The youngest son of TMWSC received a letter yesterday, from the local MP. It was a patronising effort, calculated to secure the support and vote of someone now on the electoral role. Obviously access to the electoral role information means that politicians can play the 'marketing game' through what is nothing other than a mailshot. The content of the letter is fairly ghastly, as you'd probably expect. Here are some extracts, in bold with my notes mixed in:
Congratulations on your recent 18th Birthday! [If you saw the photo of the guy, you'd realise that the congratulations could never ever be meant with any form of sincerity!]
Although you probably haven't thought about it before, this means you are now able to vote for the first time. [The very first line of the first paragraph makes me immediately think the guy has no idea at all about my son's awareness of politics.]
You probably don't need me to remind you that we now have a new Government, a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition whose savage cuts are going to hit young people in this area the hardest. [These will be the savage cuts forced upon the coalition by the crappiest form of financial care imaginable, as demonstrated by the appalling efforts of the Labour government which squandered billions before trying to blame everything on the rest of the world.]
This ConDem coalition is going to affect us all. I am getting in touch with as many young people as I can so that I can gain a full understanding of the issues that you care about. Whether you want to chat about applying to University and our position on tuition fees, or if you're going into an apprenticeship, please don't hesitate to contact me. [Strangely my youngest is rather disinterested in all of this, as he is autistic and couldn't give a shit about voting Labour. I am sure, however, that the facilities available to him will be cut at some point, and it will be debatable whether that's necessary because of the mess labour caused and left the coalition to deal with, or because the coalition is over zealous. More likely, the local authority (Labour controlled) will jump on the bandwagon to cut everything in site and blame the Tories.]
The creepiness of the approach is quite horrible, and misleading. I resent the letter and invitation to join the Labour Party. I hope the letter was paid for by Labour and not as part of the MP's outgoings chargeable to the government. I suggest that if an MP is trying to secure new votes, that he/she first checks whether the recipient is suitable to receive a shit letter.
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