Referendum poll shows a surge in ‘don’t knows’ – but I’m a don’t care
AT the risk of sounding like either a swot or a nerd, I like voting. I love elections for the excitement of the count, the extrapolations and the ramifications, the conveniently forgotten rivalries and the new best friendships: and I love, that in some teeny tiny way, I have influenced it all. I like having my say. When I was in college, I chose our PR system as my political module and in my professional life, I have enjoyed covering both canvass and count.
As a woman, I have always acknowledged the importance of casting my vote – other women died to win me that right – and as a parent, I taught my children that voting is vital and, if they want me to continue occasionally feeding them under my roof, compulsory. And while referendums generally lack the same potential for drama as elections, as a member of a democratic society, I’ve always recognised the importance of using these polls to change things for the better.
SO why am I currently casting around me for some sort of Dog Ate My Homework style excuse to get out of voting on Friday? It is not as if I haven’t actually done the homework. When the booklet from the Referendum Commission came through the door, I read the existing article and the wording of the two proposed changes carefully – but for all the world, it felt like tuning into somebody giving directions after they’d gone past the first two turns. It just didn’t go in. Over the weekend, I read lengthy opinion pieces from both sides of the campaign and while I wouldn’t say I’m none the wiser, both arguments had a bang of angels on pinheads about them: in other words, they might be fascinating to some of the people inside them but most people just want to get on with their lives. Small wonder that in an opinion poll at the weekend, the number of don’t knows had risen from the 23% of a few months ago to a massive 35%.
This is not one of those I’ve No Interest In Politics refusals to engage. On the contrary, I’m extremely interested in politics, fascinated by law and passionate about social justice and moving towards a more equitable society. So I suppose it’s more than I’m not terribly interested in uninteresting things, and Friday’s referendum certainly ticks that box.
The language proposed is vague and unclear: so much has been made of the term ‘durable relationship’ that I took stock of my own situation and wondered if it’s durable, before acknowledging that I neither know nor care. Some people are worried about the prospect of removing the only reference to women in the constitution on International Women’s Day: having spent most of my 40-year career being defined by my gender, I dream of a day when we don’t specify gender and International Women’s Day passes us by. But honestly, these are musings rather than mission statements. Nothing in the wording is either engaging or interesting enough to make me lose sleep.
If my blood pressure did rise a point or two during my heart’s-not-in-it homework, then it was at the figure of €17million that it has cost us to get here, even as most of us are not remotely clear where here is. We’re used to public money being wasted, but this seems an especially egregious expense: a distraction of a referendum that few wanted and nobody needs. The fact that the Taoiseach is currently doing the rounds of every daytime TV and radio programme on air is surely evidence of a total and disastrous failure to engage the voters, and I suspect this final desperate push is more about avoiding government embarrassment at potentially the lowest turnout ever and less about actually getting the amendments over the line.
Look it, of course I’ll vote. I have taken account of which side most of the dangerous nutters stand and will most likely go the other way. After all, I’ve never been a Don’t Know in my life (even when I really don’t know.) But if there were a Don’t Care box to tick on Friday, then I really would be sorely tempted.