There's just one week until polling day. It's almost here, that one day where the British population get a real say over who runs the country. We get to directly influence what happens in Westminster and decide on our next government. It's not just another day watching the pantomime of Labour and the Tories fighting it out on TV, or occasionally mulling over Question Time on BBC iPlayer, or getting angry at yet another controversial UKIP councillor's racist comments. We actually have a voice, we get to discuss policies that would affect our lives, we can affect change and our opinions finally matter to politicians. Well, I wish it were true...
Like millions of voters, my vote won't count. The likelihood is yours won't either.
I couldn't be a more politically engaged young person, and yet my democratic voice will be ignored. I am the national co-chair of the Young Greens (the youth branch of the Green Party), I sit on the National Union of Student's (NUS) National Executive Council, I have previously been the Campaigns Officer at my old Students' Union in Manchester, I actively campaign for free education and I get involved in as many other issue campaigns as I can fit into my life. So when I cast my ballot in the constituency of Stoke Newington and Hackney North on Thursday for the party I truly believe in and have spent years campaigning for, that my informed decision will not affect the result makes me pretty angry.
The majority of seats in this country aren't even disputable - they are safe seats. These are constituencies where either Labour, Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives have huge majorities over other candidates. They don't need to do that much to get re-elected, and opponents on all sides hardly get a look-in. Our political system is designed for a two-horse race, a contest where it's as simple as which of the two competitors crosses the line first. The answer isn't tactical voting, as some might argue. How can I accept that voting for the second worst option on the ballot paper is progressive? For me, I understand who represents my opinions, and so when I vote Green that should count.
Full story...
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- Working class and youth see UK democracy ‘rigged in favor of the powerful’
- The phoney election: Bogus rallies, photo stunts, vacuous sound bites, and the Press...
- If we don't vote for any of them, they might just go away...
- Young voters shunning major political parties as 70% say they wouldn't vote...
- Vote all you want, the secret government won’t change...
- Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush: Corrupt successors to the same old dynasties...
- Democracy in the United States is a ‘hollow myth’
