A Christmas Tale With A Difference                   Wendy and Dave                  

                                                                                                        Copyright 2006

   The people of England were facing a general election, but what was going to happen this time? Men and women just did not know how they would vote this time. Four more years of Tony Blair? Who wanted that? More wars, more tax. What was the alternative? The Conservative party? I think not! Bigger mortgage rates, people on strike, home repossessions, the working class man stamped on. Maggie Thatcher was still fresh in people’s heads. The newspapers did not think the general public could face that, not yet anyway.

   So what were the papers saying about the general election? They were saying things that were hard to believe. Remember the papers never refuse ink, but they do sometimes tell the truth. The Sun newspaper printed this article one day: -

‘The People of England won’t bother to vote. They are too busy working, too busy doing other things. They don’t know who to vote for, don’t want to be responsible for making a mess of things, and don’t want to be blamed. So if this is the case and nobody votes what will happen to the government? What will happen to the economy? Who knows, as we don’t? Something will have to change but what?’

   Voter apathy was reaching new heights. Fresh young voters at 18, straight out of school or college preferred to queue for half an hour to get into over priced night clubs than walk straight in to an empty polling booth and cast their votes, hard won by their forefathers, and more recently mothers, in previous centuries. Perhaps the news about the chancellor’s latest taxation adjustments, this year’s new education bill, or the overspend in the health service, just was not riveting enough for young people of that age.         

   Lots of people were talking about it, not having a clue what to do, while Mr Blair was talking to his party. He had an idea and he was very excited about it. What if he gave the young a chance to vote under the age of 18? What would happen? It’s their country too. It’s their future. Plus as none of them had ever voted before they would surely be enthusiastic.

New Start

   The adults had given up on politics, but the young had no such apathy. Their young minds were full of enthusiasm for what they might be able to do for the country, for all countries. The kids had never been given the vote before. This was a first, what the adults would have called a ‘revolution’. But the kids didn’t know what the word meant, they had never experienced one before and few of them had done enough history to know what one was.

    The kids, little girls who could barely read, who loved their dolls more than anything; The swaggering teenage males who had graduated from toy soldiers to riding bikes or the aspiration to drive a car. Some of them, a select few, had even stolen cars.

  The campaign began in earnest in September, at the start of the new school term. Candidates were invited to come directly into the schools and speak to the youngsters in assembly halls and school corridors. Labour and Tory and other traditional party politicians took it in turns to visit the schools, all hoping to win the kids over to their ways of thinking, and purporting to want the kids to give them their ideas, which would be taken on board. Some of them offered free discos for under eighteen year olds, and free passports to the leisure and sports of local neighbourhoods, and lots of things children would like, such as free chocolate bars to all children who attended school for a full week. School attendance immediately started to improve in anticipation of this generous bribe. Mr Blair was getting worried. He dared not encourage too many sweets because it would seem more like emotional blackmail than politics. There was one thing he did promise to achieve which was to take free bus fares off pensioners and the disabled and give them to the children instead.

   The following week a new candidate Chris Cringle started his campaign. The children were very excited. The first thing he did was to promise the older children, from twelve, free driving lessons at school. Hundred of instructors were to be taken on by schools. Cringle revealed immediately that he was in fact Father Christmas, come to redress the wrongs committed upon children. This caused major excitement as the older kids would not tell the younger kids that there was no Santa Klaus, and Chris Cringle was not Santa, as they knew Santa did not exist. The older kids wanted to learn to drive too badly to tell the younger kids there was no Santa. The adults were in torment because they knew Chris Cringle could not be Santa, as they knew Santa did not exist, but how could they persuade the children of this without destroying the festive season and the wonderful spirit of Christmas.

     Cringle’s policies included that Child Benefits of 3 pounds be given to each child on a Monday morning in free silver; Free fizzy drinks with all school dinners purchased; TV viewing for every pupil at lunchtime; A present every Friday for every child who wasn’t late and attended school all week; the list seemed to be endless. The children were very excited. All they talked about was going to the polls on December the 24th while the adults would be shopping and buying their last minute presents to send to Santa.

    The day arrived. The kids were getting ready to vote, most wanting to get to the polling booths, the adults talking in whispers not knowing whether to ruin xmas.  It was a deplorable situation, but they felt there was nothing they could do because the constitutional changes, granting the kids the right to vote and depriving the adults of their traditional rights, had already been brought into effect.

     The Prime Minister began to have doubts about the path he had allowed the country to go down. He had anticipated an increased passion for politics from the young, but his vision had been of a younger electorate, voting for the traditional parties, and particularly his own, injecting youthful optimism and vigour into the political scene. Instead it seemed that he had created mayhem, given the opportunity for unscrupulous fraudsters such as Chris Cringle to pervert the youth of Britain with false promises, and a damaging budgetary explosion.

    The day of the election approached. Heavy snow and blustery winds threatened chaos at the polls. Not to worry. Kids love snow and were not put off. Chris Cringle was not worried. He knew the kids loved snow, and would not let him down. (He was proved right as the adults could stay at home while the kids came out to play at the polls.) All the local schools were to be used as voting stations so children could walk, and did so in abundance. At the polling station the candidates for each party were there, although they also had to walk due to the terrible whether conditions, arriving very cold and wet. Chris arrived in his red suit with his reindeers so he could go round lots of schools in London.

    At 7am the voting began. Queues could be seen all over England, with children chatting and throwing snowballs outside each polling station. Everyone seemed happy. Meanwhile the adults were going shopping for last minute presents, hoping and praying that who ever won the election could run the government without too much trouble. When the school gates were opened hot chocolate and mince pies were served. The voting was very busy throughout the whole day until 6pm. then the polling stations became quieter. Still the children turned up, in smaller numbers.

   At ten the polls closed, ready for the count throughout the night. The result would be ready hopefully by 2pm on Christmas Day. Everything had gone to plan and people were sat around the TVs, waiting for the result. At 2pm the results were ready. There had been a landslide throughout the country. Chris Cringle had won the election. This was history in the making; the children so happy; the adults wondering what would happen. It was a strange Christmas, the year of 2oo8, but what is done is done and England will have to wait and see what occurs next. The result of how things turned out must interest you all. For that you must wait and see. Time will tell!

                                     The End.