Believe it or not, there is an election on. I word it this way, as apparently, the candidates in my constituency (Canterbury), seem to have decided that it’s not worth campaigning. At least that’s how it feels.
This election is a curious one, as I am actually still undecided who I will vote for. For the first time since I’ve been able to vote in 2001, I’ve not made up my mind who to vote for one week out. So the campaign work of the local candidates could be what decides who I vote for.
Yet, with under a week to to til polling opens all I’ve received are some leaflets. So far those leaflets have been from:
- Lib dems – curiously with a request for a donation to Name Surname…
- Tories – These I won’t vote for…
- Greens
- UKIP – Disappointing choice of paper makes it uncomfortable to wipe your bum with…
- Socialist Party of Great Britain
The astute among you will notice that there is one party who’s leaflet is conspicuous in it’s absence. Labour. Now a labour party leaflet has come through the letter box of my flat. But, it isn’t addressed to me, and as such I shouldn’t read it. It’s addressed to my male house mate.
The idea of personally addressing each leaflet to each registered voter in the building isn’t an inherently poor idea. But, this is 2015. Why then is the leaflet addressed to my house mate and only my house mate? A brief survey of anecdotal evidence via twitter (Yes I appreciate that the plural of anecdote is not evidence), suggests that this isn’t an isolated case. It seems that in 2015 the UK labour party are under the assumption that the head of the house hold is the male name on the Electoral roll. Now ignoring the minor aside that my house mate and I do not constitute a single house hold, it seems surreal that labour are stuck in some 1950’s gender model. What do they do in single gender households?
Labour, I wasn’t likely to vote for you anyway, but you really have thrown away any chance of me voting for you in this election through your inability to realise that it’s 2015, the world has moved on, and to stop being so sexist.
Maybe in the 2020 election ( or the Autumn 2015 is some predictions are correct) you’ll have stepped into the 21st century. But until you do, I’ll take my vote elsewhere.