Aside from the occasional bit of sniping at various politicians, I’ve not said much about the election or politics lately. But politics is something I do feel passionately about and I reckon it’s probably time for me to make a stand and say a few words about this election.
Manic over at Bloggerheads has been helping to run the ironically named “Backing Blair” campaign, which is basically aimed at delivering a bloody nose to Tony Blair by getting people to vote for the party most likely to beat Labour wherever possible. Now, I’m not Labour’s biggest fan, and so far as I’m concerned, yes, Blair needs to go. And yes, I understand that the chances of anyone other than Labour winning this election are vanishingly small. So I can understand some of the logic behind asking people to vote Tory if this means that the Labour candidate in their area won’t get in – their claim is that it’s not a vote for the Tories, it’s a vote against Labour. Fair enough. But I’m sorry, I just can’t do that.
I mean, okay, in my constituency, they wouldn’t be asking me to vote Tory anyway, but that’s besides the point. Do we really want to give the Tories any cause for cheer on May 6th? Labour might be bad, but for goodness sake, Michael Howard is actually Satan incarnate. A swing to the Tories will affect increase representation in the House of Commons, so even though they won’t get to form the cabinet, they will have more voting influence over bills in the house.
So, as you might have worked out, I’m voting Liberal Democrat. My conscience will simply not let me do anything else. I’m voting for the one major party who opposed the war on Iraq. I’m voting for the one major party for whom international development is the core of their foreign policy, not just a tacked on afterthought. I’m voting for the one major party for whom civil liberties are not something to be thrown away when it’s inconvenient for the Home Secretary to keep preserving them.
I can’t vote Tory. I can’t vote Labour. I can’t not vote Liberal Democrat. I urge you to do the same.
Well said. And I actually can vote Lib Dem this time as we have a candidate in Stretford & Urmston this time. Got quite excited when I found that out – sad, eh?
I’ve done my duty (via postal ballot) and voted LibDem.
Already voted, but I’ll leave it till May the 5th to get my blog up on why I voted for who I did.
I think the country needs a better voting system so that every vote counts, no matter where it is, but if it doesn’t you need to vote with the people you want in power. If you want to make a statement, spoil your vote.