The only other times this seems to happen in England is when there is a World Cup on or a Royal weds or dies. If a Royal was playing in the World Cup the day after his marriage during an election campaign the country would have no choice but to explode.
That shared experience means people start talking to each other about the general election in shops, cafes, pubs and at bus-stops. Maybe even at parking meters. You never know.
This is happening right now in North Devon.
Often the chat is tinged with that winning English way with doom-mongering and scepticism. People will say things like: "They're all as useless as each other" or "I don't believe a word any of the lying buggers says".
The first claim, a variation on "they're all the same", is a myth.
Today, for example, I have interviewed, an hour-plus apiece (and not at the same time), the Lib Dem candidate for North Devon, Nick Harvey, and his UKIP opponent, Steve Crowther. Having asked them a number of questions about policy and beliefs, and read some of the manifesto pledges, there is no way you could say these two men share the same politics.
And that's an example I expect to see with all the other candidates. There are differences. There is a choice at the ballot box in North Devon among all the candidates, not just those two. Don't believe the myth!
"They're all the same" is also a cliche, which means it is hiding a grain of truth. I think the grain is that politicians these days all, often, look and sound similar and are battling for the holy "centre ground" where the swinging (not in that way) voters live.
The broadcast media, and to some extent the national tabloid press, is partly to blame for this; politicians have had to boil down often quite difficult and complex ideas and policies into snappy little soundbites. When you do that, whatever you're saying, because of the nature of language and speech, it can all end up sounding "the same".
I genuinely think most MPs and candidates, having interviewed a few in recent years, are sincere and decent people. It's too easy to label them all as useless crooks, even if some of them have been proven to be so in recent times...
But let's not be children about it, you could say, blaming the nasty media for warping the debate; as voters, surely we all have a duty to find a out about the candidates. That's not difficult; the parties put their policies on their websites.
Ah, but then there's all the spin. This is as impossible to avoid as it is to digest. No party is immune. They will all talk about "tough choices" and "change" and "hard-working families" and a "fairer Britain" and a "brighter future" and "free real ale for everyone" (apologies to any party who has actually used any of those slogans today).
A good test when listening to any claim, I find, is to apply a simple bit of logic: if the opposite of the claim, or statement, is either ludicrous or something no party would ever, ever say, you can be reasonably sure that the claim or statement is as empty as a beer cask at closing time on the last night of a beer festival.
So:
The opposite of "tough choices" is "easy choices". Mmm, who in their right mind would argue we need to make some "easy choices". No one. You can't argue with it, so it's pointless.
The opposite of "change" is "stasis". Not a hot ticket at the ballot box that one.
The opposite of "hard-working families" is "lazy single people". When did you hear a would-be MP speaking out on behalf of them, and God knows there a few of them about. I used to be one, so I should know.
It's only day two of the campaign, after the "phoney campaign", and already all the parties are caught in a blizzard of myth, cliche and spin, with policies and conviction struggling to get a seat at the national table.
Thank goodness local people are clever enough to search through it all to find the policies and make their choice accordingly.
In North Devon, I'll be keeping my ear out for those impromptu conversations and comments; they reveal a lot.
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