375.
Isn't it great living in a democracy with an electorate of over 44 million souls. Isn't it wonderful living in a country in which the electoral system is so unbalanced that the result of this election will turn on the votes of the less than 1 million voters who happen to live in marginal seats. If it hadn't been for the blanket television coverage of the election, you would be hard pressed to notice that anything was happening in this constituency. For well over four weeks the politician and pundits have been bombarding us with promises, lies and analyses of these promises and lies. We have been subjected to opinion polls and computer graphics showing us how the numbers translate into political power. The leaders of the political parties have been promising heaven and earth and slagging their opponents off at every opportunity. Whole forests have been felled to make the paper for their pamphlets, posters and pledge cards. This is democracy, they tell us. Everyone has a voice, and all votes are equal. That is just another blatant lie, because the two main political parties steadfastly refuse to countenance the introduction of proportional representation. They refuse because they know that the present system ensures their continued dominance. Recently I witnessed a Labour MP for a Liverpool constituency actually defend the system against all reason. Her constituency has an electorate of over 70,000. At the last election, less than 25,000 people in her constituency bothered to vote, of which she obtained 70%. She obtained little more than 18,000 votes out of a possible total of 70,000, yet she had the audacity to state on national television that she represented all of the people, and that the constituency link is important and must be maintained - even at the expense of democratic fairness. One analyst told us that under the present system, the Conservatives would have to win 10% more votes than Labour to be able to form the next government. In effect, Labour can have over one million fewer votes than the Tories, and still have a parliamentary majority, while the Liberal Democrats can obtain the same number of votes as the Tories and still come a distant third. When they say that we live in a democracy, and they claim that Britain is the Mother of Democracy, they are mouthing meaningless platitudes. How can it be a democracy when no-one is campaigning in non-marginal constituencies? I have not been canvassed once. Not one single representative from any party has come to me and tried to persuade me to support their candidate. Not one. I visited three polling stations today, and there were no representatives from any party to be seen at any of them. They give the impression that they just don't care. And to be honest, who can really blame them? The way the system works means that they don't have to care about any but the marginal constituencies. If you don't live in a marginal, then you don't matter. No-one will come to you, no-one will seek to persuade you. A few days ago I said that I would give my vote to the first representative from either the SNP, LibDems, Greens or SSP to ask me for it. They did not rise to the challenge. Only Liam asked me. He has taken an interest in the election, and knows who he wants elected. He is the future, so I told him that he could have my vote, and that he could come with me to the polling station, mark the cross and put the paper in the ballot box. I would let him vote for whatever candidate he wanted. He voted SNP. I would have spoiled my paper.