V.O.T.E - Lance Haward

V.O.T.E.is set in the not-too-distant future but in a radicallychanged political landscape in which, under presently existing law, aprivate company - Voice Of The Electorate - has evolved into thede facto power controlling parliament and its legislative programme.The struggle between an over-powerful chairman of V.O.T.E. and theonly remaining 'independent' member of the Commons, leader of thetraditionalist Westminster Movement, in its attempt to unpick thismassive confidence trick and restore democracy, becomes a desperateonce-for-all gamble in the run-up to the first meaningful generalelection in fifty years, in which more than one life is lost. Thecampaign unfolds against the background of a United Kingdom in whichthe National Lottery has been replaced by something much closer to thegames of ancient Rome, and when the central character, V.O.T.E.'shome secretary designate but now in revolt against it, finds himselfforcibly conscripted into the arena, it is only the merest accident ofan earlier and violent encounter in the street which comes to hisrescue in the fight for life.