Today, the date of the UK General Election was announced – 6th May 2010.
Cue a month of bickering and generally pointless arguments for the next 4 weeks as the pathetic group of politicians desperately try to talk down the opposition rather than give reasons why you should vote for them.
I’m not going to start a discussion on who you should vote for, I’m going to discuss WHY you should vote.
Quite simply, we are fortunate enough to live in a democracy and when given the opportunity to cast our votes, we should not treat it with apathy. It is still within the living memory of many people who fought for the very existence of this nation and I can guarantee you all one thing – if our right to vote was taken away, we would most certainly miss it.
Its easy to fall into the trap that there are only two parties to vote for. In reality, under the present electoral system, there are only 2 parties who can realistically form a government but voter turnout rates are dropping all the time. Many people are understandably disillusioned with politicians and just refuse to vote. In my opinion, this will never change anything. Constituency boundaries need to be revised but sitting at home and not voting will not encourage change.
I’m 90% sure who I will vote for but I do know that I will vote. If it comes to 6th May and I haven’t decide, I will simply spoil my ballot paper. That way, it will be recorded in some small way. There should be a box for “None of the candidates” but there isn’t so spoiling a ballot paper is the way to do it.
Perhaps if enough people who have no intention for voting for one of the 3 main parties, decided to vote for a minority party, independent candidate or just spoil their ballot paper, the politicians may start to take note. Compared to what the people of some countries go through to cast a vote, we have it very easy. Its about as difficult as popping down to the local shop to buy a pint of milk.
