I was talking to a chiropractor at a wedding yesterday. Yes I know that’s a lot of info to take in right there but there’s no need for you to have anything other information about the situation than that. Though it should be known that it was a lovely day and my good friend Jacqui walked down the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme which makes her a hero everyone should look up to. That aside, this chiropractor was a very nice man who I’d not met before, and it wasn’t long before we got into talking about this week’s euro-elections. By ‘we got into’ I mean it’s all I’m talking about at the moment so I forced it into conversation while apologising for doing so, and luckily he was interested in talking about it and so didn’t mind. I think. When it came to the crux of who to vote for, he said he probably wasn’t going to vote because there wasn’t anyone he felt represented him. As a self-employed, highly trained professional & former Lib Dem voter till they let everyone down, he was disillusioned with all the parties so couldn’t see why he should put a cross in a box. This feeling of despondency was even more so because he lives in a mostly Conservative area which was unlikely to change.
This seems to be a very common feeling at the moment and one that I’m not unfamiliar with. Despite Russell Brand’s calls to not vote and start a revolution, I am more of the team that we really should uphold our right to vote in a democratic society. I feel I can’t complain about things unless I’ve at least tried to vote for people in charge who might change them. Also I just don’t feel that our generation of people more obsessed with retweets and reality TV are going to start a revolution any time soon, no matter how famous the person telling you to do it really is. Though I fear the day One Direction or Justin Bieber just tweet to all their followers ‘Kill everyone know’ until they become maniacal overlords with powerful armies of teenage girls. But despite a lack of revolution, people may still feel like they shouldn’t vote, which of course means that the people who do vote, those who are usually older and more right wing, gain an easy majority. By not voting in these up coming elections, UKIP will seem more powerful than they should be and that is dangerous.
But then who to vote for? Well, I’m not going to tell you who you should vote for – although don’t vote UKIP or we can’t be friends – but here’s how I’m dealing with my disillusionment with politics. I’m sure that my opinion on this was the one you were waiting for and it’s this sort of importance I have over people’s ideals that makes me wonder why I shouldn’t call for a revolution as it’d definitely kick off asap. Yeah, one lone reader of this blog? You and me, yeah? I’ll go looking for a pointed stick. Ahem, sorry. So I have no intention of voting Conservative ever. I could list why but this blog would become essay length. Same goes for UKIP. Labour are too centralist now. Their agreement to the benefit cap, and lack of proper opposition to many of the government’s austerity policies means I have no want to give them my vote either. Lib Dems…well, yeah. Waste of time isn’t it? And then if you’re not going to vote for the three main parties then what’s the point in wasting a vote on someone who won’t get it, right? Except the more people say that the less it makes sense to me. Surely if we all vote for someone else, then they might get in?
What’s worrying is that’s the notion that seems to be working for UKIP right now, which its supporters are saying is a ‘protest vote’. But why protest by voting for someone with even more extreme right wing opinions than the Conservatives? Seems odd. Like protesting about King Kong wreaking a city by getting Godzilla in to fix it. So my view is that my protest vote needs to go elsewhere and so for the first time in my life, I’ve spent time properly reading manifestos. The Green Party one seems to actually make sense. Keeping the NHS public, defending public services, creating sustainable jobs, increasing science funding etc etc. Their MEP policies are ‘safeguarding human rights, bringing peace to Europe and solving environmental problems.’ I know, weird right? It’s as though they actually want to do things that people need. There are so many other parties and independent candidates too. The NHA want to protect the UK from a law in Europe making the reversal of privatisation illegal. That’s a law that sounds terrifying to me and to the benefit of no one except large corporations.
This is just my view though and those ones may not suit you, one reader, at all. But someone will. There are countless tests online to find which party represents you best. All MPs, MEPs and councillors are now online, some with a great online presence. You can actually find out what they want to do with their positions. Spending 30 mins looking it up is far better than not voting and letting the condition of our country and our place within Europe to be dictated by a very few. Its just not an excuse to not bother anymore. If areas end up being ‘No overall control’ that’s a strong message of upset with the way things are. And that is what I said to the chiropractor before he made his excuses to go and eat some cake and several people who overheard then avoided talking to me for a while after. Still, my mate walked down the aisle to Jurassic Park so a win all in all.
———————————————————————————————————————————- Myself and excellent director man Ben Hilton have finally found time and some budget to start doing our Partly Political Broadcast videos again. The first one is up here:
Then a new one will be out every Thursday for a while till we run out of time/budget or everyone stops watching. If you like it, please share it as we don’t earn anything from it, it’s tons of hard work and the only reason to do more is knowing there is an audience for it. It’s now only 3 mins (and a bit) to suit every shortening attention spans. If you have any suggestions for things to add, topics to chase, please let us know. You can also now subscribe to it via iTunes HERE, follow us on Twitter HERE, on Facebook HERE and on Tumblr HERE. Yep, we’re doing everything.
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