PH34R MA POLITICKS
Mar. 11th, 2010 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charameiAn election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. - T. S. Eliot
...hm. Not the most apt quote. More like 'outright war is declared and the foxes slaughter one another to get at just one mangy, non-laying chicken'.
But anyway.
The foxes in today's instance would be the Conservative Party, who know where I live and also possibly what I did last summer. Alas, they are clearly unaware that I am an armchair political scientist with a blog, a tendency to analyse random bits of paper put through my door by political parties, and a desperate need to distract myself today.
They sent me an 'Issues Survey'. It's pretty poor, both in how little it covers (it's one side of A4) and in the way the questions are laid out. So before I send it back, let's go through it! Because political science is fun and socially responsible!
Last time on the Election 2010 Special, I discovered that I'm living in a Tory safe seat and any vote I put in is therefore wasted.
Which means that the Tory candidate who sent out this 'Issues Survey' is more or less guaranteed to end up being my MP. Just keep that in mind as we go.
The page is divided vertically. Half if it is on local issues, a mere quarter is on national issues and the last quarter is a party recruitment drive.
1. What is your overall rating of our local health services?
Checkboxes labelled from one to ten, worst to best. No 'I don't know, I haven't had much interaction with them in the past five years' box. This lack of obvious third options is a continuing trend.
2. How satisfied are you with the following points of our local service?
Seven different services are mentioned, with checkboxes for 'Very unsatisfied', 'Unsatisfied', 'Satisfied' and 'Very Satisfied'. No middle-ground box, no 'Don't Know' box.
I rated my local GP down because the one time I've been in the past five years it was with a pulled tendon in my thigh and they made me climb the stairs, which was a minor accessibility fail for me but a potentially major one for truly disabled people (and bear in mind I was limping visibly and viciously at the time). Other than that... I dunno, there are hospitals, they look pretty enough, I never go in them? There's no space to provide more detailed feedback, either, so if you were really unhappy with a hospital for some reason you'd have no way to express why.
Perhaps more to the point, these questions take up almost a quarter of the page, which looks like a space-filling trick to me. As far as I know, there's nothing particularly wrong with our local health services that would warrant this much focus on them, but there is clearly a desire to avoid talking about national problems.
Question 3 is 'do you want a full public consultation on X local health issue'. Well, of course. I would have liked a full public consultation on Lisbon, too, and did that happen? Did it hell.
4. Are you happy with the services you receive from the Council?
Irrelevant. Just because the MP can sway the Council doesn't mean he should, and he certainly shouldn't be making Council issues a platform for election. Those are for Council elections.
Two actual honest-to-God text entry boxes, rather than checkboxes! My God, I get to give an actual opinion! Why couldn't the entire form be like this?
Oh, yes - because people might give actual opinions instead of easy-to-collate, easy-to-control checkbox answers.
5. What is the one improvement you'd like the Council to make locally?
KNOCK DOWN TESCO'S Fill some of the gorram potholes.
6. What is the most important thing that can be done to aid the regeneration of the High Street and local shopping parades?
KNOCK DOWN TESCO'S!!!
7. Do you think the level of policing locally is adequate to the area's needs?
And we're back to checkboxes again. Still, at least this question provides a 'Don't Know' in addition to 'Yes' and 'No'. Still no way to expand your answers, especially for people voting No.
8. How concerned are you by anti-social behaviour in your area?
Not at all - Moderately - Extremely. Wow, there's no gap at all between Moderate and Extreme, is there?
Still, at least it's given us that 'Not at all' option again.
9. Do you support the Freedom Pass?
With an aging population in the area, I doubt many people will oppose it. (Hell, I don't and I'm nowhere near the relevant age.) 'Don't Know' option is still available. Well done, guys.
Then I get to do more than mindlessly tick boxes again: I get to semi-mindlessly tick them!
10. Rank the following train issues in order of importance to you?
My order: Fares, overcrowding, punctuality, frequency, security, cleanliness, car parking at the station (I don't drive). I can't think of anything they missed that should be on the list, either, except for the usual 'expand and explain' box: parking at the station is in fact terrible and desperately needs fixing. I am well aware of this. However, it's a non-issue for me personally, and that's what they asked.
11. Same again, but for buses. Same order, although in retrospect I should probably have put punctuality higher.
And finally, finally, we get into the sordid business of running the country!
Okay, sure. An MP is meant to stand up for his constituency in Parliament and some of the previous questions will hopefully provide him with important information to fulfil that role. But I don't know of many people who vote on that basis - when people think of voting in a general election, they're thinking of who they want to run the country, not the constituency.
And mysteriously, the questions now become a lot fewer and a lot vaguer. This is no doubt because the Tories have no policies except 'throw mud at Labour and hope it all sticks'.
12. Who do you have more confidence in to run the economy?
Conservative/Labour/LibDem/UKIP/Greens
No 'none of the above' option, so I wrote mine on. Other options that should have been there include 'The International Monetary Fund', 'David Mitchell', and 'Slitheen'.
13. How do you think the next government should fix the public finances?
Raise taxes/cut public spending/bit of both. Interestingly, there's no 'join the Euro' option: not that I'd have ticked it if it was there, but still.
