Three days to go until the most significant General Election in generations.
Significant because we have a genuine chance of changing politics, of doing away with the decades-old hegemony of the two old parties. The Liberal Democrats are poised to be at least the second-placed party in terms of the popular vote, if not the first-placed. That result would – because of our broken First-Past-The-Post system – put them in a position to be the smaller party in a coalition or at least to support another party in forming a government in the balanced parliament we can expect to wake up to (or in some cases [ahem], to still be up for).
It is clear that that party cannot, must not, be the Tories. The Tories destroyed the fabric of this country in the 1980s, they decimated communities and saw the working class as something to be done away with – and they have not changed! David Cameron wants to give tax breaks to the very rich at the expense of the poor of society. He engages in scaremongering over immigration, seeking to play to the underlying racism and little-Englander mentality that sadly still exists in many parts of our society. I heard it said recently that UKIP is the BNP for people who can read and write. The Tories and UKIP are natural bedfellows, leaving the Tories a small step away from the politics of the BNP – not simply in essence but in the way they actively campaign.
I have railed against the Blair and Brown Labour administrations – regular readers of this blog over the years will know that – but it will have to be a deal with the Labour party on May 7th should the Lib Dems not be in a position to form a government themselves. Why Labour? Principally because the way we elect our government desperately needs to be reformed and the Tories will not countenance that – they want your voice to be heard even less than Labour do. Electoral reform should be a precondition of any agreement to support a minority Labour government – along with the appointment of Vince Cable as Chancellor, Nick Clegg as Foreign Secretary and Chris Huhne as Home Secretary. Once the reformed electoral system is in place, an election under the new system should be called as soon as possible to put to an end at last the broken system that has ruined British politics, disenfranchised many members of our society and disillusioned many more.
So, three days to go. When Thursday comes, go vote. Vote for a new politics. Vote for a brighter future. Vote for change, real change.
4 comments
Robert Forsyth says:
03/05/2010 at 17:31 (UTC 0 )
I agree with a lot of what you say, being old enough to have suffered several Tory governments.
I think some people vote Tory, because that is the party (overly) rich people vote for and in cargo-cult logic, if they vote Tory they must be rich. Like how some ill people won’t go to hospital, because hospitals are full of sick people, so if they don’t go to hospital they are not sick.
Nich Starling - Norfolk Blogger says:
03/05/2010 at 18:48 (UTC 0 )
I couldn’t disagree more.
If Labour have been thrown out of power, they do not deserve to buy our support with any offers, even electoral reform, because the public will not buy it if they beleive it has been brought in as a means to buy us off.
Secondly, if the Tories have more MPs and more votes than anyone else, they should be allowed to rule, as a minority government, as the SNP do in Scotland as and the Conservatives do in Canada. Conventions can be brokered to facilitate this because attempts to bring them down and cause a General Election will be unpopular with the electorate.
Finally, on timing, this is all too early. Let’s not give the opposition a stick to beat us with. Let’s let the electorate decide and then talk about it all on Friday.
Roger Whittaker says:
03/05/2010 at 20:52 (UTC 0 )
You might like this:
http://votegeek.org.uk/the-shape-of-our-democracy/
James Ogley says:
03/05/2010 at 21:25 (UTC 0 )
Roger, thanks for the link – skip-read it just now, will give it a bit more time tomorrow.
Rich, I’m a private individual, not a spokesperson for the party. I’m entitled to my opinion and I’m entitled to think realistically about where we’ll be on Friday morning.