Hobson's choice for local voters

IT was Henry Ford, that pioneer of motoring for the masses, who stated back in 1909 that purchasers of the Model T could have “any colour they like as long it’s black”.

In one respect, it seems, consumer choice hasn’t moved on in the intervening 104 years.

Across large swathes of South Wiltshire, voters can have any colour they like next month as long as it’s blue.

Residents of Tidworth, Winterslow, Netheravon, Fovant or the Chalke Valley needn’t bother trekking down to the polling booth because the only Wiltshire Council candidates standing in these areas are Conservatives.

Carlton Brand, the council's chief returning officer, told the BBC sadly that this state of affairs was "not democratic" and disenfranchising.

Oh, really? What a surprise!

The other parties in these electoral divisions have sensibly decided the result is a foregone conclusion. They won’t get in, so what’s the point in persuading some doomed unfortunate to invest time and effort in putting up a token fight?

I suspect that’s the way it’ll stay while our present ‘first past the post’ system continues.

I’ve looked at the results from last time round, and found that in some of the areas listed above, almost 50 per cent of voters backed candidates who weren’t Tories.

They, too, are probably now thinking “Why bother?”

I’m not making a party political point here. My personal view is that there should be no place for party politics in local government.

But I do wonder why we expect people to believe that they live in a democracy where their voice counts, when they can go through a whole lifetime of dutiful voting without managing to elect a councillor or Member of Parliament who represents their views.

I’m only surprised there aren’t more divisions with only one person standing.