There’s an article Thursday’s Guardian which compares the level of campaigning activity in two seats, one with the lowest turnout in the country, Manchester Central, and one with a high turnout, Tim Farron’s Westmorland and Lonsdale.

The report argues that the poorest and most vulnerable feel that voting is pointless as nobody will do anything to serve their interests, while in more affluent areas, people are more inclined to vote, creating a major democratic deficit.

I feel I have been forcibly excluded from participating in politics and the issues that are of interest to me and my children,” said Ray Linton, 58, a former youth worker who has been unemployed for eight years. “They think speaking on TV is all they need to do. Everything is distant now.”

Powell’s Liberal Democrat opponent, John Reid, admitted that the level of campaigning in the constituency was “depressing”. “I grew up seeing every house with a poster or board outside,” he said. “Then you go through Manchester Central and you don’t know there’s an election.

In contrast, on Tim Farron’s patch:

Within minutes of starting canvassing on the Kirkbarrow estate, three drivers have honked and waved at the candidate. Skateboarding children yelp excitedly: “It’s Tim Farron”, a resident in pink slippers collars him to complain about Poles leapfrogging the council housing list, and Calum, eight, invites him for a kickabout, which he immediately accepts, going in goal and high-fiving Calum when they score.

As an aside, you do actually need to click on the article to see the wonderful photograph of Tim’s face as the football heads for him.

Tim’s concluding comment is something that I’ve certainly written about in the past and many commenters have agreed. We need more of that “vision thing.”

There’s a sense politics has become managerial and not idealistic,” he said. “There is no sense of vision and that’s soulless and depressing. Parties say what they have to say and you know what they are up to.

If you are reading this and you haven’t registered to vote, please do so. You might choose not to use it, but imagine if somebody said something or something happened over the next two and a half weeks that changed your mind? At least give yourself the chance to have a say. Here’s how.  And if you don’t have your National insurance number, read here You have three days left to register. By midnight on Monday it’ll be too late..

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