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Originally Posted by ian@huth
The problem is that no party can be in touch with what the electorate want. In many cases the electorate itself doesn't know what it wants.
Turnout in elections is low and the ones that do bother aren't by and large voting for all the policies of the party they select. Many people like some of the policies of one party and some of the policies of the others but you have to select only one candidate which means that you are voting for someone who has policies that you may really not want enacted. Many of the ones that do bother to vote don't even know what the policies of their chosen candidate or party are. They vote one way because they always have done so as their parents and grandparents did.
Some people say things as quoted above such as "They thought we wanted super-casinos. We didn't" but is that really true? Most people probably don't give a hoot whether we have super-casinos or don't. I have seen many market research questionaires which would ask questions along the lines of "do you think we should have ID cards? yes, no or not bothered" The true answer may be none of those options but could be a mixture of them. It could be yes if certain conditions were met but no if they weren't. The results of that survey can then be sensationalised by the press and made to look a completely different picture to what it really is.
In a way the votes on this forum regarding "the cap" and the comments made in the various threads highlight the fact that we can't see the wood for the trees. Voting in them has been far wide of what customers in general think, in my opinion. Comments made have been dominated by people who are against caps. This is mainly because people who are against something that is proposed to be happening will be much more voiciferous and will continue to push their point of view far longer than those who don't mind the caps.
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Very true, and also many people vote on personality too. It has been said that many votes were won by that "nice Mr. Blair". I went to a Polling Station once and only one candidate was there, meeting and greeting people, taking time to chat and answer questions. Whilst most people may have decided by that point who to vote for, he could have picked up a few "don't knows". It gave the impression of the other candidates that they were not that bothered by that stage.