 I have just returned from the polling station, where I
cast my vote for the local council elections and the UK general elections for
2010. As I stood in the voting booth, with my 2 polling cards, I had to
think long and hard. It took me 3 minutes, for me to just select my first
candidate.
The last time I voted in the UK General elections was an easy decision.
The Conservatives had been in power for a relatively long time, and they had
become complacent, riddled with sleaze and scandals, and had forgotten that
they are servants of the British public.
It was for this reason, I decided to vote Labour, I was not caught up with the
media circus "Things can only get better", "Education,
education, education" and "Tough on Crime, Tough on the causes of
Crime", that was the basis of Tony Blair’s New Labour spin-doctored
campaign, and in the last 13 years I now can see what a disastrous decision
that was, but in real terms what was the alternative?
This time round it was going to be different, I was going to make an informed
decision in whom I was going to vote for, the future of the UK is now at stake.
I was thankful, that there was only going to be 3 weeks of hard-core
electioneering going on this time, but it soon became clear me that the 2010
general elections was going to be a highly controlled choreographed smoke and
mirrors affair, where real people was not going to get anyway near their
politicians, to ask them the real issues that face this country.
I was so disappointed in times like this we need REAL leaders who can be
truthful, honest, open, make decisions and can stand behind and argue their
policies.
I read the party
manifestos, which did not make anything any clearer, apart from the
fact, the figures did not stack up and I have lost hours of my life
that I will never get back, on this nonsense.
The problem is that the British public is always on presented with two main
political parties, the Conservatives and Labour, with the Liberal Democrats
bringing up the rear, but in reality when looking at the political parties and
their leaders, I noticed that they:
- Are the same,
- Think the same,
- Sound the same,
- Act the same,
- Are all interconnected,
- Do not listen to us,
- Do not care about what we think and/or say,
- All
form part of the same network and
- Serve the same masters.
It was almost looking at a school's football team where you have the 1st
team, the 2nd team and the reserves. I leave you to decide which
political party is which team.
It is noticeable that not one of them was not tainted by the MP's expenses
scandal, all stated that they did nothing wrong, as it was done by the
rules.
All because the rules says it’s OK, does not make it right.
Where is the moral and ethical judgement of these people that are supposed to
represent us?
Gordon Brown's reaction to Mrs Gillian Duffy asking him questions, that most of
the British electorate want to know the answers to, was very telling and enlightening, and begs the question: - How many
MPs hold the British public with such disregard and distain?
- Are we just
peasants that need to be appeased once every 5 years, to continue their gravy
train of self interest?
In the 3 weeks of the election campaign, I did not see one of the seven
candidates standing for parliament, or one of the six candidates standing for
the local elections. Why is this?
I had a couple of leaflets through the door, which are now in the recycling
bin, and one candidate, sent theirs through the post, that was a waste of
postage, but I was amused when the contents concentrated on the education of my
children. If they knew me they would know I do not have any children, so
currently education is quite low down on my list of issues at the moment.
So after 5 minutes looking at the polling cards, I had to make a
decision.
- I had not met any of them,
- I do not know what half of them look
like,
- I do not know what they really stand for,
- I do not know what motivates them or
- I do not know how
they are going to help the community?
So I decided to look at which candidates lived in my local area. If you are
going to represent me in the local council or the houses of parliament, you
need to live, breathe, understand and experience my reality, before you vote on
decisions that are going impact on my life.
The question is how much choice do we really have in our democratic system?
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