The brilliant RachelCreative take on the importance of voting. It's *our* right. Do it.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that there’s an election afoot today. Actually, there’s two; both parliamentary and local council elections are being held to decide both national and local government. Who we elect today will have a profound effect on our lives for some time to come, so it’s worth taking time out to vote.
I was reminded to post this today after seeing the above cartoon by the wonderfully talented @RachelCreative, Lichfeldian local artist and top tweeter. Check out her blog and online Folksy shop when you’ve got five.
I’m not about to suggest who anyone should vote for. I don’t actually care what your political preference may be – all I urge you to do is to exercise your democratic right and help to shape the future of both your country and town. Some may scoff, but people died in order that we may take part in the democratic process, one that is denied so many of the world’s population. Our democracy and political scene are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s the best we’ve tried so far and has provided years of relative stability for both us and our forbears. If we want things to change, we have to involve ourselves.
To those who suggest that voting doesn’t change anything, or that not voting is a legitimate form of protest, I say this: your vote matters. It matters that we engage with the system. It matters that we register our position. How can one possibly complain about the outcome of a process if we do not participate in it? Another canard is that all the candidates are the same. They are not, and to claim as much is just lazy thinking.
At a local level, think about the candidate you’re voting for – have they been good to you before? Have they supported causes you feel strongly about? Have they been available for your consultation and ready to help? I honestly think that such factors are more important that party loyalty. Walsall has had good councillors and bad, right across the political spectrum. What matters is that they care.
You can catch up on the local and national elections over at the indispensable YamYam, whose coverage has been, and remains stellar. Don’t forget to follow @walsallcouncil on Twatter or Facebook, where a doubtless tired and bleary Dan Slee will be endeavouring to provide you with up to the minute info.
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“Some may scoff, but people died in order that we may take part in the democratic process”
People died, were imprisoned and suffered great hardship to get the vote, you’re right. The problem with this argument for voting is that the outcome they perceived of getting the vote was nothing like what we have today.
The belief was that the vote would redistribute power, that it would be a weapon in the hands of ordinary people. The fight for the vote was not a fight to be allowed to tick a piece of paper every few years it was a fight for freedom and equality. The vote has delivered neither. Power and wealth is just as concentrated in the hands of the rich and priveledged as it ever was.
“…provided years of relative stability for both us and our forbears.”
Relative to what? The shift to neo-liberalism in the 80’s brought about as much instability a country can stand while still maintaining a semblence social cohesion. This was carried out by a government elected using this system you want us to participate in. No one was asked if they wanted it because the winning party did not campaign on it. Rather then as now we got rhetoric about “prosperity” and “progress”. Of course a manifesto isn’t worth paper it’s written on, it’s no more binding than a tarot reading and usually proves about as accurate. Have a read of Labours ’97 manifesto for an example.
“If we want things to change, we have to involve ourselves.”
Yes, we do have to involve ourselves. How exactly is ticking some box or other involving ourselves in anything though? I’d say it’s quite the opposite. What you’re actually saying by voting is “I’m happy with the system as it is and I’m participating in it, I doesn’t trouble me at all that you can lie through your teeth before an election and do what you want once I’ve been convinced to vote for you”
“To those who suggest that voting doesn’t change anything, or that not voting is a legitimate form of protest, I say this: your vote matters. It matters that we engage with the system. It matters that we register our position.”
This is lazy thinking, you’ve made no argument here, just some assertions that are demonstrably wrong. How is voting registering my position? If I vote Tory for example am I registering my concern for the deficit or that in my opinion Dave has the best looking wife? It’s a nonsense and it certainly can’t be described as engaging. Any change that comes after the election will have been voted for by no one. We vote for people and hope they do something they said they would do that we like the sound of.
“How can one possibly complain about the outcome of a process if we do not participate in it? Another canard is that all the candidates are the same. They are not, and to claim as much is just lazy thinking.”
How can we complain about a system if we have participated in it? They need us to vote so the onous is on them to provide a system we want to engage with. Of course they don’t need to as long as we keep ticking those boxes.
