Well, we’re nearly at the end of the snap election campaign that was never meant to be. Perhaps it is fitting that this week, meteorologically speaking, the UK is experiencing an unusually deep depression. The grey skies and incessant rain the perfect backdrop.
Who knows what will happen? It has certainly been a rockier ride than the Tories thought at the outset and the Labour team have asked some serious questions that have gone unanswered. In fact, with Mrs. May refusing to debate and so Jezzer following, a lot has gone unanswered. If anything, and I sit somewhat outside the mainstream of social media, though you can’t escape it, I sense that social media has been the central platform for the arguments.
After all, with only 8 weeks to win your case that was the quickest way. The newspaper media haven’t been slack either. All of them firmly associated with their chosen stripe. The Sun readership is estimated at 4m readers per day – The Daily Mail at 4.5m. And of course, stores stock by sales figures, so my local supermarket this morning has this as their news stand “wallpaper”….
Of course, it’s bollocks, but if you shout it loud and long enough ….
A young friend of ours in his 20’s, who we’d always believed to be politically apathetic, confessed that he was voting this time. I think that the referendum vote had suddenly shocked him into action. He admitted that his partner’s parents were “straight down the line Conservative” but he wasn’t convinced. He said that they told him he would be able to buy a house in a couple of years when all the immigrants have gone home, and they believed it. He should bide his time – he’ll be fine.
Whatever you do, blame the immigrants. It’s got nothing to do with housing policy or the fact that input costs are rising thereby pushing up sale prices.
When I hear things like this I don’t know how to respond. How do you respond to a statement that is so firmly held but based upon a complete incredulous fantasy ? Firmly held and based upon facts, fine. But….. It does take your breath away. I don’t particularly blame them. They are fed such tripe by the newspapers above, plus the Express.
And that is my beef about all this. The electorate are being treated like fools. If you want to be informed properly you have to seek out your information, from all sides, and form your opinion. Sadly, in a time poor society, and sometimes not so, it is only the committed who really go looking. The vast majority of the voting public are too busy living their lives with all the demands they face to go digging too deep.
Unfortunately, the tabloids with the readership are owned by rich white men with agendas to follow. But it is surely a time-limited message. Like it or not, and a lot don’t like it, it’s a very small world nowadays, and you can be open-minded or left behind.
I’m placing my faith in the young and hope that they become more questioning than sometimes their parents are.
singlemaltmonkey 
“The vast majority of the voting public are too busy living their lives with all the demands they face to go digging too deep…”
I see that with a lot of my peers; it’s as if they choose to look through or beyond/ignore what’s so easy for some to see.. but they are too close and as you said, too busy with their lives and the demands….’
If the younger generations can find a way to discipline away from all-day attention to their phones, they might see much more… they’re waking up.. a good example was the precocious Severn Suzuki, who is now an equally-powerful activist…
I agree. I couldn’t understand how the youngsters I knew just let such things pass them by. Their focus being on the new iPhone or what the Samsung could do. Then suddenly during this campaign something seems to have woken up. At least I hope I’m right.