Mark Woods: Bribery maybe, but it gets my vote

The year was 1931 and on it was playing one of the first ever Mickey Mouse cartoons.

It was a lovely snapshot in its own right, but what made it really stand out was the caption which read, “Mickey Mouse shown on small screen to attract voters to 1931 election.” Could this be true?

People being enticed, bribed even, to vote at a time when one imagined all fine upstanding and responsible citizens would rather be carted away in manacles than lose their chance to exercise their democratic right? It’s naive and historically myopic of me to have been so shocked of course.

Why wouldn’t a bit of what we now would call incentivisation be needed to get the polling stations buzzing back then? It’s a tactic that’s as old as the hills and still works a treat today.

There’s been much hand-wringing about the latest use it’s being put to though – breastfeeding. The announcement yesterday that a Sheffield University pilot will offer shopping vouchers worth £120 if they breastfeed for the first six weeks, rising to £200 if they continue for six months led to many a radio phone-in caller asking in the way only they can, what is the world coming to?

It would be great if breastfeeding was easy. Which it’s not.

Or if every new mother took to it straight away. Which they don’t.

But the stark reality is that the UK has one of the worst breastfeeding rates in the world and the disparity between the percentage of breastfed babies in different parts of the country swings wildly.

Something needs to be done to combat it and as ideas go I’ve heard a lot worse. So well done to the Government for backing what they would have known was a plan which would attract flak from many quarters.

Now they just need to 
roll out the portable 
cartoon screens come the General Election to arrest 
our plummeting turn-out rates too.

Twitter: @mark_r_woods