Are the candidates all the same? In the most important respects they are – we have no idea what any of them will do if they get power. None whatsoever. Labour have deliberately delayed the comprehensive spending review to allow ambiguity for themselves and by extension all other parties. They can say what they want now and use the results of the review to justify anything. Also there isn’t any significant ideological difference between Labour, Libdem or Conservative and according the to IFS they are all being less than forthcoming with the details of how they intend to cut the deficit.
Change is coming. We’re facing massive cuts in public spending. We have no say in where or when these cuts come and how they are implemented.
Vote if you like but don’t kid yourself you’re honouring the memory of anyone or exerising any kind of meaningful choice.
If you do vote don’t moan about the policy implemented by the winning party – Whether you vote for the winner or not your vote validates the system that’s going to put them in power.
The fact that you’re able to get that huge rant off your chest – and lets face it, you provide no argument, no solution and no alternative – is because people died to achieve a society where we’re comparatively free to say what we want.
In short, your diatribe is only possible because you’re standing on the shoulders of giants with more vision and more perception of the cost of complacency than yourself.
No, it’s not perfect, but it would surely have taken less energy to vote than to type that lot in without any point except flippant condemnation of the achievements of past generations.
If I didn’t know you better I’d suggest you were attention seeking.
Bob
@Freddy: Your argument seems to hinge on the idea that by taking part, you think the system is fine. I’d argue that only by taking part can you have any input at all.
If you or I do not vote today, you can be assured plenty of people will, and then whoever gets the most votes in each constituency will win. Your argument only has merit if you convince everyone to not vote, thereby forcing a change because the existing system is unable to provide an outcome.
We all know the present system is flawed. Care to suggest a perfect alternative?
Really? I’d never have guessed. That’s not likely to change either.
As I said in my “rant” the onus is on politicians to persuade us to exercise our vote not on me or anyone who else who doesn’t vote to provide the answer. You might not recognise that fact Bob but the politicians do. The cross party commission for electoral reform exists for one reason only – To address the issue of low turnout.
You get yourself off today to vote and play your part in dividing up power between Thatcherite 1, 2 and 3. Don’t think it has anything to do with the ideas of John Frost, William Jones, Zephania Williams or any of the other people who fought for the franchise. It hasn’t.
Amazingly, “they” have been able to mismanage the polls across the country!
Personally, for the first time in 30 years, I had to queue to vote (at Shire Oak), not because of the volume of people, but due to the agonising slowness of the single person accepting the voting cards in the tiny caravan that passed as a polling station, no longer the multiple tables in a large airy sports hall, join the queue outside: good job it wasn’t raining. When I came out it was even longer, snaking down the path.
The TV is now full of stories of people who were not able to vote due to similar situations. One polling station didn’t even have enough ballot papers.
It would seem that getting us to actually vote has misfired as the polling stations can’t accommodate the electorate.
Ho humm……
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There’s also the obvious argument that if you don’t vote, the extremists still will—Nick Griffin got less votes in the European election than last time, but got voted in because of the low turnout. If you don’t vote, you’re effectively voting for the BNP and other extreme parties.
(He writes, after the election, knowing that in the event not everyone who wanted to vote was able to . . .)
The Euro vote was an odd one in as much as the BNP vote nationally rose from around 800k to about 950k. The reason Griffin got in was the collapse in the Labour vote which is how the missing electorate had voted in 2004. I can’t say I know why his vote fell though.
The BNP had an excellent outing this time round. Best far right result in this country ever despite the hype over the lost councilors in B&D – 12 council candidates with over 1000 votes in 2006 which rose 25 in 2010. Given the cuts coming from councils across the country there’s an argument that the 2nd party now are best placed for the vote in 2014 that’s simplistic though.
The worrying point is that in a number of wards including some in Aldridge iirc they’re normalised as the 2nd place party in sucessive council elections. I notice they’re on the verge of collapse as well, that’s got to be 10 sucessive years but this time it does seem to have more to it than previous issues they’ve rode out.
The result of this election including the whole electorate not just those who voted was: 23% Conservative, 19% Labour, 15% Libdem, 8% Various others and 35% didn’t vote at all, including me.
As I said in previous comments, the manifestos that we’re asked to vote on don’t mean anything as any Libdem voter can tell you or indeed any Conservative voter who didn’t want their NI to rise. Interesting times.
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