The Wedding - and voting 2nd May 2011

Undoubtedly the Royal wedding lifted the nation’s mood, this was evident on the crowded pavements of Westminster last Thursday night as I made my way down Victoria St after a speaking engagement in Finchley at about 10pm. I was being given a lift but got out to walk because I thought it would be quicker, and so it was until I got within 200 yards of the Abbey when the pavements became so congested that we were stationary, clogged with sightseers, campers, their tents and deckchairs, wheelchairs and prams. Everyone caught up in the crowd and the mood, not a harsh word, on the contrary, bonhomie and good humour all round -however urgent our business. I didn’t get back to my office till midnight but I was full of beans.

So, the Wedding lifted my mood too. I have spent weeks campaigning in the referendum on the question of whether we should replace one person one vote with the alternative vote (AV) as used in Australia, New Guinea and Fiji.  I am relieved to say that there are still many households out there who not only have no idea what AV is, they didn’t even know that there was a referendum –or at least they claimed not to. Oh happy people

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The worst thing –which surprisingly happened rather too often- was to come across a household that was actually interested in the question. Gadzooks! I have been treated to detailed expositions of how all there ridiculous systems work. I have had the wonders of the Single Transferable Vote explained to me –no, I can’t remember how it works but it was definitely much more complicated than AV. I have had to discuss the relative merits of the Open  Regional List system as against the Closed Regional List system; how AV Plus is better than AV; and how the De Honte voting algorithm works (apparently we use it for European Elections – which is another good argument against things European).

All this left my head swimming, desperate for the simplicity of just putting an ‘x’ in a box. To keep myself sane on days filled with these mind boggling conversations, I began to focus on the meaning of life, the Universe and everything. My mind soared. I recalled a line from Professor Brian Cox’s recent TV series The Wonders of the Universe: he said that the Universe can only support the conditions that make life possible, and therefore be conscious of its existence through our own intelligent thought, for a relatively miniscule period of time during its billions of years of existence. 

Now, that isn’t far from the idea behind 1978 comedy The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Fans will recall that the Earth –which was demolished to make way for an inter galactic superhighway- was actually a computer which had been designed to answer the mystery of life and its purpose (the answer it computed was 42 but they lost the question). Does any of this make sense? Or was I just going mad?

Mercifully I could forget the absurd referendum and concentrate on celebrating the wedding along with every other sensible Briton.  Reflect on it: what else could unite an entire nation, lift so many souls, spark so many joyful parties and good wishes?  How about the marriage of the son of an elected president in a republic?
What a foolish notion, just about as silly as a voting system where only experts or computers can understand the result.