D Day Minus One

Yeah, I know, I know.

Describing the day before the General Election as D Day Minus One is a bit of a cliché, but there we go.

But it can’t be any worse than the Brentwood Gazette’s “Poll Puts Pickles On Top” routine.

Unless it’s practically any headline put out by the Sunday Sport*.

But I’m digressing, aren’t I … ?

But one thing I will say is that, after seeing that headline, I felt I should email the Gazette.

Again … !

If nothing else, that next time I see Councillor Chilvers, I’d not be able to look her in the face …

But here’s what I wrote, this time …

Dear Sir,

I saw the headline piece, in this week’s Brentwood Gazette and have to admit that, somehow, I’m none to surprised that Eric Pickles is coming out ahead.

After all, as the history of Brentwood Ongar for the last few decades shows us, this has been a frustratingly safe Tory seat for years.

Much to the frustration of those of us voters who value a change, every so often.

To the point where, after seeing a site called the Voter Power Index mentioned on Monday’s edition of Channel 4’s Despatches, I found out that everyone in Brentwood’s actual vote — calculated by our town’s size and voting history — is actually worth 0.053 votes.

Now, I’m not planning to say — here and now — how I’m planning to my 1/20th of a vote.

But I do know that the Liberal Democrat’s have, on several occasions, said that the First-Past-The-Post voting system we have in the UK needs seriously altering.

And I’m thinking that I agree.

Yours

Paul Downie.

PS. About my letter of a couple of weeks ago: the one about Essex Library computer systems? I’ve got to ask, did I forget to put my name on it? I’ve got to admit, it’s nice to see my letter in print, but …

And I’ll happily admit, that site I mentioned — the Voter Power Index — is …

Interesting …

Definitely interesting …

Feel free to go have a look.

Personally?

I think I might just go Liberal-Democrat.

Their idea on just plain out reforming the electoral system does have appeal.

When you consider that — here in Brentwood and Ongar — we, each of us, have 1/20th of a vote …

•••••

At any rate, one thing I did do is help Dr Kevin out with his laptop.

He usually uses an O2 dongle to connect to the internet: and unfortunately, the bandwidth on that isn’t exactly generous …

So I think we managed to come with a fairly reasonable compromise that didn’t chew up anyone’s bandwidth.

I did a fresh install of Ubuntu for him.

Only this was of Ubuntu 10•04, Lucid Lynx.

And I’ve got to admit, I’m mildly impressed.

Even though the look and feel’s a bit familiar …

•••••

* I still personally maintain that the Sunday Sport’s “My Lover Was A Dalek” piece, many years ago, was a prime example of investigative journalism. What sort of investigative journalism, I’d rather not say …