Madam, – With the current controversy over MPs’ expenses in the UK, our political leaders now have the perfect strategy available to them for winning the forthcoming elections.
Why don’t they declare that all TDs, European Parliament runners and councillors will make their expenses available to independent audit so as to unequivocally demonstrate their utmost honesty and integrity?
I await developments with interest. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Who can forget Fianna Fáil’s election slogan from a few years back: “A lot done, more to do”? I would like to offer the Soldiers of Destiny my updated version, for the next general election: “A lot done, a lot to undo.” – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As polling day draws near, it is interesting to note that no research has been commissioned or carried out on the subject of apathy. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Vincent Browne (Opinion, May 13th) argues that “there is no point at all in voting on June 5th”. I disagree – and I would argue that Mr Browne’s contention is based on a misreading of the role played in elections (and political participation) by his own profession.
Mr Browne states, “The elections are about nothing at all, No issues, no plans, not even a promise.” In fact, all political parties have offered policy proposals (if in opposition) or actions (if in Government) between which voters are being invited to choose. That is what democracy is about.
Unfortunately, public perceptions of politics are largely shaped and filtered through the media – and the media tends to pay scant attention to issues, preferring to focus on personalities.
Tasc – the think-tank for action on social change – carried out a substantial study of print media coverage of the 2004 European elections, and found that just over 11 per cent of articles were primarily concerned with an issue of direct relevance in either a European, national or local context. Surprisingly, given that the campaign was for the European elections, an even smaller proportion – less than 6 per cent – dealt mainly with a European issue.
The bulk of coverage focused on the “beauty contest” or “gladiatorial” aspects of the election: slightly more than one-third of articles dealt with either party and/or candidate canvassing or campaigning, while a quarter of the campaign coverage was primarily concerned with some aspect of interparty or inter-candidate rivalry or criticism.
Thus Mr Browne’s contention that “There are issues relevant to the European Parliament but, so far, I have not heard anybody even mention them” might perhaps be more correctly phrased as “so far, I have seen little coverage of them in the media”.
Your readers may be interested to know that, as part of the democracy pillar of our work programme, Tasc is currently involved with two online voting tools (at www.tascdemocracy.ie) designed to make politics more relevant to voters and to encourage political participation. Candidatewatch Ireland is an online forum through which voters can ask questions to which candidates respond online, while Votematch Europe is a voter preference tool enabling voters to match their own views with those of European political groupings. – Yours, etc,