Marginalised Much?

I am exceptionally lucky. All the main political parties care deeply about me. They show their love weekly with solicitous letters, cards and visits. I fully anticipate flowers soon enough. I bet most of you don’t get that.

So why the special treatment? I’m not a special person, I haven’t had a recent bereavement that can be capitalised on and it’s definitely not because I’m a member of the press (most of my local parties don’t know that at the moment, but thanks to the miracle of the search engine they probably will after this…). Don’t think for one second I am receiving this attention because of the caring and altruistic nature of political parties, there’s a reason everyone wants to be my friend: I happen to live in a marginal constituency.

In fact, it’s better than that – I happen to live in a newly formed constituency. The boundaries of the current constituency I live in, Hammersmith and Fulham, have been redrawn for the next election. What was an extremely diverse constituency – with pockets of extreme prosperity, particularly in Fulham, and pockets of deprivation – particularly in the White City area north of Shepherds Bush – has been radically altered.

My current MP must be ecstatic – in the five years that I’ve been following his utterances he has almost never mentioned the poorer, more ethnically diverse northern areas in his constituency. Occasionally he just refers to his constituency as Fulham and misses out the Hammersmith part altogether. Luckily, soon he will be fighting the newly created uber-prosperous constituency of Fulham and Chelsea. Phew!

The new constituency of Hammersmith will have a different demographic and it’s all up for grabs. All the parties are positioning themselves with the exuberance and urgency of a hoard of people waiting for the IKEA sale to open. So for the next six months I, and everyone else who lives in the area, will be treated like Mariah Carey. Our every whim attended to. I expect the streets to be lined with white kittens by May.

So what about those of you (the vast majority) who don’t live in a marginal seat? Well I have bad news for you. You’re not as special as me.

Percentage-wise few seats changed hands at the last election, this election is expected to be more tumultuous but that’s a little like saying taupe is a more dynamic colour than beige. The truth is that, with the current ‘first past the post’ system, it takes a massive swing to effect change so mostly things will stay roughly as they are. Unless you live in a seat which is new (like mine) or where your MP is clinging to an extremely tenuous majority your vote just doesn’t count for as much.

It’s well known that people already move house – or rent properties in certain catchment areas – to gain access to the best schools. How long before they start moving home just to get their voice heard? Eventually, politics could be the sole preserve of the middle classes (many would argue it already is in many areas).

I’m actually selling my flat at the moment and I’m already having regrets about this. As an ordinary person, I will possibly never again have such a golden opportunity to get the ear of all the parties. I should have put it in my HIP.

There’s no reason why my vote should count more than yours, but it does. And until the electoral system is reformed I will get door-stepped and you will get treated like a doormat.