The Voting Charade Is Over: Time To Take To The Streets

Politicians keep going on the radio saying that we shouldn’t be talking about political process, but the economy. They’re telling us not to worry our silly little heads over big boy politics (like electoral reform), and even saying that business is more important than democracy.

The few hundred people who were denied their vote despite going to the polling station must be outraged – but the really telling scandal isn’t the incompetency of the returning officers. It’s that the police and the Electoral Commission lacked all compassion: they didn’t apologise, they just said “it’s not us, it’s the rules.” A system that encourages this kind of self-policed, actively anti-democratic bureaucracy is deeply worrying. We should bend and break the rules wherever we can to allow each other greater democracy. Yesterday’s kind of cold bureaucracy comes from a widespread political amnesia.

All those Lib Dem supporters and party members who boasted that they were voting for a Left option with a taste for democratic reform must feel betrayed. Nick Clegg even talking to the Tories should be a tragedy for them. If you’re reading this, abandon hope: your leader is about to sell out, and you don’t get anywhere near the decision.

prints by bobeightpo

This isn’t our politics, it’s theirs. Take to the streets. We’re pretty lucky with the timing: election on Thursday, Friday to feel zonked at work, Saturday to protest against this charade: an electoral system that allows the centre right to dominate time and time again, whatever the electorate feels.

Five years of a Tory government isn’t just a set back, it’d be a total disaster. If they make the kinds of cuts they’re threatening with the Lib Dems as their running dogs, we won’t get our public services back for decades. If you can get there: Trafalger Square, 2pm tomorrow. Facebook is turning on anti-tory activists, so use all channels to get this demo out there. Trade Unions, NGOs and a few political parties are mobilising.