Not apathy
And they’re off! The least surprising announcement a prime minister has ever made has set the 2001 election in motion. Apparently, though, TB (a bit unfair to M. tuberculosis, I know) is concerned that there is widespread apathy and the turnout may be low. I suspect he’s worried that the turnout of Labour voters may be low and he doesn’t give a damn for what the other parties’ voters do, although there is a slim chance I am doing him an injustice.
At first thought, I could see what he means. I’m interested in politics. I like elections. They are a pressure cooker for politicans, and it is always fun to see how they perform. Policies get paraded, sometimes mauled, sometimes made on the hoof. It is democracy’s ultimate circus. And yet, this time, I feel deeply unenthusiastic. I’m sure on June 7th I’ll be watching Dimbleby and Paxman steer the BBC’s election programme through the night, and by then it may even be fun again. I doubt there will be anything to match last time, though (“Time to drink hemlock, Mr. Portillo?”).
On reflection, though, it isn’t apathy. It’s nothing like apathy. I realised this on Tuesday night. Listening to Wednesday’s PM I realised I was not alone. What many of us feel is nothing like as benign or contented as apathy. It’s disillusion. No, it isn’t: it’s disgust. And Tony Blair is one of the main causes.
It’s difficult to recapture now the feeling of the day after the election in 1997. The sheer joy of seeing Tory after Tory falling in the face of an enormous swing and some nifty tactical voting — it was exquisite. Even the disquiet over TB’s vast majority couldn’t wipe out the delight of seeing the Tories decimated — and, in Scotland, completely wiped off the map.
But since then…
This supposedly Labour government has operated from that first day on spin and spin alone. Principles? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve shed theirs the way lizards slough off an old skin. And TB has the gall to describe some of those who disagree with him as having “wrong values”. What values does he have, apart from the deeply sincere belief that he should be in charge?
Throughout this election, we’re not going to see Blair talking to ordinary voters because he can’t handle it. See footage of him addressing the WI and being slow-hand clapped and you see a man floundering, out of his depth. He’ll talk to Labour supporters, loyal ones (no socialists, please). He’ll talk to journalists. He won’t talk to the man in the street, and he won’t debate William Hague. He knows that Hague, for all he’s otherwise as useful as hair restorer to a Yeti, is able to run rings round him in a debate.
What we’ll get is carefully controlled interviews — as far as possible, anyway. We’ll get talk of how they need another five years to complete their work. We’ll get bland pseudo-humility and be urged to trust him. Trust him? Why should we?
This is the guy whose party promised a Freedom of Information Act. Where is it? This is the guy whose government seems to be desperate to give ever more draconian powers to the police while snatching away the rights of the citizen. This is the guy whose government is driving forward with extermination of livestock. This is the guy who thinks it’s OK to use an assembly of schoolchildren as a backdrop for his announcement of the election date. This is the guy whose government seems eager to climb into the pocket of big business.
Tony Blair is cynical, patronising, and is more concerned with manipulating the media than anything else. Parliament is sidelined because he’d rather talk to the press. He mouths platitudes and criticises anyone who doesn’t accept what he says. In the four years he has held office, I haven’t seen him display anything resembling a principle.
That’s why so many of us are fed up with politics at the moment. If there’s a smarmy, cynical, patronising, platitudinous individual in Downing Street, obsessed with courting the media, what does he expect? Where’s the Freedom of Information Act we were promised? Why are completely healthy animals being exterminated? Why are the police being given more and more powers and the citizen’s rights being eroded? Do all these things and call yourself the People’s Government or some such tosh and you fool no one.
What you do is leave a sour taste in the mouth, the feeling that politicians are always self-seeking and untrustworthy, and that there is little point in voting. And you wonder why there might be a low turnout?
© DC 2001. All rights reserved.