One of the many oddities of the British democratic process is that journalists are barred from reporting political details on . Consequently, most coverage on Thursday by the main news outlets consisted of padding, filler, chit-chat and a relentless stream of twee. We had , cats at polling stations – even nuns at polling stations.
The website formerly known as Twitter abounded with patently fictitious stories designed to warm the cockles of the sort of oddball who looks at shattered volunteers unloading plastic boxes in a leisure centre at 3am and thinks: “This is beautiful.” Thursday was Christmas for these unashamed “election day enjoyers”, social menaces who actually walk among us. Rather than just getting on with the act of voting like a normal person, these nerds treat a church hall with ” sign as if it were the Sistine Chapel.
Once every few years, we allow them – people who get a hard-on thinking about the single transferable vote system – to be put front and centre and made to look acceptable. Worse still are those who endlessly harangue all and sundry on social media about doing their democratic duty. As if everything isn’t going to be the same, but worse, in a year’s time.
As I recall, this was a common tactic at university. “Vote! It’s your civic duty! ” the student activists would cry. “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, but make sure you exercise your rights”.
“Fine, I’ll vote Conservative, then”. “Fascist!” Talking of p.