After a two day suspension in the wake of the terrible events in
Manchester, the parties have agreed to resume campaigning gradually over the next couple of days.
There will be no televised debates with Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn, and the Prime Minister has stayed as far away as possible from ordinary voters, with choreographed and tightly controlled appearances in front of party activists dominating her schedule. On the few occasions she has moved out of that comfort zone, the results have been far from impressive.
Apart from incessant parroting of "strong and stable" and "the best possible deal" from the Tories, Brexit - by far the most important issue facing the UK - has been the elephant in the room throughout the campaign.
In Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Plaid has worked its socks off to get its message out; Labour briefly swept through this part of the constituency and will not be back for another five years. Almost nothing has been seen or heard from the other parties, and it seems that so far few of us have received any communication from them.
Anecdotally, things are no different in other constituencies.
Postal votes go out today, and by the beginning of next week a
significant proportion of the electorate will have cast their votes
against a backdrop of soldiers carrying automatic weapons in public places and largely silent politicians.
A snap election punctuated by a major terrorist incident, control freakery, an overwhelmingly right wing press, a highly unrepresentative voting system, poorly organised political parties and the deliberate dumbing down of politics by the Tories above all add up to an exercise in democracy which would not look out of place in a banana republic.
3 comments:
As far as i am concerned Carmarthen East & Dinefwr is a one party state . Met Jonathan , had the leaflets , seen the banners . The rest ???? Lib Dem on holiday canvassing in Spain , Labour drawing up plans & Neil dreaming of returning to London because those nasty Welsh don't like him !
I think that's a fair precis of how this election is playing out. Not one candidate or canvassing team to our door yet though we've had the leaflets via Royal Mail from Labour, Plaid, Lib Dem and UKIP. The fifth member of the quintet we have on offer in Neath are the Conservatives. I am wondering if, just like the recent local elections, they are just not going to bother with either leaflets or knocking doors. This seems to be the tactic nowadays, deliberate disengagement or you could say damage limitation. You are seemingly having the same experience down West. Is this because their lead in the polls is deemed unassailable? With the improvement in Labour polling the last couple of weeks, just imagine what might have been if Corbyn hadn't had to fight a civil war since the Autumn of 2015 when he was first elected. I'm actually picking up around here people saying they are holding their noses and voting for Ms Christina Rees because they'd be hoping to see Corbyn get in. Somewhat ironic when so many of those in Welsh Labour aligned themselves with Oily Owen just nine months ago because they thought Jeremy Corbyn was a disaster. The times they are a'changing.
The tale I have is of Carmarthen East. Whither David Darkin? Does he exist or was he dreamt up by Erich von Däniken? Neil Hamilton seems to have bravely decided to save the people of Mid and West Wales from the iron fist of Gethin James, while the Liberal Democrats are as rare as hens' teeth. That leaves a sprightly forest of green for Jonathan Edwards and the odd sad sign in the Amman Valley imploring someone - anyone - to vote Labour.
As for Harvard Hughes, if nothing else he has added incalculably to the gaiety of nations by suggesting he will zoom into Westminster as voters shun Plaid.
It's the fresh air down here. It gets to those city types.
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