h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Ormy. Great column as usual just one minor point, the local elections you mentioned are only for parts of England. The Scottish local elections don't take place until next year, I don't know when Wales and Northern Ireland have their elections.

Funny thing about Le Pen getting in to second place was this: all the British news programs were saying how much of a shock it was that Le Pen got it. But if they voted for him, it's not much of a shock really, is it? I realise that there's a hole in his argument but I can't really be bothered to point it out to him; Le Pen got in because of the laziness of voters.

Fair point, Ardzil: it would have been more accurate for me (and most of the media) to talk about 'English local elections.' Right now, however, I'm a pretty happy voter because I've just heard that the who was standing for the BNP in Bradford looks to have finished a poor third!

Roadkill: I'm not sure that I quite understand your argument. Yes, of course, once you know that lots of people voted for Le Pen, it's not surprising that he did well in the election. Certainly, too, voter apathy helped Le Pen. But the opinion polls gave no warning that he might come second. He'd never done that well before. Therefore, it was a major shock result. Simple, surely?

G.W. Bush also finished in second place!
Ormy, you can read a few pages of Stupid White Men on Amazon's U.S. web site. The book is also on sale.

Yeah I suppose true. I forgot to put the bit about it being my friend's argument, hence the bit at the end saying "There's a hole in this argument but I can't be bothered to point it out to him". This was obviously the hole.