Friday, September 19, 2014

A tarnished vote

A good friend of mine summed up very nicely what has happend.

"The game was muddied over the last couple of weeks so that ultimately I don’t think many people (apart from the resolute yes or no people) knew really what they were voting for … hence a reversion by many (in my opinion) to traditional party political values.  ‘Job done’ by the Westminster trio + Brown!

The white paper was in circulation for many months and allowed scrutiny on every level by both proponents and opponents of independence.  Better Together could choose their targets (as it was never going to be a perfect manifesto with all the answers), and batter away at it.  The late intervention and “Vow” was never given that same level of scrutiny – it came after purdah, and there weren’t actually any tangible elements to it!

In this sense, while democracy may have been a winner on many levels (85% voter turnout etc), it feels rather tarnished that such an intervention could have been such an apparently crucial game-changer."

I think my friend has got it 100% right.  Mind you, he is my accountant so I'm rather pleased his sums add up.

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