Sirs,
I accept that this is not a Marlborough issue although it could greatly affect us all in our town and the surrounding villages. If the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party Liz Truss gets it all wrong, the issues facing each and every one of us in the very near future could overwhelm society as we have known and lived it for a very long time – for most us, all of our lives.
This is not a party political point. Not approaching this from the corner of any political colour but is it right, is it acceptable to us all that (statistically) fewer than fourteen people in Marlborough would have voted for the likely new PM?
Numbers? Liz Truss achieved 81,000 votes, give or take a handful. The British electorate stands at just under 49 million, the population of Marlborough (including those not able to vote – age etc.) stands at just over 8,800.
Of course, Marlborough is not a ‘typical’ cross section of the UK electorate in terms of voting intentions but applying the statistics of the UK to the Marlborough microcosm, then fourteen Marlborough people would have voted for Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister – less than there are Town Councillors able to sit (and vote) in the Planning Committee of tonight’s Town Council Meeting (05 September 2022).
The question again: is this right, is this acceptable? Given the magnitude of what we are all facing in the coming months and winter we will be reliant on the skills, judgement and leadership qualities of someone over whom 99.8%+ of us will not have given (or been able to give) our blessing.
Liz Truss may turn out to be a great leader, this is not a criticism of her, that would be unjust as we haven’t yet been able to benefit (or otherwise) from her skills. It’s a comment on the system that has put her (or could have been Rishi Sunak, or others) in this position and the question mark that this brings over democracy. Potentially it’s a very dark day for our democratic system, but I hope that is a severely misjudged sentiment. We’ll see over the next few months and year……
Yours,
Neil Goodwin
West Kennet Valley
Receptionist (part time) – Savernake Dental (Marlborough)
