Monday 12 April 2010

Can't vote won't vote

Who are you voting for? I just realised that if I want to vote I need to apply because I moved house. But do I really care? Can I be arsed... really?

I hate them all equally. I would never vote Tory on principle. Labour are not socialist any more, in fact they've been more fascist, paranoid, and restrictive, they've done more to damage our civil liberties and turn this country into a police state than even the Tories ever did. The Lib Dems are clueless and unlikely to get in.

And they all make whatever pie in the sky promises they like before an election, and there's never any guarantee that they'll ever do it afterwards. Some of them individually may have integrity but once they get sucked into the system it becomes all about jostling for power.

I can hear my mum's voice saying "Think of the suffragettes!" But I also remember Emma Goldman saying "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." And Douglas Adams writing "... if they didn't vote, the wrong lizard might get in. "

To sum up,you do the best you can with what you've got. They're not the best we've got. I think I don't believe in our political system anymore, only in grassroots politics.

15 comments:

  1. You should take to the streets with whips and knives, that'd change things for the better (not in a nasty spidey kind of way).

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  2. Violence is not the answer, Tuesday Kid, though it is very tempting sometimes.

    I've just read your blog from the beginning, by the way, and I love your writing. Everybody go and read it, right now!

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  3. There's a shiny library to go to & vote in for me.

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  4. You can still visit the library without having to vote though, Billy.

    (One thing I quite like about elections is that school is being used as a polling station so we get a day off. Huzzah!)

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  5. If teachers get a day off, it's worth voting.

    I feel for y'all though, really. I might have to come back one day.

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  6. Heh, I like that Douglas Adams bit. Or, as the song in South Park put it: "We've been given the right to choose between a douche and a turd."
    I wonder how many people out there must think it's pointless voting for the Lib Dems because they'll never get in. Enough to get them in, quite possibly. Not that I have a clue what they stand for, really. But can they be any worse than the Conservatives or the Even More Conservatives?

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  7. Arabella, you've got the big O - that was an exciting election. What do we got?

    I tried this yesterday Andrew, but the site crashed before it got to tell me whose policies I'd chosen:

    http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

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  8. Ah, I've just done it again. Apparently I'm all for the Lib Dems, except for the Greens on education. So, Green Party it is...

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  9. Annie, according to that site, it's going to be a Green/Lib Dem coalition running the country...

    I've given up trying to get my vote from abroad. Have sent the form to the council twice, only to be told the form had changed, or I'd filled it in wrong. Or something. And I gave up because I felt uncertain, in any case, how much say I should have in who runs the country when I haven't lived there for 100 years. Have thrown my lot in with the Boche now, though I won't be able to vote in the General Election here until I become a citizen, though European and local elections quench my vote-thirst for now.

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  10. Yes, wouldn't that be interesting? You are good, trying to vote from afar. It shames me. Are you not a citizen yet? Is it a long boring process or something?

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  11. I too pondered about voting from abroad. Technically I am entitled to do so, but also doubted whether morally I should be able to, and have hidden my voter apathy behind this moral veil. On one hand I have disenfranchised myself by not applying to vote in the UK because I can't vote in Spain (other than European & Barcelona mayor) and I also hear my mum saying "but women died etc etc". But, the Suffragettes won us the right to vote, we surely also have the choice not to exercise that right. I am convincing myself that it's OK not to vote morally and not just because I can't be arsed (although I'm encouranged by Pleite's lack of success, I'm going to pretend I tried too but the pesky london council messed up my forms, yes that's my story and I'm sticking with it!). Huzzah for day off school for you though!

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  12. I think it's okay morally if you feel you've no choice - in other countries they have "none of the above" boxes on their cards, I believe... but stories like this stull make me feel guilty Em...

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  13. I know, I know....

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  14. On the other hand, my anarchist friend was advising us to burn our ballot papers in protest, so you could always claim you are in solidarity with the anarchist perspective.

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  15. Yes, I could turn to my namesake "Red" Emma Goldman!

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