I'm having a weird week for lots of reasons.
It's hard to describe why. I've laughed and cried in equal measures – possible more than any other week this year.
I'm exhausted and exhilarated.
Anyway, I saw Gingerbread Man this week and he commented on the fact that I never talk about politics and the forthcoming General Election on my blog. I pondered as to why this was, and realised, shockingly, that it's because I don't know enough about it to comment in depth.
So yesterday, I sat through a Lib Dem party political broadcast – the one where Nick Clegg is walking in various locations surrounded by hundreds of sheets of paper.
‘Must pay attention,’ I thought to myself, and then I began to wonder whether they cleaned all the paper up afterwards or if they'd done a fancy camera trick to get it there.
‘Focus!’ I chided myself, and began to read the subtitles.
It has to be said that Nick Clegg gave a lovely speech. He uttered inspiring things about tax, education and the banks having to pay for the mess they make.
But then I remembered something Gingerbread Man said about how even if the Lib Dems come 2nd in the election and beat Labour, Labour will still have more seats than the Lib Dems because of way our system works.
And that naturally makes you think, what's the point? And I don’t think I'm alone in having this thought process.
When I read about the political parties' aims if they got into power, I don't believe them anymore. I don't believe that once they'd got in, the stuff that made people vote them in, would get done. And I believe that of all the parties.
Which once again begs the question, what's the point?
But then, even in my political ignorance, I’ve concluded that there is a point, and I will vote for someone and encourage my discouraged friends to put crosses in boxes, too. Because if we don't vote, then there's a chance that other parties, with even less honourable intentions than the three main ones, will gain more say in how this country is run, and that really might not be a good thing.
So that's it. That's my one and only, and quite frankly not very informative political musing.
Now I'm going to go back to wondering just how Nick Clegg cleaned up all that paper in his party political broadcast.
4 comments:
I think that was a pretty good political comment actually ... and you're actually right about voting. Disillusionment and absenteeism nearly gave us the National Front in France!
I totally agree and am so glad I'm not alone. I worry that we are in danger of electing a political party with extreme views through default rather than choice. It is so important that people make the effort to vote!
Amy x
‘On [that] world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.’
‘Odd,’ said Arthur, ‘I thought you said it was a democracy?’
‘I did,’ said Ford, ‘It is.’
‘So,’ said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, ‘why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?’
‘It honestly doesn’t occur to them,’ said Ford. ‘They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.’
‘You mean they actually vote for the lizards?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Ford with a shrug, ‘of course.’
‘But,’ said Arthur, going for the big one again, ‘why?’
‘Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,’ said Ford, ‘the wrong lizard might get in.’
Beware of wrong lizards! Vote! (Miss Brodie, are you registered to vote?)
Anonymous, That is a great little lizard tale. Where does it come from?
And yes I certainly am registered to vote... as a French citizen in France. However, a fellow expat and I were wondering the other day if we were still allowed to vote in the UK. It's true that I left a very long time ago so maybe I don't have the right to impose my vote on the rest of the British population when I don't have to live with its consequences!
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