Rob the Gob

Here’s an interesting little site, courtesy of Stephen Fry on Twitter: http://votematch.co.uk

We all face a huge problem with political prejudice, not all of it our own, and I am no exception. Everyone carries around with them a little veil that covers their eyes and ears and subtly changes the information around them so that it appears to be in accordance with their expectations. With class loyalties, family traditions, and the pressure to conform with, whatever social group currently surrounds you, all coupled to the lack of any real social mobility, it’s a wonder that anyone ever manages to change their minds at all. Still, it gets worse. The information we receive upon which we are supposed to make these judgements is filtered, re-interpreted and spun by the media that presents information only in accordance with whatever agenda dominates the particular publication. Sometimes, such as in the case of European regulation, the ‘news’ reported is just absolute lies designed to press an agenda (phantom banana and cucumber straightness regulations spring to mind). Further, any achievement any government or institution makes are hardly ever reported despite all their efforts to the contrary, because good news sells less papers / grabs less viewers / attracts fewer subscribers than bad. Add to that the fact that governments themselves try to ‘spin’ the information they release, cover up more than is ever discovered by the journalists, make up statistics and information seemingly at will, and try to make moral decisions conform to the desires of lobby groups and business, and you might just get an idea of how unlikely it is that anything inside your head has any direct referent in the ‘facts’. Indeed, you might well be forgiven for thinking that there aren’t any facts at all, and that it’s all the same no matter who you vote for, because it’s just spin all the way down.

I’ve commented before on my opinions on the new generations of career politicians. It really is almost impossible to believe that it’s not all just bluff and rubbish, an abstract game of words and money. News reports focus on moral issues and sell better when their subjects are highly emotive – often beyond reason – all the time behaving as if it’s their duty to do this. My own relationship with The News was changed fundamentally by ‘The Day Today’ and ‘Brass Eye’ (if you haven’t seen them, look them up now rather than reading the rest of this – it’s a better use of your time), and I thought this might wake us all up. As always, though, we quickly forget, and a similar function is now being performed by Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe (likewise, if you haven’t seen them, look them up now rather than reading the rest of this – it’s also a better use of your time), albeit in a rather more direct manner. The recent ‘Expenses’ scandal is a case in point. Obsessive media attention on this issue has reached such a height that it’s even produced this bizarre load of cobblers from New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/05/science-tells-us-the-mps-must.html Ultimately, when Mervyn King gets to invent £125 Bn when he ‘thinks it’s necessary’ by simply ‘assuming it’s there’, some Tory idiot getting the public to pay to have the hedge around his helipad clipped hardly seems important (incidentally, I was told by a barman in my local that I am not allowed to spend even a mere £5 that I suggested we just ‘assumed was there’). Noteworthy, certainly, but the public are only so angry about it because, unlike MP’s, most of us plebs don’t have expense accounts to abuse. Did we really think that they didn’t take advantage of their expense accounts? I’m only shocked that someone didn’t try and bill us for hookers. The most reasoned voice I’ve heard on this, in fact, is Stephen Fry himself (despite how much those of you who follow him on Twitter know he regrets saying anything at all) – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8045869.stm, although I would like to point out that, if you’re an MP, as opposed to a journalist or entertainer, you surely must expect that the public would spit like a home-made incendiary if they ever found out charge them for the horse manure you put on your roses or to clean your moat (MOAT?), so you might be less cheeky. The real problem is not the hypocrisy of journalists but the unrealistic expectations both they and the MP’s themselves instil in the public consciousness by claiming that politicians are not just political leaders but moral leaders too.

And what was that he mentioned there? Ah yes, that brings me back to…

Votematch can’t get round all of this, but it cuts through some of the higher-impacted excrement. Those who take a very keen interest in politics and scrutinise the policies are unlikely to be overly surprised by the results, but almost everyone will find out something they weren’t aware of previously. I found out about an independent I hadn’t even known was running in my area. By forcing people to consider the individual issues rather than party loyalties, it lets you see which of the policies you agree/disagree with each party on, and consequently which might be actually be pursued if you vote for them. And fundamentally, at the core, it is these policies that we use to shape our world. Of course, it cannot prevent political prejudice from re-asserting itself long before you reach that polling booth. It can only increase the chances that you realise just what types of prejudice are making that mark upon the paper.