Wednesday 5 May 2010

Activists And Tunnel Vision

Philip Hensher in the 'Indy':
With only a couple of days to go until the general election, it’s clear that David Cameron has almost completely failed in his attempt to get gay and lesbian voters under his big umbrella.

In fact, support for the Conservatives under David Cameron has almost melted away in recent months. A properly conducted poll at the beginning of the campaign by Pink News showed gay support for the Conservatives at only 9%.
I love the breathtaking assumption there that all gay and lesbian people in the UK read 'Pink News' in the first place.

Or are prepared to vote purely according to assumed policy on their sexual preferences, and not on any of the other issues - economy, crime and punishment, education, etc - in their lives...

3 comments:

TDK said...

Just because a poll is instigate by Pink News doesn't imply that all the respondents were readers. I presume that they got some polling organisation to actually conduct the poll. Nevertheless, I'd be interested to see the questions - "do you intend to vote for the queer hating Tories?" might solicit different responses.

Nevertheless it doesn't surprise me that much. Identity politics is all about grabbing other people's money for your favoured group. Who isn't going to be swayed by the offer of government freebies?

Trevor said...

I'm in a dreadful tizzy. Here I am on the pink reservation waiting for Serena McKellen or Peter Tatchell or Elton John (I don't even know who is honorary Titania at the moment) to tell me where to put my gay X.

Please help. I couldn't bear it if I cast an unfashionable vote by accident.

JuliaM said...

"I presume that they got some polling organisation to actually conduct the poll. Nevertheless, I'd be interested to see the questions..."

Yes, that might well be rather illuminating...

"Please help. I couldn't bear it if I cast an unfashionable vote by accident."

Heh!

And yet, there must be an awful lot of people who really do feel that way about their vote. Sad, isn't it?