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.
在即将到来的英国大选中，任何根据“耀眼的”官方国民收入数据——去年第四季度增长0.1%——来投票的英国公民都应当被剥夺选举权。这些初步估计数据毫无精确性可言，甚至说不出变动是在正负1%之间的哪一点。随后的修正——在所讨论期间过后会持续数年——可能是增，也可能是减。如果因为定于大选前数周公布的2010年第一季度估计数据出现同样不到一个百分点的变动而改变投票意向，我们假象中的公民就应当被双重剥夺选举权。英国大选很可能在5月6日举行。