I can’t vote for any of the Parties, so I’m going to Vote for Andrew
For many of you, you are probably already bored of the UK election, some of your may be thinking there’s no point in voting and reel out the “all politicians are corrupt and just want our money” but I think voting is really important. In fact if I ruled the world I’d make not voting illegal.
Perhaps I have been brain washed from an early age about my duty as a citizen. But its more than that. There are too many people around the world dying, literally, for the chance to vote, that to not to seems... petulant. As a woman I’m well aware of women who fought for a voice in the UK democratic system not even 100 year ago. Great grandmothers of women of my generation were force fed food when they went on hunger strike to secure the right to vote for women. Lest we forget ladies.
But mainly, I want a voice. If you don’t vote you forfeit that voice. Politicians only listen to people that vote. 65.1% bothered to vote in 2010, the Tories were the biggest party with only 36.1% of the vote. If all those who didn’t vote had voted for another party, the result would had been different. Your vote really can make a difference.
The problem I have in 2015 is that I am struggling to know who to vote for. I’m being asked to vote for a solution to a system I think is broken, and the political party system seems anachronistic, belonging to a bygone age.
Politically my formative years was spent in a Tory voting, Daily Mail reading household. My Gran used to put on Conservative Party fund raising ‘do’s’ for Norman Tebbit. My toes were dipped in Blue Waters, and it actually took me until my 30′s to ‘get’ what was wrong with the Daily Mail. Yes, I know, I’m a slow learner. But over the years my values and beliefs have changed and I guess I would plant my politics someone on the left of centre mark, not socialist (I still believe in free enterprise) but more left than liberal.
If someone else other than Miliband was leader of the Labour party, I might be persuaded to put my tick against the Labour candidate this election. The last few elections I have voted Liberal Democrat, but in a Labour stronghold it has always felt like I was wasting my vote.
I can’t vote Labour because of Miliband and Balls. I’ve read a number of books about New Labour, both biographies of the main players and commentators books, and well Miliband and Balls were part of Brown’s treasury team. The don’t come out of the New Labour period very well. Power hungry and responsible (in part) to running up huge amounts of national debt (this was before the credit crunch.) Their manifesto pledge ‘for responsible spending’ is like putting a reformed alcoholic with their two weeks sober chip in charge of a liquor store. Sorry boys but I wouldn’t trust you as far as I can throw you.
I feel sorry for the Liberal Democrats. Yes they have been part of the coalition, but as the junior partner they still have to concede ground to the Tories. They have measured some of the Tory policies and managed to introduce some of their manifesto promises. But Nick Clegg did the right thing for the country in 2010 and, although we have no idea what goes on behind closed doors, the two parties have been remarkably grown up and ‘non-political’ in their approach to working in coalition. The decision by Clegg in 2010 was a major reason why our country didn’t have to seek a bail out, and go through the indignity of Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. But I guess that’s life sometimes you get kicked for putting the country and principles ahead of personal political gain.
The Tories, have once again worked their economic fingers to the bone and achieved an improving economy. They might be ‘Tory scum’ but read your history and every time Labour leave office the cupboard is bare. The Tories take all the flack for putting in the hard yards of turning around the economy, and then when everything is finally improving Labour get back into power again, and repeat the cycle of spending too much and not making good use of the upward trend in the economy. The Tories always end up having to the spade work only to have Labour wastefully harvest the fruits of their graft.
But though my inclination is to hold steady with the economic turnaround, I can’t bring myself to vote Tory. I mean, I respect their economic prowess but they are the nasty party. £10 might not seem much to someone who think living off £68K is impossible but having suffered from terrible economic times myself, I know from painful experience the difference £10 can make to eating or not eating. It is shocking the inequality in this country. For a party who is so dedicated to ‘getting people off of benefits and into work” allowing a position where wealth is accumulated at the top and ordinary working folk are exposed to hardship shouldn’t be, mustn’t be allowed to continue. And yet the longer the Tories are in power, the worse the gaps between rich and poor gets, and inequality is accelerating.
Which leaves the smaller parties. UKIP doesn’t represent the British people, they are a voice of the disenfranchised but it doesn’t stop them being racists and bigots. Plaid and SNP don’t have the interests of the WHOLE of the UK in mind and the Greens, well, their nice, but like Labour I don’t think I would trust them to run things. You know that saying ‘the road to hell is filled with good intentions...” I think that sums up my feelings about the Green party.
The NHS is important, but all the parties want to invest in it. Education is important, and all the parties will invest in it. Whether they tax or spend, and to what degree will depend on where their priorities are, but whatever party is in power will have to tackle the deficit and the national debt and anyway you look at it, the result is public sector spending cuts or higher taxes. No one can promise there isn’t going to be more austerity.
So I can’t vote for any of the parties. But I’m going to vote.
The result is, this election I’m changing my idea about how I approach my vote. This time, I’ve spent some time finding out about the candidates. Ian Lucas has been my MP for over 14 years, I have written numerous emails to him over the years and he has never responded to any of them. He voted to reduce local government spending... that’s right, he voted to reduce the amount of money Wrexham Council had to spend. He also voted against ensuring there is an equal number of electors per parliamentary representative. In other words he voted for gerrymandering, that is setting a political advantage by manipulating constituency boundaries. He also voted against having fewer MPs. (for more information see http://www.theyworkforyou.com) He doesn’t represent me, and he isn’t interested in my vote. Wrexham has been a labour seat since its creation in 1935, so I get the impression he thinks he’s sitting pretty as an incumbent and will be returned to parliament on 6th May 2015. Rob Walsh Liberal Democrats) is just not present. I’ve read his literature, but seen nothing of him. David Munnerley (Green Party) is only standing because he disagrees with Fracking, I think if it wasn’t for David the Green’s wouldn’t be fielding a candidate in Wrexham. I would never vote for UKIP because of the policies they stand for, and Plaid is just too Wales centric. But I did get a chance to have coffee for the new Conservative candidate for Wrexham, Andrew Atkinson. I started our conversation saying I couldn’t vote for Tory. But what I discovered was a man genuinely interested in helping Wrexham. If there is such thing as a Tory with a heart, Andrew Atkinson is it. He listened, we debated, and he shared his thoughts on some of my problems with their ‘nasty party.’ He didn’t try and defend them, like some fanatical moron who just agrees with everything their party leader tells them to think - Andrew is his own man and actually disagrees with some of his parties actions/policies. But it was his passion for his home town that swung me. He’s already got Wrexham issues raised in Parliament (Mobile coverage) - and he is not even an MP yet.
What could he do for Wrexham if he did get enough votes?
So yes, I am voting, but not for a party. For Andrew.
@andrew4wrexham