A CRESCENDO OF INDIFFERENCE ?..

Today`s the day the parishioners here in Dibley have been waiting for, as the casual vacancy for a seat on the Parish Council will today be filled.   Days of frantic canvassing and leaflet dropping have come to an end as, in the words of one of the candidates, "it`s now in the hands of the people."   

Now, the people I feel most sorry for in all this are the staff at the village hall polling station.  When I got up this morning, it was still pitch dark, bitingly cold with a severe frost and rumblings of snow on the way.   But the polling station had already been open since 7.00am and will remain so until, 15 hours later, it will finally close at 10.00pm tonight.   After that they will then have to count the ballot papers and eventually one of the three candidates will emerge victorious.  Ah, the candidates.   The good, the bad and the ugly - I know which I prefer. 

Now I know the polling staff get paid for their time but it`s still a long, tiresome, boring day especially as an influx of keen voters is the last thing they will expect, given that there are only about 2,000 registered voters in the parish and even at an optimistic turnout of 10%, that means the polling staff will only have about 200 visitors in the 15 hours.  

So it could all add up to an avoidable crescendo of indifference, which is a bit sad really, especially as it`s costing about £5,000 that the Parish Council doesn`t have.  But the saddest thing of all is that the outcome between the good, the bad and the ugly might well be determined by the ruthless efficiency of a political party machine.   Which really has no place in a Parish Council by-election, where democracy is supposed to be closer to the real people than anywhere else.