Tuesday 10th March

I am as you are probably aware an avid poll-watcher, and even though I am more than conscious that the polls are merely a snapshot of possibly less than a thousand people at a certain point in time they are all we have.  There is a margin of error of about three percent either way too, so these carefully constructed and extrapolated polls are quite hopeless as an indicator of people’s thinking.  And they are not moving, or at least haven’t really budged since the turn of the year.  One poll putting Labour maybe one or two points ahead and another the Tories. No real movement at all. So what exactly are the public thinking?  And my only conclusion is that they ‘aint.

In any poll there are always a proportion, usually quite high of “don’t knows”.  Maybe they really do know and don’t want to say, or quite possibly they haven’t even thought about it and in all probability won’t even vote.  This is the real tragedy of our times.  When so many fought for the right to vote, when so many decisions are made in our name, when our daily lives, our children’s education, the possible treatment we will receive if we fall ill, the likelihood of our children getting jobs, the fate of our poor selves when we should become old and infirm – all of these decisions and many more are to be made by those who less and less are actually voting for.

And with the almost inevitable probability of another Coalition or a Minority Government emerging it will be with an even lower percentage of the popular vote, which in itself is a smaller percentage of the possible electorate, and even here people are neglecting to even register to vote, let alone bring themselves to actually think for a few minutes and make a decision.  And so we are doomed yet again to be ruled by a party voted for by probably less than a quarter of the adult population of the country.    And our politics is so boring that there is no movement in the polls at all.  Why do you think that UKIP is doing so well – because they have an interesting, if bonkers, Leader.  The parties really need shaking up and if anyone is to make a breakthrough at all we need somehow to be enthused.  Woken from our torpor might be a start…