Do Voters Really Care?
In UK politics at the moment, both the current Government – fragmented as it is – and the Opposition seem to have a bee in their bonnet about the National Deficit. Now, I’m not an economist. I’m a businessman, an IT professional, and hopefully a relatively informed voter.
I have to confess, I don’t really care about the National Deficit. I’m sure it’s pretty undesirable by the way everyone’s banging on about it, so by all means let’s reduce it. But please, Government, reduce it without messing my life up…
OK that’s rather tongue in cheek, but it illustrates a point. The average UK taxpayer – be he a businessman, working class, upper class or anywhere in between, doesn’t really care about monetary policy. Most – and I include myself – don’t know what a national deficit IS, let alone why we don’t want one. So all the rhetoric from politicians about “shall we reduce the deficit in 4 years or longer?” is bound to make voters switch off. It’s like asking us to have an opinion on what tarmac we want the roads made of, or what shirt the Speaker of the House of Commons wears, or what wallpaper is used in the Queen’s bathroom. Nothing could bore me more.
There’s one thing we care about – we care about the effects of fiscal policy on ourselves. Not the country, ME. How much money will I have in my pocket at the end of the month if we reduce in 4 years or 10 years? Whichever will give me more money, let’s do that, and blow everyone else.
Economics are a complex subject – interest rates, deficit reduction, all the stuff the Chancellor bangs on about every budget. All the political parties are setting out their stalls by their fiscal policy, and I’ve never been less interested in politics.
But as if that’s not bad enough, the Labour Party seems intent on raking over history as well. Invading Iraq probably wasn’t a good idea for Britain, though I’m pleased Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. But that decision was taken literally years ago. It’s like debating whether Neville Chaimberlain was right to appease Hitler, or whether the US should have invaded Vietnam. It just doesn’t matter anymore. Right or wrong, we did it and we have to live with the consequences. Whether that means leaving troops in the country for a few more years, putting effort into rebuilding programmes or apprehending terrorists who turned against us because of the invasion.
No more “should we have, shouldn’t we have?” debating. We did, so let’s move on.
Unless the political parties can focus on the issues that matter to us plebs, and stop b****ing about the past, voter apathy is going to continue to rise.