What No Vote?

No surprises this morning following yesterday's general election in the UK with Tony Blair still in the driving seat, trying desperately to move away from the Iraq issue where he and President Bush went on a joyride looking for a downtown bar called WMD. They got lost on the way and managed to do a hit-and-run on a vagrant locally known as the Saddistic Hussy, taking out a few innocent civilians in the process. Most of the locals are reported to be glad to be free of this neighbourhood scourge, but this came at a price as B&B also caused a fair amount of collateral damage on their rampage. Finding plenty of accomodating petrol stations nearby, their cruise continues.

Blair is now doing his best as a politician to squirm away from these recent controversial international issues to re-focus on domestic ones such as health, employment, education etc - everything a government usually does to try and avert the public's attention from its international activities to its home affairs. An attempt to reassure the public that the government is thinking about the state of the nation as opposed to merely lavishing its attention and resources on far-flung shores at the neglect of home issues.

This comes as a postscript to the election win as Labour try to regroup following a victorious but bruising campaign in which they have seen their majority representation drastically reduced. Blair has survived for a third term in office but the contentious Iraq War has obviously hurt his party's political power as the voting shows. It can only be hoped that he fulfills his reconciliatory promises regarding domestic issues as there are many which need addressing. Then again, he's a politician so perhaps Elvis will turn up in a UFO piloted by a pair of Ewoks before anything actually happens.

As it is, I didn't vote yesterday - not merely out of apathy and disillusionment, but the more important factors of not having been sent ballot papers and disappearing off the electoral roll. I was registered to vote before, so must have fallen through the system and am now invisible in a way. However, my latest payslip tells me that the tax office can most definitely still see me.