Letter: A kick or judder at the polls

Michael Sibley
Saturday 28 May 1994 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

NICHOLAS BAGNALL clearly did not ask an engineer whether 'backlash' is an appropriate word in the cases he cites (Word, 22 May).

A technical dictionary would have told him that backlash is 'lost motion between two elements of a mechanism, ie the amount the first has to move, owing to imperfect connection before communicating its motion to the second'.

Backlash is most commonly noticed when, lifting one's foot off the accelerator at slow speed, a kick or judder is felt, especially with a transmission coming to the end of its life. This is the effect of lost motion when changing from the engine driving the car to the car driving the engine, and is analogous to the electorate's reply to a worn- out government. Normally the politician thinks he is driving the electorate. At election times the elector has a chance to drive for himself and frequently inflicts backlash on his masters. As we shall see on 9 June.

Michael Sibley

Technical editor

'Professional Engineering'

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in