...from Frustrated, UK.

Every evening I return home from work, I find my letter box bursting with mini-manifestos, dire slogans and an overuse of the word ‘immigrant’, a sharp reminder that the election is little more than a week and change away.

Personally, I loathe election year politics. It reminds me of the pre-fight hype machine I witnessed during my years at secondary school. The fight is announced and the henchmen of the battlers begin the PR campaign with such memorable quotable as: “my guy is a swingers’ mate” and “he can’t fight, ask him what happened when he fought Stephen back in year 9.” This kind of pre-amble almost always led to a disappointing performance.

The bigger problem though, seems to be that election year politics almost acts as a deterrent from election year government. Like some Don King of national leadership, it manages to capture and distract spectators with its lofty intonation, oratory prowess and the occasional biblical reference and this years’ election, coupled with the introduction of the debates, firmly cemented this idea for me. Since the election was announced some 6 weeks ago, the art of distraction has been in full swing, and in the process of debating tomorrows’ leaders and their boundless promise, we have somehow silently turned our backs on the government de jour.

With hollow rhetoric at an all time high, wouldn’t our time be better spent reading the legislative timetable for the remainder of the year? Wouldn’t we do our system justice if we unplugged ourselves from the endless spin coverage, dived into a few political science books and begin trawling through the vast theories and acronyms which would help prepare and inform our imminent choice and responsibility that forms that backbone of the country’s democratic values?

Instead, we choose to be entertained by sound bites and pandering, probably because it resembles the generic Saturday evening programming that we all love. I’m surprised Ant and Dec aren’t hosting the debates, dowsing the candidates who give inadequate responses in orange goo.

(written on May 3rd 2010)