EDITORIAL
April 27, 2012 by Grace Franklin · Leave a Comment
With only days to go before voting for new local councillors (Thursday 3 May in case you’ve forgotten!) the campaigning seems slow in most places – unless you are actively involved. From the outside it is clear that knocking on doors and traditional hustings, while important, don’t make much of a dent in anyone’s thinking.
Lip service is being paid to the serious local concerns that citizens have. Personalisation is being sidelined expect by those who have to bear the brunt of sometimes as much as 50% of the care allowance they once had. Destitute asylum seekers don’t have a voice so prospective candidates can avoid that issue. It is a ‘no voter’. The cuts and how they impact on communities is only slowly being understoon. When the councillors are duly elected it will be too late to expect them to change their ways and keep election promises – not that anyone seems to be making any promises. Yes individuals are following their party’s line and reading the words from the script they have in their hand. But it is – for the most part – not being said from the heart. It will be a difficult choice for those who bother to vote, to work out how best to place their 1,2,3 and more numbers. And there will not be a result on Thursday night because counting won’t start till Friday morning. A simple hope is that enough people will actually go to their voting station and make their mark to make the results worthy of being called democratic.
