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

Saw your name in the fuel forum - just had to say: because of the way people voted in Sept. 1997 - I got a permanent job! and a new house

Guilty secret time. I spend too much of my free time trying to persuade people to vote (specifically for their local MP, rather than the guy they threw out last time). The addition to my name is only for the duration of the virtual elections, while h2g2 is full of people with "vote for me" after their names. Maybe I should have called myself "Vote Early, Vote Often" instead, but the Ken Livingstone quote appealed to me.

I've been trying to stay out of political arguments on h2g2, cos I get too much of it evenings and weekends, but I'll risk controversy to say I think permanent jobs and houses are goods things.

So's medieval history, actually.

Lux

Sympathise Evenings, weekends, and then, but with a different hat on, it's my job too - have to be careful not to get the to mixed up!

Things were simpler in the middle ages: one man, one vote: the King

In the middle ages, presumably, the only way to get rid of the one man in power was either armed revolt or complete economic meltdown (which would lead to armed revolt). Life's full of little ironies.

Maybe it's a symptom of the general lack of faith in the political process which has been growing for the last few years. If you genuinely believe that voting doesn't change anything, then the old rule of thumb "vote Labour for better services, Tory for lower taxes" breaks down, and people campaigning for lower taxes aren't prepared to restrict themselves to politics.

The armalite in one hand, the petrol tanker in the other...