It’s time to put ‘Not In My Name’ on the ballot paper

As Jonathan Miller astutely observes, the abstainers and spoilers in the French election are now the real third force in French politics. The number of blank and spoiled votes came to some 12 per cent of the total, a record proportion. And usefully in France you can actually submit a blank ballot paper so you can purposefully vote for no one, without going to the trouble of spoiling your vote.

Given a choice between Marine Le Pen, squarely unreformist economically, and a man who has never held elected office, well, you can’t quite blame them, can you? Not In My Name could be the working title of the third political force though a programme might be tricky, given they include disgruntled Fillonists and unregenerate Marxists.

Which brings me to my own hobby horse; giving this group a voice in British politics. It is unsatisfactory for the Not in My Name tendency to be obliged to spoil their votes: thereby lumping them with people who don’t have the nous to vote for just one candidate, for instance.