Your Democratic Right

I was listening to a piece on the radio last night about a woman who has fought for her right to cast her vote in secret at the forthcoming local elections.

The polling station had no wheelchair access; on querying this, she was told that the station could not be modified to accommodate her. An area outside would be made available and an official would put her ballot paper into the box for her instead. After further periods of negotiation, commissioning, designing and constructing, a ramp up to the door of the portacabin was finally installed!

Depriving wheelchair bound people the same democratic opportunities granted to the majority is fairly minor compared with what happens in some countries but it's wrong nonetheless.

All this biting political commentary is a bit rich, considering I've never voted in local elections. Like most people, I have only a slight interest in local politics. I don't attend meetings or even keep abreast of current issues particularly. Is it any wonder then that people don't turn out to vote, when candidates and their parties cannot be bothered to provide us any information at election time.

Other than our voting cards, I cannot recall a single piece of campaign literature coming through the letterbox. This is good for the dog's state of mind but how are we supposed to know what the candidates stand for? I know we are in the technological age, our senses bombarded by myriad pieces of useless nonsense but they might make the effort.

Compare this with the amount of fliers you get from takeaway outlets. We get tons of them and the dog goes apoplectic at the arrival of every single one. Most of them go straight in the bin but at least we are given the chance to find out about their existence and what services they can provide.

If proof were needed that this antediluvian method of advertising works, we decided to give The West Lake a go, after receiving a flier from them yesterday. What a good choice; I had the Crispy Lamb Mongolian Style and it was a treat. It all seems so simple; advertise your product and hope that something comes of it.

Isn't this what prospective local government candidates used to do? It doesn't seem too radical an idea to me. Would you trust your council tax to these people?

They couldn't manage a fish supper.