The sin of not voting

Jeremy Paxman's interview with Russell Brand on Newsnight continues to make waves and has been watched by well over half a million on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYcn3PuTTk)—maybe a lot more if viewing figures for the alternative versions on YouTube can be aggregated. It would be all too easy to dismiss Brand as a self-publicising showbiz personality with the gift of the gab and no more reason for being on the lighter-weight Newsnight than anyone else, if it were not for the fact that he has clearly struck a chord with many people, especially among the young.

As someone who has never missed a chance to vote—and would vote more often if given the chance by those who limit the extent to which we, the electorate, get to judge them—I am unlikely to condone his stance that he has never voted and never will. Not to vote is tacit complicity with the status quo. It can be dismissed as the inaction of someone who can't be bothered.

The true action of an objector to the status quo is to make the effort and go to the polling station and spoil ones ballot paper. If enough people who want change were to do this it might start to have an impact.

There are usually at least 30 per cent of the electorate that abstains with its feet in parliamentary elections, double or treble that in other elections. Imagine what would happen if we followed Australia's example, had compulsory voting and all the erstwhile abstainers chose 'none of the above'. Probably the end of the world as we know it.

Meanwhile, disillusionment with the way democracy works in practice under the dead hand of party politics will continue to spread. The electorate will engage with 'single issues' rather than endorsing a wholesale package of party policies. In the absence of referendums, petitions launched through social media become potent. This may not be a better model of democracy but it is more immediate, more responsive and more engaging. Nonetheless, it will have a hard and long struggle displacing the regime that Russell Brand and so many others despise.

Historical context
Incidentally, back in 1911 that great Sussex man Hilaire Belloc and his friend and fellow distributist Cecil Chesterton (GK's brother) wrote a book called The Party System. This expressed, a century ago, the same disgust at the parliamentary set-up that motivated Brand but in a more sustained and informed way. The Grumpy Old Voter is currently reading the book and will quite possibly return to the subject.

TTFN

What happened next

OK, so it's taken only three years and nine months to update the last post. For the record, you can read about the outcome of the successful campaign to save the Brighton History Centre at http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=83. This is reported to celebrate the revival of the Grumpy Old voter blog and as a reminder that citizen power can be effective. Watch this space.
TTFN

Almost the end

14:30 Early results, with the winners declared in 19 of the 21 wards, show that the Conservatives are likely to be the largest single party. They have so far won five seats from Labour and one from Brighton & Hove Independents. The Greens have won two from Labour and one from Lib Dem.

Current seats:
Conservative 26
Labour 11
Green 8
Lib Dem 2
Independent 1

In the remaining six seats still to declare, five seats had been held by Labour and one by the Greens. If none of these change hands (a big if), Labour would have 16 and Greens nine. The Conservatives would be two short of an absolute majority. If they win one more, they would gain control through the mayor's casting vote; two more would give absolute power.

However, it is worth noting that although the Conservatives have been winning seats, they have done so with fewer votes. Data are not available to say whether this is the result of lower turnout. However, in the Grumpy Old Voter's ward, the three Conservatives, although re-elected, saw their vote fall by a massive 25 per cent.