Elections

This is a conversation between two students: Hans is a foreigner and Harry is English.

Hans: Harry, what’s all this election talk? Do you think there’ll be an election?

Harry: Yes, I do. The present government has only about a year to run.

Hans: Well, why not wait until the end of the term?

Harry: Ah, there’s such a thing as making use of the tide when it’s flowing for you; or

striking while the iron’s hot. Naturally, a government in power wants to hold

a general election at what seems the most favourable moment for itself.

Hans: And is this a favourable moment, do you think?

Harry: Well, it may be.

Hans: I heard someone say that your nation is almost equally divided between

Conservatives and Labourists. Is that so?

Harry: That’s about right. Almost fifty-fifty. But it’s three or four per cent – called

‘floating voters’ – who decide the matter.

Hans: Aren’t they attached to either side?

Harry: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Some are quite open-minded, and can be

persuaded by facts or argument. And some are swayed by their emotion at the time.

Hans: I see. So what each party must do is to make a powerful attack on these floating

voters.

Harry: Yes, they do that by public speeches and by canvassers going round to interview

people in their homes.

Hans: Do you think these speeches have much effect?

Harry: No, I don’t. Political meetings aren’t very well attended, nowadays. There’s

a kind of distrust of political speeches and promises! And those who go are

those who don’t need to.

Hans: People who are going to vote for the party in any event? How about television?

Wouldn’t that be useful?

Harry: Very. I think, once the parties have developed a striking and imaginative technique

for televising politics, it’s going to be very effective.

Hans: Can you give me some idea of how the election works? The method, you might say.

The ‘know –how’.

Harry: Well, the Queen has to agree to the dissolution of the present Parliament, and then

a proclamation has to be posted up on the hoardings about the election.

Hans: Hoardings? What are those?

Harry: Those are wooden stands in public spaces where big advertisement posters are

put up.

Hans: Oh, yes. I’ve seen them. Some of them are very clever, you know, very cunning.

If they aren’t art – they’re artful.

Harry: Well, after the speeches, comes the poll. Polling-day is a voting day when the

electors go to the polls. Polling booths or stations are set up in several parts of

each political constituency or division.

Hans: Is the voting secret?

Harry: Absolutely. You are only known to the clerks by your number on the electoral roll.

No one sees you marking your voting paper. Then you drop it into the box – the

ballot-box.

Hans: What happens after that? Who counts the votes?

Harry: The sealed boxes are taken to the Town Hall, where they are counted by officials

under strict supervision.

Hans: And when the votes are counted, what’s then?

Harry: The Mayor or Lord Mayor reads out the returns to the waiting crowds.

Hans: Then the newly-elected members go and sit in the House of Commons?

Harry: After they’ve taken the oath of allegiance – of loyalty.

Hans: Then the majority party forms a government?

Harry: Yes – the Queen sends for the leader of the majority party, and asks him to form

a government. The leader – that’s the new Prime Minister – chooses his own

Ministers. Now that’s enough of that. I hope you’ve understood it all!

Canvassing

This is the activity that occupies most of the time of local party workers during the election campaign. Canvassers go from door to door, calling on as many houses as possible and asking people how they intend to vote. They rarely make an attempt to change people’s minds, but if a voter is identified as ‘undecided’, the party candidate might later attempt to pay a visit.

The main purpose of canvassing seems to be so that, on election day, transport can be offered, if needed, to those who claim to be supporters. (This is the only form of material help that parties are allowed to offer voters.) They stand outside polling stations and record whether their supporters have voted. If it looks as if these people are not going to bother to vote, party workers might call on them to remind them to do so.

QUESTIONS:

1. How did the system of election evolve and develop?

2. How does the electoral system work nowadays?

3. What methods of political campaigning are used? Is there much public interest in elections?

4. How are elections organized? What happens on the polling day and night after the polls?

5. In what cases are by-elections held?

6. What is canvassing?