Voter Apathy – Voter Ignorance

For those of us who follow politics like more normal people follow football, the amount of ignorance of huge swathes of the population on major issues is incredible. Its one thing to meet and argue with someone whose views are diametrically opposite to your own, but its plain depressing to talk politics with many people. Over the weekend I read the results of a poll that said more voters would trust Gordon Brown with their life savings than any other major political figure. For me that was a little like reading that Harold Shipman was regarded as the doctor most people would like to look after their granny. Here is a man who has actually raided the life savings of millions, and yet the ignorant electorate think they can trust him. There is however one thing that could save us from these idiots. Voter apathy. As Civitas sees it:

There is a second reason for unconcern about, if not pleasure in, voter-apathy. Those who don’t vote are probably less interested in and therefore less well-informed about electoral issues.

Concerning the government’s efforts to increase turnout, they go on to add:

The reason Labour is so concerned to get this group to vote, rightly believing ill-informed voters more likely to vote for them.

Probably under the malign influence of globalisation, it seems that voter ignorance is an international phenomenon. In the case of some of our neighbours, it’s a good thing too. The voting in May I have in mind where voter-ignorance is likely to have a benign impact on this country is, rather, that due to take place on the 28th of that month on the other side of the English Channel. He refers of course to the referendum in France.

It is an astonishing fact, that the steadily massing ranks of voters there who have indicated they intend to vote against the adoption of the European Constitution in their referendum are ‘left-wing voters who believe that the constitution is a British-inspired plot to destroy the protective French state and its welfare system.’

This is of course an absurdity. For a start the Constitution is a horrible Statist document written by a French President. Secondly the idea that Tony Blair is even aware of what the term Free Trade really means, let alone is a champion of it, would be funny were it not so tragic. But the electorate know better. That’s why we give them the vote. So French Lefties voting to protect their wonderful socialist system, could be the ones to save us from it. Or as Civitas sees it:

Fitting irony would it be, indeed, were Britain to become liberated from rule by Brussels Eurocrats by leftists of the very same kind as first thought up the whole crack-pot scheme in the first place and to whom it has ever after always pandered so!

Which is what can happen when a grossly overweight state, makes politics so complicated. They counted on the treaties complexity to help them win the battle. They counted wrong.