Columnist Ross Clark throws a stick but it's really a boomerang
Express columnist Ross Clark warns that Labour are seeking to ‘manipulate voting rules’ to fudge the result of the EU referendum (May 26, p12). He accuses the party of ‘blatant gerrymandering’ in calling for the vote to be open to 16 and 17-year-olds.
Mr Clark even decides to show off a bit with some trivia about the provenance of the term:
“What they are doing is a grubby piece of gerrymandering – named after a 19th-century governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, who redrew electoral boundaries in such a way as to maximise his chances of winning.”
This certainly is a grubby move. But isn’t there another contemporary example that better suits the charge of gerrymandering?
Perhaps the scheme to redraw electoral boundaries in such a way as to maximise their chances of winning by the current Conservative government..?
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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20 Responses to “Who’s really ‘gerrymandering’? Express attack on Labour backfires”
Selohesra
perhaps rather than an age limit we could adopt a tax threshold so that you only vote if you pay say > £10K income tax in the previous year – that way mature 16 year olds who go out and get a job can vote and those who chose to stay at home on the x-box don’t
Dark_Heart_of_Toryland
Or perhaps we could adopt an income limit (linked to to a capital wealth limit), so that you only get to vote if your income is no more than the national average wage. This would stop greedy, selfish, self-centred b*stards from voting in right-wing governments which will screw up the economy for the rest of us.
Dark_Heart_of_Toryland
So you think that the way to repair the current broken voting system is to make it even less democratic? And you have the nerve to call anybody else a pillock? Remember the Tories were all in favour of keeping FPTP. Now they want to gerrymander it in their own favour.
Mat Bob Jeffery
Yeah – If it wasn’t obvious in my initial post, I’m closer to this view Selohesra. A person’s wage (or lack of) should not exclude them from being able to vote.
Patrick Nelson
So basically all sorts of people should be deprived of the vote because they don’t have much money? Its a bit like in the old days when only landowners had a vote.