Are elections like buses? For dual French-British citizens like me, we’ve had the European ones and now, in addition to the UK, the snap French legislative elections mean voting twice more. As a new citizen, trips to the Leeds Novotel to queue up with north-east England’s French people are a thrill for me, but my sons are away all summer and less excited by the faff involved in doing some democracy.
It’s a bad time of year to get young people voting. I’m actually quite impressed that 60% of 18- and 19-year-olds are registered to vote, but I wonder how many will? The youth are busy, guys: recovering from exams and post-exam festivities, then getting the hell away from home, holidaying or working. I wondered briefly whether this influenced the election date decision in the UK, then two seconds contemplating the campaign to date reminded me that the Tories are incapable of that kind of strategic thinking.
