17/06/2024
We are a little over halfway through the election campaign, and if you follow it at all, you could be excused for thinking it is an election for a Prime Minister, the government, or a party.
All of those things are affected by whom we cast our vote for. We have a natural interest in the national outcomes, yet they are not what we directly vote for.
It’s a general election, a misnomer, as it's better described as 650 simultaneous elections. We each vote in only one of them - the constituency in which we live. We vote for one of the 5 or 6 (usually) candidates, and the one who gets the most votes will represent everyone in the constituency in parliament. It is a really important role, and, as voters, I think we have a responsibility to vote with due care and attention. All other things being equal, we should choose the person we believe will represent us best. We should give that representation the most weight, their party and that party’s leaders less.
One issue with this consideration is that we have very little, perhaps no, influence on the choice of the names on the ballot paper. Usually, most of us don’t meet them in person before we vote. Only the most dedicated will spend time at hustings. We have to use proxies to make this critical choice. Proxies like who the parties' leaders are and what they say in national media, or, heaven forfend, on social media. We may use the manifestos (or, more likely, the limited reporting of them in the media) of the televised debates and so on.
None of those proxies tells you which of the people on your ballot paper is the one that will do the best job for you. Underneath it all, it is one of the difficulties of democracy in general, particularly in this country. One way to change the behaviour of candidates could be to remove identifying logos on the ballot paper and print just the name. For some voters, that would create confusion, but for candidates, becoming known (for the right things) would become a crucial part of being elected. Sometimes, minor changes make a big difference, which is why such a change will never happen.
It's important to vote when you can and to be careful where you put your mark. It matters, even if you do not think it can make any meaningful difference. Underneath it all, this is the only political power we, the “demos” that give democracy its name, the people, have.
