I don’t consider myself much of political commentator, I don’t think I honestly have anything interesting to say on the subject but, I do vote every election. I believe in democracy and by voting I believe I’m taking my opportunity to have a little influence over how things are run. I think a lot of people fought long and hard to earn us the right to vote and I don’t ever waste it.
I also venomously believe that if you don’t vote you are not entitled to complain!
If you don’t like how things are going, if you have something to say about the economy or your bin collection is late don’t come whining to me as you didn’t DO anything to change it when you had the chance. As my manager so eloquently put it, “Voting is your license to bitch”
So with my point of view in mind I was shocked today, not by how many people have come out in saying that they have lost faith in politicians , but by the number of people who’ve said they wouldn’t be voting at all. One lady I had and contact with had this to say on the matter
I have voted in every single election! BUT now politicians have lost my respect and all political Parties are as bad as each other in one way or another, It’s not just labour MPs, Tory’s and lib dems have been at it too.
They have robbed the tax payer,we feel like we have been robbed, my husband works full time and pays over £600 a month tax. …
Why should that go towards paying for some MP’s weekly shopping at M&S when there are poor families who struggle to budget for there weekly shopping at aldi or whatever cheap shop they have to go to.
First of all I want to say, Can I have a job where I earn enough to be having to pay £600 tax a month please! Maybe then I could give more to charity to help those less fortunate instead of sitting on my high horse bitching about the unfairness of the tax system, and secondly I disagree completely with her statement:
The majority of the politicians only took so much because the rules and the system are flawed. If I had job that said I allowed me to claim for carpets, curtains and a 3 piece suite ,a new outfit for every day of the week and everything else to go with it I’d do it, and, so I believe, would the majority people who end up reading this.
It’s the ones that broke the rules who are the real thieving bastards. The ones who didn’t just take advantage of a flawed system, but who knowingly dodged the rules for profit, Fortunately for most of us, they’re the ones who are falling over themselves to resign now before the shit really hits the fan.
So what’s the alternative?
By not voting and we run the risk of letting some fascist party like the BNP or UKIP take control because of voter apathy, and then we’d all be in a much worse place than we are now with a few crooked politicians caught with their hands in the till.
My solution is this, look for local alternatives, independent candidates the green party or vote intelligently….
Vote for the party who have acknowledged the problems with the system, are willing to, and are already making changes. Look for the party with policies you agree with and vote for them!
Some good points made here!
Some good points, but I don’t feel that people sshould be criticized for not voting. Sometimes moral confusion and an inverse political rubicon are confused with apathy. If people would rather sit out on voting as opposed to settling for the lesser of 2 evils then I say let them. I’d rather vote for a party on their merits as opposed to doing it merely to boycott another getting into power, however fascist and morally questionable they may or may not be.