On 13/04/10 11:04, Alan Bell wrote:
> I am going on a little adventure to Broadcasting house in London on
> Friday to be interviewed for the Click ON programme in relation to the
> general election and in particular the http://votegeek.org.uk website.
> At the moment it is suffering a bit of voter apathy and I don't have as
> many interesting comments on it that I can talk about as I would like.
> Please spare a few minutes to email your candidates and ask them all
> about their position on an issue that matters to you, and share your
> email and responses. It could be anything from the farce that is the
> Digital Economy Bill to the Digital Britain agenda, universal broadband,
> Free software in the public sector, teaching Python in schools, anything
> that has a geeky angle and matters to you. Even if you are in a safe
> seat and you don't think your vote matters you can join in.
>
On the subject of voter apathy I would say: what's the point?
With regard to the Digital Economy Bill I, and many others, were not
apathetic and we engaged soon after the ill-conceived bill was spawned.
Depite a a vocal protest that included end-users, artists , ISPs and
other major players in the industry, it is evident that lobbying (a nice
word for corruption IMO) won out and the voters were totally ignored.
The bill was bought and paid for and it was going through - that was that.
The Tory MP agreed with me that Labour had it all wrong, but but
obviously did not attend the debate or vote.
The Labour candidate for our area ignored my emails for a week until I
messaged Labour HQ and informed them that she was not contactable. She
then got in touch immediately (the day after the bill was read) with a
load of wash about how she was very busy and how it was important we
should swallow the bitter part of the pill on account of the sugar
coating, i.e. potential benefits for the economy.
Having said all that, of course there is a point, and I will add my
findings from recent communications with my MP and the Labour candidate
to the site. However, it might be interesting to bring this point up as
part of the visit should voter apathy be mentioned.
Sean
--
music, film, comics, books, rants and drivel:
www.funkygibbins.me.uk
