And you'll try to chance that sort of disaster for something so simple as a reason?

[ Of course he would. Sherlock's speaking merely out of curiosity there - he'd have done most of anything to find out reason here, himself. ]

They are bragging, but what instigated it? They're playing, and they most definitely want people to vote. Reason's as good an incentive as any, but why toy with everyone so simply after what happened on Christmas? It's like giving a papercut to a victim of a car crash.