Now I’m getting really pissed off. A few months ago I submitted a response via STAND to the government’s consultation exercise on “entitlement” cards. I said they were a bad idea and I wanted none of it – although I probably made it a bit more eloquent than that.
Now I’m not the most involved person in the political process – in fact despite my best intentions I could probably be described as apathetic. Sure, I get wound up enough to shout at politicians when they’re being Paxmanned on Newsnight, but seldom do I get wound up enough about something to start writing to my MP, even assuming he’d take a blind bit of notice (I assume that as he’s a junior minister at the Home Office, his decisions are made for him by the Whips Office and I’m as likely to change his mind by farting a protest song outside the Palace of Westminster as I am by writing.)
However, despite the fact that I’ve a million and one other things to do while Mr Blunkett whittles our freedoms and civil liberties away bit by bit, I clicked across to the STAND website and struck my blow for democracy. And then I sat back, a warm self-righteous glow inside, believing that I’d done something that might – just – influence the due process a little.
It would appear that I was wrong. Mine and the other 5,028 responses received through STAND has been lumped into one – and respondents are two-to-one in favour. I find that figure deeply suspicious – given how apathetic as a nation we’ve become, I’m struggling to envisage a situation where the Great British Public are so enthused by the whole idea that we suddenly rush to the post boxes in support. Precious few of us have rushed to the post box in protest – so how many of those 2-to-1 in favour are those who stand to gain by this – Capita, EDS, Siemens, you get the picture? And rather than be one of the 5,029 of us who did feel strongly enough about this to do something about it, I now find myself as 1/5,029th of a single opinion.
It’s bad enough that it takes organisations like STAND to put this sort of exercise into effect in the first place. The apathetic and half-arsed approach of Government to the possibilities that are opened by egovernment is bad enough – for god’s sake, it’s 2003 and there are still MPs who don’t have email – but this just shows a level of contempt for alternative opinions that seems to be a consistent theme of the way this government works. Like I say, I’m pissed off.
