My old history teacher did a certain amount of vote-spoiling

As elections loom, as “register now” posters appear on broken lamp-posts, I have a memory.

In the year I turned 16 – back in the 80s – a new history teacher started at school. (Hello Mr Howarth!)

Back then history was a minefield. I suppose it still is.

We learned about the Great Trek, Racheltjie de Beer, Dick King, Jan Smuts, Zulu wars, Boer wars, World Wars, Mao Tse-Tung (or maybe I dreamt that), the National Party, and we even studied that desperate gasp of apartheid which was the tricameral parliament – at the time not so much history as a current event.

1. A woman should be able to walk down the street wearing whatever she wants without getting hassled. (Obvious enough now, but it was news in an era of slut-shaming and victim-blaming.)
2. Should you have the right to vote, you simply must use it even when you feel there’s no one worthy on the ballot.

In that case – and to young me this was, and remains a revelation – you should still go out and make your mark, even if that means spoiling your vote as a statement of dissatisfaction or disgust.

I have a feeling that my old history teacher did a certain amount of vote-spoiling of his own back in the day.

Perhaps that is why I go to the polls for every possible election, referendum, and by-election.

With each X, I recall the people denied this right, the people who fought for my right, and I think of my former history teacher too.

I have yet to spoil a vote.

However, I have a suggestion going forward: following the list of candidates on the ballot could there be an extra option to check, an “I find all candidates dire, self-serving and reprehensible” box – or “none of the above”?

Then there can be no doubt that spoilt votes are not accidents, but political actions in themselves.