Tuesday, 5 May 2015

I've Made My Decision

I can't remember exactly when I decided how to vote this coming Thursday.

Perhaps it was right at the start. In the twilight hours of May 11th 2010, as David Cameron took office at the end of the first general election I'd ever been part of.

Or maybe it was the next morning, when the man I had given my vote to stood next to Cameron amidst the May sunshine and the flowers, laughing and joking about their exciting new venture.

Maybe it was November 2010, when the party I had voted for went back on centuries of progressive principles, and its own claims of honesty, and saddled future generations with mountains of student debt.

Perhaps May 2011, when dreams of a fairer voting system were shattered by Tory duplicity.

Or March 2012, as I listened in disbelief to the Chancellor deliver his budget, putting taxes on lunches whilst cutting the top rate of income tax.

From September 2012 until February 2013, I was a near- NEET, working barely a few hours a week on a zero hours contract. Nothing will stoke your anger like unsocial hours, poor pay, a crappy job, and lots of time sat at home in despair.

Maybe it was the documentary I watched about foodbanks, in November 2012, which left me so angry I couldn't sleep that evening, so incensed was I at the thought that people were going hungry in a 21st century Western democracy.

And since 2013, the relentless rise of a political party which represents the most abhorrent parts of the body politic, which plays on the fears of the vulnerable, the poor, the exploited, and blames it on those from a different country. And the government, rather than taking the high ground, has pandered to the xenophobes.

That's not even counting the stuff I can't pin down. Bedroom taxes, badger culls, the EU. This government has not represented me in the slightest.

So sorry, Nick, but on Thursday you will not be getting my support again. I thought your party still had the remains of the Social Democratic Party in it. I was wrong.

Where does that leave me? The right wingers are out. Just on principle. Any political idea that sees the creation of money as being more important than the well being of the people can just sod right off.

The Greens. Ah yes. They have complicated things a lot. I am sorely tempted. But for every nine great policies, there is one fairly crazy one. No, I don't want Britain to leave NATO, have they seen what's happening in Ukraine? Actually, nuclear power stations are fine unless they were built by the Soviet Union. In fact, I think that being a member of Al-Quaeda, the IRA, or other internationally condemned criminal organisations is probably a crime, as I can't imagine they get many members who join for the benefits package. The Greens also surprisingly illiberal, with a nice long list of things that they would ban. I suppose my fear is that they've become a haven for idealistic, middle class lefties, who can campaign in poetry, but can't govern, to borrow from the late Mario Cuomo in the US. Oh, and Natalie Bennett. Most likely in the future, Greens. But not this time.

For 115 years, the left on this country has had Labour. God knows it hasn't always been perfect, or as left-wing as it could be. But in terms of real imporvements in the lives of millions of people, Labour has the track record, it has the ideas, it has the nouse. Hell, in Ed Miliband, it may even have the leader.

Now, I live in a safe Tory seat. But, in the midst of the mess of the morning after the night before, when the people will have spoken, but their message won't be clear, Ed Miliband is going to need every vote he can get in his quest for legitimacy. He's got mine.

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