But not in Somerton & Frome
We predicted this when we wrote the editorial for the December edition of The Leveller®. There is a void at the heart of British politics.
This election you will be told was decisive.
It produced a majority for the Conservatives.
It produced a mandate.
None of those statements except in part the latter, are absolutely true.
What did happen was that the Conservatives got more seats than anyone else with a vote of…. 13.9m
However that pales into insignificance (or not as you view it) next to the 15.6m voters (32.7% of the total) who chose not to vote.
Once again the real outcome is a vote of indifference. A vote that could be interpreted as idleness. It could be interpreted as a damnation on the political class. It could be interpreted as a rejection of our electoral system.
But it will have to be interpreted because it is a chasm, a void at the heart of our electoral system.
Against that background and on a cheery note, congratulations to all the candidates who stood for election in Somerton & Frome. There may have only been one winner (David Warburton) but all of you (Adam Boyden, Andrea Dexter, Sean Dromgoole) produced enough debate and engagement to persuade 75.9% of the voters turned out. That’s considerably more than the national average of 67.3%
And that is surely worth celebrating.