The description of the Conservative victory in the recent Newent by-election to the Forest of Dean District Council as a "landslide" by MP Mark Harper, shows once again that professional politicians seem to live on a different planet to us mere mortals.
To me, the fact that 78 per cent of those who were eligible to vote refused to, or couldn't be bothered to was the 'landslide'.
People in the poorest and most repressed parts of the world in countries such as Iraq and Zimbabwe, who have risked violence of levels almost unconceivable in the UK, including death, in their determination to register their vote for what they believe in, shame us all.
To them it is a precious thing that gives them personal dignity and freedom from the repression of dictators. In this country it appears that we would rather vote en masse for some minor 'celebrity' in a so-called and contrived 'reality show' from the comfort of our own homes.
Such apathy by the people of Newent was also reflected in the Lydney Town Council election, where a 'massive' 23 per cent of the electorate managed to make the effort. Where were the other 77 per cent then? Another landslide?
I truly hope that the new councillors do a good job representing the people who did vote and I do admire them for putting themselves forward; but to those who just sat on their backsides and refused to exercise their democratic right to vote "it's no use amoanin o butties if thee dussent like wot thee be agettin; an I'ul tell tha now, there's gonna be buckutvuls on it very zoon".
Perhaps it's time to follow the Aussies' example and make failing to register a vote against the law (I can almost hear the gnashing of teeth already). – John Belcher, Joyford.