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
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