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Election day
It's election day, folks.
This is me urging the Brits who read this post to go out there and vote. I will not urge you to vote for the party of my choice, but please do vote.
I live in Newport, South Wales. In this town, there's a churchyard on a hill which holds an unknown number of bodies buried in secrecy one night: bodies of men and women who died in the fight to get us the right to mark a cross on a piece of paper today. I spent my childhood walking past a mosiac commemmorating that battle every weekend. That is why, no matter how much the sleaze and scandals disgust me, I will always exercise the right those unknown people fought for.
Our democracy is broken. It has been for a long time. I live in a Labour stronghold; there's very little chance of unseating my current MP. My vote won't change anything. If I vote Labour I just add to his majority; if I don't no one will notice when all is said and done. This is reflected in the local election campaign: other than Nick Clegg's visit last weekend (and a few lonely posters in windows) you wouldn't have known there was a campaign going on in Newport.
But in spite of all the talk about tactical voting in the past few days, if any party wins an overall majority in this election they will claim every one of those votes was a vote for their program, forgetting that for a big chunk of the electorate, it's more about rejecting the others. So I refuse to cast my largely pointless vote in support of parties I despise. A Conservative government would be a complete disaster in the current economic conditions. Voting Labour rewards incompetence and mandates their complete disregard of basic human rights.
Me? I'm voting to kick the whole rotten anthill over and start fresh with something new.
This is me urging the Brits who read this post to go out there and vote. I will not urge you to vote for the party of my choice, but please do vote.
I live in Newport, South Wales. In this town, there's a churchyard on a hill which holds an unknown number of bodies buried in secrecy one night: bodies of men and women who died in the fight to get us the right to mark a cross on a piece of paper today. I spent my childhood walking past a mosiac commemmorating that battle every weekend. That is why, no matter how much the sleaze and scandals disgust me, I will always exercise the right those unknown people fought for.
Our democracy is broken. It has been for a long time. I live in a Labour stronghold; there's very little chance of unseating my current MP. My vote won't change anything. If I vote Labour I just add to his majority; if I don't no one will notice when all is said and done. This is reflected in the local election campaign: other than Nick Clegg's visit last weekend (and a few lonely posters in windows) you wouldn't have known there was a campaign going on in Newport.
But in spite of all the talk about tactical voting in the past few days, if any party wins an overall majority in this election they will claim every one of those votes was a vote for their program, forgetting that for a big chunk of the electorate, it's more about rejecting the others. So I refuse to cast my largely pointless vote in support of parties I despise. A Conservative government would be a complete disaster in the current economic conditions. Voting Labour rewards incompetence and mandates their complete disregard of basic human rights.
Me? I'm voting to kick the whole rotten anthill over and start fresh with something new.