(no subject)

[hathycol]

There 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.]

Comments

[dougs.livejournal.com]

I've given up the horror, because for every "Conservatives did X" story there's a "Labour did Y", and there's precious little correlation between what a party did last and what it's going to do next.

So the important thing to do is to vote, and vote in a way that makes you feel confident that you're doing it for the right reasons.

[balthaser.livejournal.com]

I still haven't got a clue who I'm going to vote for. I did some online policy match things & it came back BNP/UKIP followed by Conservative, but I don't think that that's completely accurate. When reading through the policies none of them seemed particularly perfect. I don't think any party would be perfect which makes it harder to vote because I don't agree completely with everything a party says. For instance, there's no way I'd ever vote UKIP or BNP even if some website say I seem to agree more with some of their policies.

I think even if I think that the I agree with policy X by the Conservatives doesn't mean that I agree with policy Y.
It's such a shame really because I know that change needs to be made but I don't think that any of the parties would make the country better. I suppose that's my problem with not really having a clue about it all.

[tau_sigma]

I am really hating this election. I want to make my vote count, I want to use it properly, but the only real options (in my constituency) are Tory and Lib Dem, and I don't want to vote for either one of them. It makes me sick how 90% of their campaigning seems to be horror stories about the other party's failings (perceived, true, or exaggerated), rather than positive statements of what they're going to do.

(I am horrified at the idea of Brown in charge again, but not at you for voting for him; I was lucky enough not to have to consider my dislike of Brown vs. possible liking of Labour policies, because they're so much a non-winner in my constituency. I hope that you won't hate me too much if I do decide to vote Tory. *sigh*)

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

It would, I must admit, be lovely to have a 'none of the above, please reform system now plz' option - they are all fairly awful.

And I won't hate anyone for voting Tory - the only thing I really, really dislike is not voting which is the ultimate Bloody Stupid Thing To Do. Also I could never hate you!

I think I should have been clearer in my post that whilst I dislike Tory policies hideously, my preferred outcome of this election - and yes, I'm saying this as a member of the Labour party - is a hung parliament to get some reform, so we don't have to have these horrible decisions again. Ideally, anyway.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

So the important thing to do is to vote, and vote in a way that makes you feel confident that you're doing it for the right reasons.

That is a statement I completely agree with. Apparently voter turnout looks to be quite high this year - queues at polling stations etc - so that's a very heartening signt that maybe people will care a bit about politics again.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I wish there was an option for 'they're all crap, can we have a better system please?' At the end of the day, I think the majority of us would be voting for that. I'm hoping - and pushing - for a sort of hung parliament that leans to the left as I reckon it's the best way to get that sort of change.

[gothmog-dave.livejournal.com]

What would be your reaction if a hung parliament meant there had to be a coalition between Lib Dem or Labour, and Conservative? Would this provide enough potential for reform and moderation of any raging party zealotry?

[balthaser.livejournal.com]

Well, in the end I just voted how my Dad told me to vote as he seemed to have some vague concept of it all. In that he said vote whoever you want in the local because it won't make a difference (Conservative will win) & vote Labour for General because Conservative are all about change but not being very clear on what that change is & it'll mean more unemployment & whatnot.

But yes, I do think they ought to take a hint from all the unease over this election that maybe they need to think of a new way of doing things rather than spending all our money whilst not really having a clue about the majority of people.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Cameron cheerfully refuses to talk about reform, other than changing the boundaries. This isan age old Tory technique - promise reform, give it very limited, but redraw constituency lines so more Tories get in.

So, er, it's better than a straight Tory victory, but not much better.