Voters: Surplus To Requirements

Yonder in the 70s, Grandad Puddlecote, whilst whipping my sorry arse at teaching me to play cribbage and dominoes** in his council maisonette, used to regularly denounce politicians of the day thus:

"If they want my vote, they're gunna 'ave to do better'un that"

He always voted for someone, though.

Looking back, it's a supremely confident statement which relies on the fact that prospective MPs actually care about, and are willing to act upon, what the electorate think. But then that was around the time of the first 1974 election where turnout was in the region of 80%.

Since then, we have come to realise that what goes on around Westminster has very little to do with us at all. Nowadays, if any politician shows just an inkling of listening to his/her constituents, they are either thrust to the back benches sharpish, if already elected, or classed as a maverick and not selected at all.

And post Lisbon, we are more irrelevant than ever, which is why this really doesn't come as much of a surprise.

Every Briton will be asked to hand over their National Insurance number and signature to keep their right to vote, under new plans.

The new way of registering to vote could be compulsory within five years. A briefing note from the Electoral Commission says: “IER is expected to replace the current practices of household and rolling registration by July 2015”.

Instead of our demanding that politicians work for our vote, they'll place as many obstacles in front of us as possible. We will have to work for the privilege of having them, possibly, listen to us ... if it agrees with party policy, of course.

After all, voters do tend to get in the way of 'democratic' goverment so.

35 years on, Grandad P's equivalent refrain would be:

"Give my details to those corrupt bastards? What's the fucking point?"

And in this world where unelected bodies such as the EU, WHO, fake charities and quangoes hold sway over we troublesome taxpayers, he would be correct.

** The cheating fucker. Beating a 6 year old hollow is brutally easy when an accomplished card and domino counter