Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Never mind Eddie Izzard and Stephen Fry: Where are the politicians?

Reading Twitter this morning you get the impression that the Yes2AV campaign is being run by Eddie Izzard, Armando Iannucci and Stephen Fry.

What has happened to the politicians?

Ed Miliband, for instance, has been next to invisible. He has declined to risk his authority as leader by trying to persuade unwilling Labour MPs to support AV. He has only begun to sound impassioned on the subject when the campaign has already been won and lost.

It wasn't always like this. Back in 1975 the European referendum campaign featured major politicians on both sides of the debate.

It wasn't left to Eric Sykes, Anita Harris and Dickie Henderson.

1 comment:

dreamingspire said...

Having been away on business for 2 days, I voted late this evening. AV only in my ward, in a city - no other elections in my ward this year. Signs of a very low turnout in my section of the ward - 80 to 110 year old terraces, mixed community but mostly white. Then to the big pub where many of the bar staff are young graduates of UK origin who wonder whether they will ever have a significant career. Learned that a lot of that age group living here have been very keen to vote in the AV contest.