Sincere Thanks

On Thursday 7th October we had a by-election for the Lancaster City Council. The turnout was awful and we didn't get one in eight voters interested enough to participate in our democracy. I wrote about the result on Saturday 9th October and that should have been an end to it. However I read the letters page in the local paper last Friday (15th) and the victor, who happened to be from the Morecambe Bay Independent Party has thanked a few people including the electorate.

There is nothing wrong with that. If one person votes then there is nothing wrong with thanking them. What irritated me was the use of the word sincerely. Sincere thanks are not deceitful but there was no mention about the low turnout. The result was an affront to democracy. If the winner really is sincere and has genuinely forgotten this then there is a naivity about his views. If he knows this then his sincerity is hollow.

When I went to the count the first person I saw with a huge rosette was from the MBIs. As I was leaving he shook my hand and told me it was nice to see me. He obviously doesn't know me or the blogs that I write but that's what party politicians do. They kiss babies, pat dogs and shake hands and say nice to see you when they should know better.

The MBIs are a party that disown party politics but they are not a unified party and their split in Morecambe Town Council is expensive in political and financial terms. They advertise themselves by asking if the electorate are sick of party politics and then rely on a confusing name to make them think that they are not a party. The worst excesses of party politics are displayed by this party and they get votes for criticising these excesses. As it happens I think this win was based mainly on getting out friends and family to the ballot box.

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