Another General Election
So here in the UK on 8 June 2017 we are likely to face another General Election. Even after the Prime Minister said mere months ago that the next one wouldn’t be until 2020.
So, everyone who hasn’t enjoyed our descent into madness/ screeching trip to the Right side of Rightsville, will be hoping to vote for someone other than the Conservative Party. Now, I appreciate that there is no better system than First Past The Post for the Conservatives, but we can all do our best to vote for other parties in the hope that they get as few seats as possible.
Firstly, if you are in the UK and eligible to vote, please register to do so, and then do so. I don’t personally mind who you vote for, or even if you spoil your ballot, but please take part in the democratic process. Only 66.1% of eligible voters turned out in the 2015 general election, and the 72.2% of the EU Referendum, was seen as a high!
Secondly, combined with that apparently high 72.2%, was a higher-than-expected youth vote. 61% of those aged 18–24 turned out to vote, mostly to stay in the EU. On the other hand, in the straight shootout with the 65 and overs, they lost dramatically to their 90% turnout who overwhelmingly voted to leave. I implore anyone who’s on the young side to get registered and vote. The older folks have made their voices heard, and let their votes impact on a future, that quite frankly, they aren’t likely to see much of, and it’s us younger folks who will have to live with it!
Lastly, why is it so hard to have a decent opposition in Westminster? I was really excited to see which way to put my vote this time, but it’s a bit of a comedy of errors. The Labour party faithful put Jeremy Corbyn in position as a clear change from previous centrist ‘New Labour’. But in disagreement with them, he wanted to leave the EU and most Labour MPs are biding their time until he quits the party leadership. He probably couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery at this point, as the rest of his MPs would probably ignore his texts.
And Tim Farron… Well the Lib Dems are still trying to recover from the perceived stab in the back by joining the Conservatives in 2010. They have always had some of the more forward-thinking manifesto claims, yet here is Farron showing just how out of step with the UK in 2017 he is. What an embarrassment. Unlike some, I won’t disassociate the politician and party leader from his beliefs. He is the representative of his party, supposedly the best that they could come up with. His religion shapes every single part of him, whether he says it does or not. If he thinks, feels or believes that anything other than heterosexual sex is some form of sin, he’s not getting my vote. I’m going to go back to the late Christopher Hitchens on this one:
I feel sorry for the rest of Farron’s party, but that’s how it goes in 2017.
Finally, In 2015, even if every single Scottish vote went to Labour, the Conservatives still would have had their majority, so no miracle strategic voting hopes there. Yet, while Labour has been self-destructing, the clearest and most vocal opposition to the Conservative government has come from the SNP in Westminster. I’ve never been a strong believer in an independent Scotland and would have voted against it in the 2014 referendum had I been a Scottish resident at the time, but I will say they have a clear agenda and stick to it in Parliament. Pushing a left-wing agenda that is rarely heard within the Commons. I would be intrigued to see how many individuals elsewhere in the UK would vote SNP to go against the Conservatives.
Anyway, I’m lucky in some senses. I now live in a safe SNP seat in Glasgow, so my vote won’t exactly matter much, but at least it won’t go to the Tories. I will follow the results closely.
