finally got fed up with the way the country has, and is, being governed.
Furious as we are with the MPs' expenses jamboree, it was not just this issue which led to Labour's electoral collapse, and the underwhelming level of support for the Tories and Lib Dems in a situation where they should have massively increased their actual voting figures, as opposed to percentages.
No, it was the culmination of decades of inadequate governance by both main parties.
And by inadequate, I do mean the many inadequate individuals who wielded power (and those who still do).
Just one example is the ludicrous John Prescott, who made a right Horlicks of his job improving Britain's transport system.
What a result!
There were similarly unimpressive Tory ministers and administrations before Tony Blair dazzled his way to power in 1997.
But what did we do last week when there was a real chance to show our feelings?
Most of us didn't show anything, apart from staying away from the voting booths.
Miserable percentage turn-outs in the mid-30s were all that resulted from a large majority of the enfranchised feeling that none of the candidates were worth voting for.
It's this sort of situation which provides fertile ground for extremists.
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Weather for Worthing
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
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Sunny spells
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