[Copied and pasted from my external blog. Please do take a look. I'm trying to update regularly, every few days or so]
This is mostly for readers in the UK, so I apologise to any international readers. But hey, you never know, you might find it interesting anyway.
Today is election day. At time of writing, the polling stations have been open for about an hour. And I am begging every single UK citizen, who is over 18, reading this to go out to their polling station, and cast their vote. I don’t think I can overstate how important this is. Today you can decide who is going to be in government tomorrow. If you have the opportunity, and do not vote today, in my opinion you have no right to complain about the result.
Now, I am not politically neutral. I think I’ve probably made that abundantly clear already. I am a Labour supporter, and I have already cast my vote according to my conscience. I have voted for the Labour party, because their policies make the most sense. They don’t promise unfeasible tax cuts. They promise to be fair to the poorest people in this country. They have steered us through one of the worst recessions in living memory (which was the fault of the Conservative Thatcher government), and they will continue to bring us through it if we give them the chance to do so. I urge you to read their policies, and consider voting for them.
But what I beg you to do, is to not vote for the Tories. I am firmly of the belief that David Cameron and his cronies would be a disaster for this country. They would begin drastic cuts too early, risking a return to the depths of recession. They would alienate economic allies in the EU, with their ridiculously archaic Euroskeptic view (and incidentally, Cameron has not read the Lisbon Treaty. However much you may think there should have been a referendum on the matter, actually gives greater power to Westminster, rather than Brussels). They would cut benefits for many of the families who genuinely and honestly rely on them to get by. They would usher in changes to the law that discriminate against all but the white, middle/upper class, heterosexual married family. Basically, they would return to the dark days of Thatcher.
Vote for Labour. Vote for the Lib Dems. Vote for the Greens. Vote for one of the Nationalist parties (if you’re in Scotland or Wales). Vote for an independent. Preferably don’t vote for the BNP or UKIP. Read the parties’ politics, what they would do for this country, and decide on that basis. I’m not stupid, I don’t think that the Tories are evil. I think that they are wrong. And I also don’t like how they have conducted their campaign, using millions of pounds of donation from Lord Ashcroft; a man who doesn’t pay tax in the UK, but still thinks it’s his right to decide how and by whom this country is run. And Rupert Murdoch. The man who wants to buy Number 10, who wants to install his man as PM, so that the BBC will be dismantled, and he can expand his monopoly. The Sun, et al, have lost all sense of responsible journalism, declaring Cameron the winner of debates in which he floundered, and lying to the public at large. Today they run with a gaudy Obama-style image of Cameron.
Don’t do this to Britain. The choice is yours, this is the principle of democracy. I haven’t always been it’s greatest advocate or supporter, but I’m asking you to prove to me today that it has merit. So please, go down to the polling station today, and cast your vote. Because untold numbers have died over the ages so that you can do so. And if the country is to survive the next five years, every one of you needs to. Go out and vote, for policy, not personality. For equality, not closed mindedness. For the future, not for the past.
Thank you.
“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” -Aristotle, Politics.
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