Who did YOU vote for? And next time? What then?

Just before the 2005 General Election I worked in a major company alongside several young people.  None of them had voted in the General Elections of 2001 or 1997 mainly because they were either too young to do so at the time or were simply not interested in pre-election razzmatazz.

What’s the point?

I sometimes spoke to those young people during tea and lunch breaks and tried to impress upon them the importance of their vote. Some listened, most didn’t, and a few shared their opinions, which is what I expected would happen. Mostly their opinions amounted to ‘what’s the point’?

Shortly before the election one of the young ladies took me aside and told me “I thought about what you said and I want you to know that I’ve decided to vote this time.”

Wonderful! I congratulated her on her decision and silently called that a result.  I was about to move away when she asked: “Don’t you want to know who I’m going to vote for?”

“That’s a matter between you and the ballot box”, I replied but that wasn’t the reply she wanted to hear. “Well, I’ll tell you anyway.  I’m going to vote for Tony Blair.” 

It would have been extremely bad manners on my part to walk away without thanking her for sharing that information. It was an important ‘about face’ decision as far as she was concerned and it deserved recognition. 

“You didn’t have to tell me that but thank you for doing so.  Now, if I may, a question?  Why have you decided to vote for Tony Blair?”  

She seemed a little embarrassed at the bluntness of my enquiry and she had to suck her teeth and think a while before she was ready to answer. “Well, he seems a nice man,” she finally blurted out.  No wonder some politicians would like the voting age to be reduced!

I waited a few seconds.  “Doris”, I began (not her real name), “I’m ever so sorry to disappoint you but you can’t vote for Tony Blair”.  As quick as a flash: “Why not?” she challenged. “Because Tony Blair is the sitting candidate for Sedgefield in County Durham and you aren’t registered to vote in Sedgefield.  You can only vote for a candidate where you are registered.” 

“Well, you know what I mean.” And that pretty much ended the conversation.

She isn’t alone.  She had been conned and the con is still going on, spread by every political party and all sectors of the media and the con makes me very angry. “Vote for this or that party” they shout, overlooking the fact that ‘the party’ always represents the party, never the voter. The sole purpose of The Party is to continue in power or to regain it.  And that is all!

Vote for YOUR candidate not a party

We can change things if we DON’T do as we’ve always done. By voting for an independent candidate without a party machine behind him (or her), we begin to stop doing as we’ve always done. 

That’s a wasted vote, I hear some say.  My reply?  “If change doesn’t begin now, when will it begin?” Shall we continue to do as we’ve always done and simply hope to achieve a different result?

NO!  That just isn’t good enough

It must be a bit grim for politicians, don’t you think? They continually cajole us to vote in the way that THEY want us to and then consistently decline to act as we would like them to act.   

So, don’t vote for a party. Vote for an independent candidate instead. Independent MPs have no Whip to insist that they vote in keeping with Party requirements.  They are answerable only to YOU, the constituency voter

I've decided to give in!

Greetings from the centre of the Universe.  This is an introduction to my musings and it comes to you with all the creases, cracks, warts and all showing.  

I've remained aloof from twittering and facebooking and, until now, have relied entirely upon the odd email to friends to share my thoughts and opinions.  The difficulty always is that email recipients can rapidly become fed up with drum beating.  When that happens they tend to ditch the emails without reading them and I've devalued the process by using that route.  It's time for a change.


The bee in my bonnet these days is the EU. Or, more specifically, the EU and Britain's involvement with it. I'm also ticked off with our understanding of what democracy means, or doesn't mean any longer, in this country. I'd be pleased if I can persuade you to think on these things, too.


Where to begin? How about starting with our Prime Minister, David Cameron?
According to sources, he is 44 years old. (October 9, 1966).

On 1 January 1973, when David Cameron was just seven years old, the UK joined the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC was an economic free trade mechanism between sovereign states; it now no longer exists, having been replaced by the European Union.

When the people of this nation were given the democratic opportunity to vote on whether or not we should join the EEC I was 30 years old and, like a great many others at the time, I thought it would be a good thing for Britain to participate as a member of that community.


The UK joined the European Union on 1 November 1993 when the Treaty on European Union (otherwise known as the Treaty of Maastricht) came into force.  David Cameron was then 27 years old and John Major was Prime Minister.  I was given no opportunity to express my opinion about whether or not I should support our entry into this changed institution. Nor was anyone else in this country, despite promises from all major political party leaders that a referendum would be arranged.

All this is documented history.  But why would an otherwise mature man of 27 who had never himself been able to vote on the legal association between UK and EEC, consider that anyone who did vote in 1973 to join a now defunct institution, voted for every British citizen, for everyone, for all time and that no further vote is necessary?  But that is exactly the position he has chosen.

In his Witney constituency, with an electorate of 72,000, David Cameron persuaded 34,000 to elect him as their MP.  Or, put another way, 38,000 people either didn't vote or else voted for someone else. (23,796 voted for someone else).

So, in 2010 34,000 people authorised David Cameron to tell 60,000,000 people in the UK that a referendum in 1973 settled our relationship with Europe for all time! And that is democracy as the British people are forced to understand it.