The Election

Now I'm going to have to be careful here so as not to upset anyone...so here goes.....

Some of you may be aware that quite soon (I started writing this in mid-April) there is going to be a General Election in the UK.  If you live in the UK then you have been reminded everytime the news comes on.

In fact, I think, the only time it hasn't been the first thing on the news is when Richie Benaud passed away.  But even then Sir Richie was quickly shuffled down the running order (what do you mean he was never Knighted?).... I digress.

So, you are a first time voter - who do you vote for?  Well, it appears that there are several different reasons for voting for a certain party.

In no particular order;

You vote for the person who is best dressed?  This seems to be an obsession with the media - Ed/David is wearing a Savile Row/M & S (or Matalan?) suit.  Instantly there is an uproar about them (1) wasting money on clothes, (2) trying to dress down to get t' working class vote or (3) endorsing clothes made in the Far East.  Now I had a made to measure suit when I got married, have a standard High Street suit and have one from George do I cover all bases!  Now I appreciate that people looking smart is good and that the alternative (of them wearing T shirts & jeans) opens up another (huge) bag of worms but please you are in danger of going with the "they have a nice smile" approach to voting.

You vote for the party that has one speciifc policy that you like?  Last week there was a big thing that one of the shooting/hunting groups were saying that they were going to support one party because they might repeal the killing animals with dogs legislation.  Similarly, vote for because they will stop some double yellow lines being painted somewhere.  Please remember folks, yes be attracted by one policy but you get the whole batch of other policies as well (some of the time).

You vote for someone as they did well in the leaders debate? I was lucky in that I was away when this was on and so didn't waste two hours of my life watching people trying to put one over on someone else by scoring cheap points.  All the leaders are trained in how to deal with the media and so respond in a similar way.

You vote against someone as the press said something about them?  Over the past couple of days there has been quite a few people having a go at Ed Miliband?  Why?  Not sure why they feel that it is necessary to go with personl attacks (see also "Oooh!  Isn't their kitchen nice").

You vote for the one who you've always voted for/family voted for?  Again things change.  Do you really know what the different parties stand for?  What they stood for 50 years ago may have changed.  Many parties rely on this approach with their secure seats (all parties have them and know who they are).

You don't vote for <insert party here> because of their involvement with <insert something that has happened in the past 10 years>?  This is one of my favourites, a friend's late father never voted for a party because of the Suez Crisis.  I know others who still boycott parties because of their stance on the Vietnam/Korean War.  Yes, I know that these things happened but they were a long time ago and we have moved on.

Lastly

You vote for someone because someone famous tells you too?  What about that thing called freewill?  Many years ago Pete Murray (a well known DJ at the time) was on one of the breakfast programmes during the election campaign.  He turned to the camera and said ".....a vote for the Labour party is a vote for communism, may God have mercy on your soul!"  - to be honest the way he said it scared my slightly, it was said out of context and no other back up was given.  Sorry Pete (and all the other "celebrities" who tell me what to vote) but people can make their own mind up.  I wonder what may have been said had he accused another party of being fascist?  He is no longer with us so we'll never know.

Don't forget that the Monster Raving Loony Party were the first to suggest dropping the age of sufferate to 18 (from 21), pet passports, all day pub opening and commercial radio.  They also "shamed" the establishment into distributing supluses of milk and butter to charities following the revalation that the European Community (as it was) was dumping excess to maintain prices.

So, make sure that you vote (I don't care what Russell Brand says) - if you don't vote you can't complain. But make sure that you look at the policies of the parties (they are available on line).  You could even contact local candidates, in my experience they are more than happy to talk to you.

Here endeth my latest ramble.