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.
在即將到來的英國大選中，任何根據“耀眼的”官方國民收入數據——去年第四季度增長0.1%——來投票的英國公民都應當被剝奪選舉權。這些初步估計數據毫無精確性可言，甚至說不出變動是在正負1%之間的哪一點。隨后的修正——在所討論期間過后會持續數年——可能是增，也可能是減。如果因為定于大選前數周公布的2010年第一季度估計數據出現同樣不到一個百分點的變動而改變投票意向，我們假象中的公民就應當被雙重剝奪選舉權。英國大選很可能在5月6日舉行。