Alcohol Helped, but Allegra Was Still There in the Morning

Anybody taking up the opportunity to submit a postal vote is really missing out on the main fun of election day, which comes from politely refusing the material thrust at you by polling place volunteers — then looking at their sour or hurt expressions as you gladly accept the How to Vote Card proffered from the outstretched hand of your preferred candidate’s acolyte.

I was in fine form on Saturday, even allowing myself a pithy comment as I declined pamphlets from a crazed crone spruiking Jane Caro’s “Reason Party”. “Sorry, not a rational choice for me,” I volunteered, to her great consternation.

Team Allegra was there in force on the pavement outside St George’s Anglican Church at Fiveways, Paddington, bright-eyed pensioners in spotless teal and white T-shirts. The volunteers seemed to be uniformly white, female and in their 60s or 70s, eyes blazing with a messianic zeal. All it needed was a few tambourines and it could have been an old school Revival meeting….