God's Loving Embrace

Part Thirty-Two

'Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.'

Matthew 7:14

"Peter Munroe, how do you assess the voting patterns in the election, and what does it mean for the future?" Neil Cooke, a radio journalist asked, sounding almost bored, as his late night show on a rather obscure talk channel was hardly headline material and he was stuck there doing graveyard shifts. Munroe was a big guest for his time slot, but he was still the boring one. Charles Buckingham was so cool and calm, and delivered the sound bites, whilst Harry Trevor was pure box office, so if TALKFM was going to get one of the leading Reformist ministers, it was always going to be the Home Secretary, especially at almost midnight on a dull Tuesday.

"Something needs to be done," Peter replied, preparing to give Cooke a rather unlikely exclusive. "Continued voter apathy in certain age groups, areas and even social classifications means that no government is getting a clear mandate, except by default. It is clear to us that the twenty or thirty percent who never vote would have changed the final result of the last election considerably. The people are not being served by the indifference of this minority to the democratic process."

"So, what do you propose to do about it?" Cooke asked, lazily giving Munroe the stage. "It is hardly a new phenomenon?"

"Quite simply we intend to make voting a legal requirement, although not quite following the Australian model, which is the popular example. We will be giving the head of each household the responsibility for getting everyone living under his roof, or that he is legally responsible for living elsewhere, to cast an electronic vote. This family vote will save us all money, be far more convenient for the voters, and most importantly we will get a clear view of what all people of legal voting age really want, perhaps for the first time."

"Sorry, am I hearing this right?" Cooke made a face at Munroe, shocked into giving him his full attention, looking comical enough to make Munroe smile. "Did you just say that the newly designated head of household, which as I understand it is always the father, husband or male legal guardian, is going to have the vote for all the eligible voters who are his legal responsibility?"

"Only in an administrative sense. He will place the votes on the system, but each person will have their own personal vote...it is simply a question of discussing it as a family. No more inconvenient trips to a polling station...the world has moved on, and technology allows us to have a much better system...and I am sure that our family voting system will deliver the representative view of all the people of this great country. The future of our country is too important to let the apathetic amongst us fail everyone else. This will deliver us a proper mandate for social change."

"But you are removing the individual vote?" Cooke spluttered, doing his best to react to the preposterous idea.

"Not at all...we are merely ensuring that every vote is counted...and also using modern technology to streamline the process...all of our research suggests that compulsory voting is the saviour of democracy, delivery representative governments which reflect the will of the people...who could complain about that?"

'So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.'

Romans 10:17

"Can the Prime Minister kindly tell us all where his recently announced plans to remove the female vote are in his manifesto? For some strange reason, I can't seem to find them at all...anywhere!" Ben Cartwright had to almost shout to be heard over the cries of over six hundred MP's in the House of Commons for Prime Minister's questions. The opposition benches were almost as well populated as the government benches, for the first time in five years, but Cartwright had never expected Charles Buckingham to give up without a fight, and the announcement of the new voting system was the first battle in a long bitter war to come until the next election. The gloves were most definitely off. He was still stunned by the nerve of it, and had treated it as a joke when he was woken with the news in the early hours. But it was not funny at all, of course.