Party For Your Right To Fight

May 03, 2010 23:07

Not that the fate of the planet depends on it, but you may already be aware that on Wednesday it's my birthday, on which I turn twenty, er, one- and if you believe that, I'm truly a great fiction writer.

Anyway, the whole birthday thing is, for reasons lost in the ether of time, an excuse to receive loads of gifts and have a fabulous time using all your new presents. But there's a gift that all of us in the glorious UK have and not enough of us tend to use; a gift that took ages to track down and get only for it to be ruthlessly discarded. One that really should be taken advantage of this week, but for the majority (The majority!) of the population, will be squandered. I'm talking about the gift of democracy.

Being able to vote for the people you want representing you hasn't been an eternal constant. In the awful days of the feudal system, unelected lords who were favourites of the man in power ran the country and told people what to do, whereas now... er... anyway the point is that if you don't like the way that the country's being run, you have the opportunity to vote the people in charge out; if you do like the way that the country's being run, you have the chance to keep it that way- and it wasn't always like this. Hell, women in this country weren't given equal voting rights until 1928!

The common arguments against bothering are that:

- "all the parties are the same"- in a country which houses, say, the BNP, Greens and Communists that just isn't true. If you don't want to vote for the Tories, Labour or Liberal Democrats, then don't- vote for someone else. If you don't know their policies, find them out. As for the big three, to consider them "all the same" because they're all shiny, insincere-sounding men in suits does them a disservice. There's similarities for definite- they all list privatisation, public sector cuts and huge expenses claims on their interests- but they're still not the same.
- "one vote won't make a difference"- well here we could get into a debate about proportional representation here but instead I'm going to point out that one vote might not, but 100 people with the same mentality suddenly voting one way or another WOULD make a difference. As well as that, if you're sympathetic to one of the smaller parties, whether that's Plaid Cymru or the Monster Raving Loony Party, but think your vote won't get them in, look at it this way. If they get enough votes to retain their deposit, they'll be able to afford to do it again next time. Build on their support and get better funding. And in the long-term it will make a difference.
- "I'm not interested in politics"- this immediately gives you no right to complain about the quality of the emergency services; the amount of tax you get against your wages; the amount of money you pay for a drink in a bar or fags across a counter; any military intervention in a foreign country or, well, anything else frankly. Politics affects everything.

So yeah sign a birthday card for me by all means but I'd much rather you put a cross in a box at the election than putting your name in a card. Use the rights which we needed a revolution to achieve and which not every country in the world or even Europe have. Don't take it for granted and don't feel that you're excluded from the democratic process, because you're not. Vote early, vote often. Ideally, not for someone who will plunge the country into 10,000 years of darkness, but it's your X in the box I guess.

(incidentally if you are actually planning to get me a gift this year I'd much rather you put your pennies towards buying your own copy of Cemetery Drive so that we'll be able to afford to go to print)

democracy, politics

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