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May 02, 2006
Compulsory voting: the easy bit
The ippr report is long (and in bad need of a decent sub-editor), and time is crammed, so I'll report back on that later. However, in the meantime, the compulsory voting debate has found some new legs. They're a bit short and stumpy at the moment, but they might yet grow up big and strong.
See The Herald and Chris Applegate for two contrasting views.
Chris's contains three very important points:
1. It is stupid to pick the most desperate option when none of the more moderate ones have even been attempted.
2. The high turnout thanks to compulsory voting is entirely cosmetic.
3. Finally, and most importantly, the entire sentiment behind it, to “restore� universal suffrage and re-enfranchise the poor, is nauseatingly moralising and hypocritical. Despite all the hand-wringing about the poor and working-class being disenfranchised, they have failed to realise that it’s the Labour party that has disenfranchised them more than anything else.
As I've said before, fixating on turnout is silly (mainly because it is but a mask - 'cosmetic' as Chris A puts it), but the ippr report does at least claim to concentrate on the inequality of turnout, which should be more relevant, although judging from the conclusions, I'm sceptical as to how much more interesting. We shall see. Shortly.
Posted by pauldavies on May 02, 2006