Other missing options: Kill all bankers, public works projects (re-laying the railways to create a high-speed network, thereby creating jobs and catching up with the Chinese and Japanese, would be a good one) and the draft. I am all for the first two. The latter two have been proven to work.
14. Do you think the amount of new housing demanded by central government is...
Too much/too little/about right.
At this point, I gave up and wrote 'Issue too complex' next to the damn' checkboxes. We need the housing. We do not need it in Greater London. There are other cities in this country that desperately need economic stimulation. Create houses and jobs in some of those and stop being so London-centric, Whitehall. Jesus.
15. Do you think it is acceptable to use Green Belt land for new housing?
Hey, the 'Don't Know' box is back! Wahey!
And that's it. The whole of national issues in this country, summed up in four checkbox questions. Yeah.
There are two more questions. They're about my voting habits, so please excuse me if I don't tell my answers to the world. Two interesting things: neither question has the Green party on it, despite our having a local branch. 'How would you vote if the election was today' has an Other box, but 'How did you vote last time' doesn't even have that.
Secondly, and even more interestingly: there is a green box around the party recruitment stuff and the two questions on voting are contained within it. The production quality of this leaflet looks too high for it to be a mistake, so I'm going to assume that it's an attempt to subliminally sway me into associating my voting record with the Conservative party. In addition, this box puts those questions thematically in the same part of the form as the Data Protection Act opt-out checkbox, suggesting an intention to keep my voting record on file whether or not I join the party. Naturally, I checked the box.
There are some good things about the form: it's certainly good to know that politicians are aware of he parking problems in the station carpark. Overall, though, I'd have appreciated a lot more discussion of national issues and certainly a better chance to express what those checkboxes meant. Not to mention less filler and less sneaky attempts to subliminally message me.
The best thing about it is that he's trying, I suppose. I have received nothing from the LibDems or Labour yet. Nothing. Of course, the election hasn't officially been called, and there's something to be said for not jumping the gun as well, but hey - I have a form!
And now I'm going to send it back and it'll probably be binned because I scribbled on it where my opinion didn't condense into a checkbox, which happens quite a lot. Oh well - that's democracy for you.
Those were my thoughts onyaoi Issues of the Day as defined by the Conservative Party. Now to go and find something else to do so I don't end up stewing all day.
ETA: OH ONE MORE THING. I initially thought this survey was anonymous, but it's not - it's printed on the back of the form letter they wrote to get people to fill it in. The form letter with my name and address on. If I hadn't checked the Data Protection Act box already, I would now.
...hm. Not the most apt quote. More like 'outright war is declared and the foxes slaughter one another to get at just one mangy, non-laying chicken'.
But anyway.
The foxes in today's instance would be the Conservative Party, who know where I live and also possibly what I did last summer. Alas, they are clearly unaware that I am an armchair political scientist with a blog, a tendency to analyse random bits of paper put through my door by political parties, and a desperate need to distract myself today.
They sent me an 'Issues Survey'. It's pretty poor, both in how little it covers (it's one side of A4) and in the way the questions are laid out. So before I send it back, let's go through it! Because political science is fun and socially responsible!
Last time on the Election 2010 Special, I discovered that I'm living in a Tory safe seat and any vote I put in is therefore wasted.
Which means that the Tory candidate who sent out this 'Issues Survey' is more or less guaranteed to end up being my MP. Just keep that in mind as we go.
The page is divided vertically. Half if it is on local issues, a mere quarter is on national issues and the last quarter is a party recruitment drive.
1. What is your overall rating of our local health services?
Checkboxes labelled from one to ten, worst to best. No 'I don't know, I haven't had much interaction with them in the past five years' box. This lack of obvious third options is a continuing trend.
2. How satisfied are you with the following points of our local service?
Seven different services are mentioned, with checkboxes for 'Very unsatisfied', 'Unsatisfied', 'Satisfied' and 'Very Satisfied'. No middle-ground box, no 'Don't Know' box.
I rated my local GP down because the one time I've been in the past five years it was with a pulled tendon in my thigh and they made me climb the stairs, which was a minor accessibility fail for me but a potentially major one for truly disabled people (and bear in mind I was limping visibly and viciously at the time). Other than that... I dunno, there are hospitals, they look pretty enough, I never go in them? There's no space to provide more detailed feedback, either, so if you were really unhappy with a hospital for some reason you'd have no way to express why.
Perhaps more to the point, these questions take up almost a quarter of the page, which looks like a space-filling trick to me. As far as I know, there's nothing particularly wrong with our local health services that would warrant this much focus on them, but there is clearly a desire to avoid talking about national problems.
Question 3 is 'do you want a full public consultation on X local health issue'. Well, of course. I would have liked a full public consultation on Lisbon, too, and did that happen? Did it hell.
4. Are you happy with the services you receive from the Council?
Irrelevant. Just because the MP can sway the Council doesn't mean he should, and he certainly shouldn't be making Council issues a platform for election. Those are for Council elections.
Two actual honest-to-God text entry boxes, rather than checkboxes! My God, I get to give an actual opinion! Why couldn't the entire form be like this?
