Any British citizen who bases his or her vote in the forthcoming general election on the “flash” official national income figures showing that output rose by 0.1 per cent in the final quarter of 2009 ought to be disenfranchised. These initial estimates are not exact enough even to say where in a range of plus or minus 1 per cent the change occurred. Later revisions – which go on for years after the period in question – could be in either direction. Our hypothetical citizen ought to be doubly disenfranchised if the intended vote is changed by similar decimal percentage point movement in the estimate for the first quarter of 2010 due a few weeks before the most likely date of the general election, May 6.
在即將到來(lái)的英國(guó)大選中，任何根據(jù)“耀眼的”官方國(guó)民收入數(shù)據(jù)——去年第四季度增長(zhǎng)0.1%——來(lái)投票的英國(guó)公民都應(yīng)當(dāng)被剝奪選舉權(quán)。這些初步估計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)毫無(wú)精確性可言，甚至說(shuō)不出變動(dòng)是在正負(fù)1%之間的哪一點(diǎn)。隨后的修正——在所討論期間過(guò)后會(huì)持續(xù)數(shù)年——可能是增，也可能是減。如果因?yàn)槎ㄓ诖筮x前數(shù)周公布的2010年第一季度估計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)出現(xiàn)同樣不到一個(gè)百分點(diǎn)的變動(dòng)而改變投票意向，我們假象中的公民就應(yīng)當(dāng)被雙重剝奪選舉權(quán)。英國(guó)大選很可能在5月6日舉行。