So what? The European elections are rapidly approaching. Voting cards have arrived for all those on the electoral roll. Some of us will have pinned these to our notice board or diarised the 22nd May so we don’t forget. Some will have torn up and binned the card. Some will have it lying around somewhere to be found at a later date and binned as the event has passed.
Why vote? Its Europe not local? Why Vote? They’re all the same. As bad as each other. Can’t trust any of them. They all spout the same bullshit. I only care about local issues.
I sense we are at an important crossroads in the UK, on the edge of a cliff, about to fall into a deep black depression, a turmoil that will have a direct and damaging effect on us, our children and generations to come. Sounds melodramatic. To be fair, I do have a tendency to be just that. However, I am scared. I’m scared by the apathy of the general public. Not to have views, but to be prepared to express them where they can count. I am scared about the unaccountability of our politicians; about the control outside forces have on our human rights and future. I’m scared about our increased tendency to accept that ‘of course they’re corrupt, they’re Politicians’.
We see time after time, across all parties, at all levels; fiddling of expenses; disproportionately high pay rises; over-ruling of independent adjudication; that American tendency to slag off the opposition rather than express ones own policies; distraction rather than solution; battling for power rather than better management. We seem to have lost our political way and with it diluted our consciences.
OK, politicians have always been power-hungry; have always created policies, in part, to win votes and drag you from their opposition. These days however, I can’t really say it’s about the policies at all – not in comparison with their need to win power. We used to know where the three main parties stood. Left, Right, slightly right of centre ;-). Now they have Spin Doctors from the American school of politics, making all debates and speeches about discrediting the alternatives. Always shying away from expressing clear and concise policies backed up with realistic solutions to deliver on them.
Until 1992 between 75% and 85% of the electorate had their vote. since 2001 its been 59-65%; we have a disengaged young voting population and a huge proportion who express no opinion. Many people believe they have no way of telling the politicians they have no faith in any of them. Many believe that this message should get across in the fact that they have not voted at all.
BUT NO VOTE IS NO VOICE.
It’s the European elections on 22nd May. If you don’t vote you don’t count.
But you can express a ‘disillusioned vote’ – by heading to the polling station and posting it without a cross at all, or spoiling your paper. It counts (I believe). THEY COUNT THE NUMBER OF SPOILED PAPER and BLANK PAPERS.
You might know nothing about Europe , not care at al,l but I promise you, EVERY SINGLE EXTREMIST whether they express any of your views or the exact opposite; WILL VOTE.
I believe we are on the edge of great and potentially cataclysmic change – whichever way the pendulum swings. I sense frustration in the masses, unrest in the young, I see greater and greater conflict in matters relating to state and church, relating to UK Governance and European involvement (or is it interference). I see so many cracks. I see so many incidents of lying, cheating, different rules for the powerful, across all parties at Westminster level. How can we trust, who should we choose, why should we vote?
I don’t know for sure why we should vote HOWEVER I am very sure about the consequences if we don’t. And for me that’s a good enough reason to go out there and either put a cross in a box, or register my disdain by posting a blank ballot paper. I know, if I don’t express something then the potential of slipping off that cliff into a black and scary future for me, my children, their children rests partly in my hands.
Melodramatic? Definitely. Unjustly so? I’m not so sure.
source stats : http://www.ukpolitical.info