Oh, yes - because people might give actual opinions instead of easy-to-collate, easy-to-control checkbox answers.
5. What is the one improvement you'd like the Council to make locally?
6. What is the most important thing that can be done to aid the regeneration of the High Street and local shopping parades?
KNOCK DOWN TESCO'S!!!
- Smaller shops just can't compete.
- Actually, even Marks & Spencer ran away.
- It's a flaming eyesore.
- It was never wanted anyway. People voted to keep the multi-storey carpark or get a cinema or something, and instead they knocked down the carpark and built that monstrosity.
7. Do you think the level of policing locally is adequate to the area's needs?
And we're back to checkboxes again. Still, at least this question provides a 'Don't Know' in addition to 'Yes' and 'No'. Still no way to expand your answers, especially for people voting No.
8. How concerned are you by anti-social behaviour in your area?
Not at all - Moderately - Extremely. Wow, there's no gap at all between Moderate and Extreme, is there?
Still, at least it's given us that 'Not at all' option again.
9. Do you support the Freedom Pass?
With an aging population in the area, I doubt many people will oppose it. (Hell, I don't and I'm nowhere near the relevant age.) 'Don't Know' option is still available. Well done, guys.
Then I get to do more than mindlessly tick boxes again: I get to semi-mindlessly tick them!
10. Rank the following train issues in order of importance to you?
My order: Fares, overcrowding, punctuality, frequency, security, cleanliness, car parking at the station (I don't drive). I can't think of anything they missed that should be on the list, either, except for the usual 'expand and explain' box: parking at the station is in fact terrible and desperately needs fixing. I am well aware of this. However, it's a non-issue for me personally, and that's what they asked.
11. Same again, but for buses. Same order, although in retrospect I should probably have put punctuality higher.
And finally, finally, we get into the sordid business of running the country!
Okay, sure. An MP is meant to stand up for his constituency in Parliament and some of the previous questions will hopefully provide him with important information to fulfil that role. But I don't know of many people who vote on that basis - when people think of voting in a general election, they're thinking of who they want to run the country, not the constituency.
And mysteriously, the questions now become a lot fewer and a lot vaguer. This is no doubt because the Tories have no policies except 'throw mud at Labour and hope it all sticks'.
12. Who do you have more confidence in to run the economy?
Conservative/Labour/LibDem/UKIP/Greens
No 'none of the above' option, so I wrote mine on. Other options that should have been there include 'The International Monetary Fund', 'David Mitchell', and 'Slitheen'.
13. How do you think the next government should fix the public finances?
Raise taxes/cut public spending/bit of both. Interestingly, there's no 'join the Euro' option: not that I'd have ticked it if it was there, but still.
Other missing options: Kill all bankers, public works projects (re-laying the railways to create a high-speed network, thereby creating jobs and catching up with the Chinese and Japanese, would be a good one) and the draft. I am all for the first two. The latter two have been proven to work.
14. Do you think the amount of new housing demanded by central government is...
Too much/too little/about right.
At this point, I gave up and wrote 'Issue too complex' next to the damn' checkboxes. We need the housing. We do not need it in Greater London. There are other cities in this country that desperately need economic stimulation. Create houses and jobs in some of those and stop being so London-centric, Whitehall. Jesus.
15. Do you think it is acceptable to use Green Belt land for new housing?
Hey, the 'Don't Know' box is back! Wahey!
And that's it. The whole of national issues in this country, summed up in four checkbox questions. Yeah.
There are two more questions. They're about my voting habits, so please excuse me if I don't tell my answers to the world. Two interesting things: neither question has the Green party on it, despite our having a local branch. 'How would you vote if the election was today' has an Other box, but 'How did you vote last time' doesn't even have that.
Secondly, and even more interestingly: there is a green box around the party recruitment stuff and the two questions on voting are contained within it. The production quality of this leaflet looks too high for it to be a mistake, so I'm going to assume that it's an attempt to subliminally sway me into associating my voting record with the Conservative party. In addition, this box puts those questions thematically in the same part of the form as the Data Protection Act opt-out checkbox, suggesting an intention to keep my voting record on file whether or not I join the party. Naturally, I checked the box.
There are some good things about the form: it's certainly good to know that politicians are aware of he parking problems in the station carpark. Overall, though, I'd have appreciated a lot more discussion of national issues and certainly a better chance to express what those checkboxes meant. Not to mention less filler and less sneaky attempts to subliminally message me.
The best thing about it is that he's trying, I suppose. I have received nothing from the LibDems or Labour yet. Nothing. Of course, the election hasn't officially been called, and there's something to be said for not jumping the gun as well, but hey - I have a form!
And now I'm going to send it back and it'll probably be binned because I scribbled on it where my opinion didn't condense into a checkbox, which happens quite a lot. Oh well - that's democracy for you.
Those were my thoughts on
ETA: OH ONE MORE THING. I initially thought this survey was anonymous, but it's not - it's printed on the back of the form letter they wrote to get people to fill it in. The form letter with my name and address on. If I hadn't checked the Data Protection Act box already, I would now.