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May. 5th, 2010 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolThere is a general election tomorrow.
I have never voted in a general election before, as it happens. I was 17 at the last one, although I have voted in Scottish and European elections. I am... well, like many people of my age, I am already feeling a little bit dispirited with the frankly bloody rubbish effort of politicians in front of me. And I thought, well, I'm going to vote, but I don't want to be active.
Most of this campaign has proved to me that yes, I'm right, they mostly are a shower of piss. I say that as a member of the Labour party. A passive one, but I have a wee membership card and everything. But I wasn't proud of my party, it was a tribal loyalty. And the election coverage rolled on, and rolled on, and I examined my list of MPs and reluctantly decided that I would ignore Burke and go for the logic that I would vote for a party as individual candidates were just as hopeless.
Then I had a conversation with my mother. Dad's the political one, really, and Mum has always kept very quiet about her loyalties, but a picture of David Cameron came on screen. She sighed, and said this:
"I don't know what I'll do if they win."
I paused. "Do you think they'll cut funding for your unit?" (Mum is a mental health nurse.)
"Probably." She sighed again. "You've never lived under a Conservative government, really. You don't remember how bad it got for people like your Dad and me."
... there and then, I cared about this election again. Are all Conservatives bad people? No, not at all - I know many Conservatives who are lovely people who want the best for this country. And that's fine, and commendable, and I'm glad that they're friends of mine.
But no, I cannot and will not support that party, and I cannot bear the thought that I will wake up on Friday morning and have to refer to Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron, who has allied his party to the most hideous parties throughout Europe, ignoring what were actually very sane alliances with centralist European powers. Cameron, who has a shadow home secretary who wants to refuse gay couples to B+Bs if the owner doesn't like gay people. Cameron, who worked ina Treasury during Black Wednesday. Cameron, who wants to promote marriage and the nuclear family blindly over anything else, any other option, and will take taxes from me to do just that.
You may think at this point 'Well, Colleen, you're a member of a Labour party and from an old Labour family, you're biased.'
Yes, I am biased. I am horribly, horribly biased but it turns out that there is one tiny thing I do agree with Cameron on - that there is a need for change in this country. I am disappointed and ashamed on many things that have been done under this Labour government.
The idea scenario for me is this - I wake up on Friday, and there is chaos. I want a hung parliament, with a slim majority for a progressive coalition of Liberal Democrats and Labour. I want electoral reform so badly it hurts, I want not to be put in this position again where my politics are mostly defined by what I don't want, where calling a bigoted woman for what she is a reason to apologise and grovel rather than say yes, she is a bigot.
So I want you to go out there tomorrow, if you're in the UK, and I want you to vote. There is no option for 'hung parliament' but just vote for anyone but Conservative. Are you in Brighton Pavilion? Vote Green. Are you in St Andrews? Vote Liberal Democrat. Are you in West Lancashire, like me? Vote Labour.
And let's all wake up on Friday and hope like hell. Hope for a progressive coalition, the first small steps to something better.
[This small piece is not meant to insult, or provoke. I welcome honest and open debate and when I say I have Tory friends who are nice people I actually mean that but I can't agree with voting for Cameron in the same way I know you're horrified I'm voting for Brown.]
I have never voted in a general election before, as it happens. I was 17 at the last one, although I have voted in Scottish and European elections. I am... well, like many people of my age, I am already feeling a little bit dispirited with the frankly bloody rubbish effort of politicians in front of me. And I thought, well, I'm going to vote, but I don't want to be active.
Most of this campaign has proved to me that yes, I'm right, they mostly are a shower of piss. I say that as a member of the Labour party. A passive one, but I have a wee membership card and everything. But I wasn't proud of my party, it was a tribal loyalty. And the election coverage rolled on, and rolled on, and I examined my list of MPs and reluctantly decided that I would ignore Burke and go for the logic that I would vote for a party as individual candidates were just as hopeless.
Then I had a conversation with my mother. Dad's the political one, really, and Mum has always kept very quiet about her loyalties, but a picture of David Cameron came on screen. She sighed, and said this:
"I don't know what I'll do if they win."
I paused. "Do you think they'll cut funding for your unit?" (Mum is a mental health nurse.)
"Probably." She sighed again. "You've never lived under a Conservative government, really. You don't remember how bad it got for people like your Dad and me."
... there and then, I cared about this election again. Are all Conservatives bad people? No, not at all - I know many Conservatives who are lovely people who want the best for this country. And that's fine, and commendable, and I'm glad that they're friends of mine.
But no, I cannot and will not support that party, and I cannot bear the thought that I will wake up on Friday morning and have to refer to Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron, who has allied his party to the most hideous parties throughout Europe, ignoring what were actually very sane alliances with centralist European powers. Cameron, who has a shadow home secretary who wants to refuse gay couples to B+Bs if the owner doesn't like gay people. Cameron, who worked ina Treasury during Black Wednesday. Cameron, who wants to promote marriage and the nuclear family blindly over anything else, any other option, and will take taxes from me to do just that.
You may think at this point 'Well, Colleen, you're a member of a Labour party and from an old Labour family, you're biased.'
Yes, I am biased. I am horribly, horribly biased but it turns out that there is one tiny thing I do agree with Cameron on - that there is a need for change in this country. I am disappointed and ashamed on many things that have been done under this Labour government.
The idea scenario for me is this - I wake up on Friday, and there is chaos. I want a hung parliament, with a slim majority for a progressive coalition of Liberal Democrats and Labour. I want electoral reform so badly it hurts, I want not to be put in this position again where my politics are mostly defined by what I don't want, where calling a bigoted woman for what she is a reason to apologise and grovel rather than say yes, she is a bigot.
So I want you to go out there tomorrow, if you're in the UK, and I want you to vote. There is no option for 'hung parliament' but just vote for anyone but Conservative. Are you in Brighton Pavilion? Vote Green. Are you in St Andrews? Vote Liberal Democrat. Are you in West Lancashire, like me? Vote Labour.
And let's all wake up on Friday and hope like hell. Hope for a progressive coalition, the first small steps to something better.
[This small piece is not meant to insult, or provoke. I welcome honest and open debate and when I say I have Tory friends who are nice people I actually mean that but I can't agree with voting for Cameron in the same way I know you're horrified I'm voting for Brown.]
