After several weeks of campaigning, during which the truly vicious nature of the right-wing press was exposed for all to see, and the ineptitude of today’s allegedly wonderful Tory Party was paraded before the electorate not as a clueless leader propped up by minders and soundbites, but as the salvation of a once-great nation, the day has come when We The People have the final say. The time has come to vote.
But many people, especially young people, may say, what’s the point? What difference will their vote make? How can they alone effect change? Won’t the world look more or less the same the morning after polling day, wherever they put their cross? I mean, look at all those really important things that could take up the whole day and mean there was no time to go and vote. Like, er, sitting around and whining that voting makes no difference.
And that, in a nutshell, is why we get Governments chosen by older voters - because they are the ones prepared to go out and vote. That is why young people get saddled with student debt, unable to even afford the deposit for houses and often dependant on older relatives to give them a helping hand. It will stay that way with the certainty of night following day unless more of those younger people get out and vote.
What will also be a reassuring constant in our lives will be the propagandising, bullying, intrusion, monstering, blagging, dustbin-rifling, hate-mongering, lying, deceiving, sneering, swaggering, and uncaringly self-serving behaviour of our free and fearless press. Should the Tories be returned to power, Theresa May will be a prisoner of the Fourth Estate, dancing to their tune, doing their bidding and powerless to curb their excesses.
Or, of course, if you don’t want that to happen, you could go and vote.
And what will also happen if the Tories get that increased majority is the sound, starting just after 2200 hours tonight, of their supporters cat-calling, yah-booing, leering, and generally lording it over anyone of dissenting view. “We won, haw haw haw, you lost, suck it up, aren’t we just so f***ing clever?” will be one of the more coherent Tory cries.
Some who are not part of the £80,000 plus a year club, not part of the press, pundit or Westminster establishment, will also cheer, mistakenly believing that they, in voting Tory, have done the right thing, their patriotic duty. They will have been had for mugs. The Tories won’t give a flying foxtrot about them - until the next General Election.
Many will believe the Tory spin on Brexit, that Theresa May, David Davis, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox are a credible negotiating team. Anyone believing that is beyond deluded. Jean-Claude Juncker, Michel Barnier and their pals will have the hapless Brits for breakfast - and our country will suffer grievously as a result.
Polls show a Tory lead - partly because they are weighted in the assumption that many younger and less well off voters will not go to the polls. There is only one way to prove them wrong, and that is to get out there and vote (did I mention that already?).
It is entirely possible that your vote will not make a difference. But by not bothering, you turn that possibility into a nailed-on certainty. There is only one way to effect change, and that is to go and vote today. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
6 comments:
By 10pm tonight the die will be cast.
Be it ever so tiny, Tim(!), you have done your bit with honest comment. If people choose to ignore the warnings they deserve in full measure what will inevitably follow. I don't always agree with you, but our opinions roughly coincide.
I have voted Labour despite holding the constituency MP in complete contempt. She's a careerist member of the New Labour cabal - not even a local woman - who has done the square root of fuck all for the area, let alone confronted the tories at every available opportunity. Like Hilary "Bomber" Benn, she's a time-served traitor to everything the Labour Party once stood for. Hopefully one day she'll be turfed out of the party on her disgusting arse. I don't want to vote for her, but at least it'll be a vote AGAINST THE TORIES and their thievery and corruption.
This shows how awful are some of the "choices" in front of electorate, especially since the woman will probably be near the front of the queue to stab Corbyn in the back if and when the election result flies in the face of a civilised society. Like her cohorts she's an utterly despicable specimen of the type who stink out even our corrupt version of "democracy".
If the tories win, they won't govern in my name, not ever. They are the front men and women of an evil creed alien to the best of human nature. They will be a government of occupation. And we all know where that leads.
You say that the polls are " weighted in the assumption that many younger and less well off voters will not go to the polls". That's because it's true.
Here in Crewe we live in a time where the 18-25 age group can't even cross the road on their own* and need some device to help them - as in almost every task of their lives. The concept of making a decision, going to the Polling Station and using a pencil to mark a paper is beyond many.
And look at the after work telly today. BBC1 has Eastenders and the Redrock spin off. ITV has two doses of Emmerdale. Many will struggle to balance that schedule without the added inconvenience of going out to vote.
And that's before you add in the bloody awful weather!
So weighting the prediction and not just using what people said in advance is reasonable.
*Before some young person taps out a reply on a smartphone, probably without punctuation or capitals, I'll explain why I mentioned crossing the road. Here in Crewe we have a troublesome roundabout which causes massive delays, mostly because of the traffic lights. So the council are going to completely rebuild it - without the lights. But the lights also contain pedestrian crossings and the assumption was this would result in carnage. The planners sent out people to audit the usage of the crossings and found out what I could have told them all along. The older generations don't bother with the red and green lights, they cross in the gaps and have no trouble doing so. Only the young, mostly from the neighbouring Uni, stand in the rain and wait for the green man to light up. And the Uni is closing - so we won't need the crossings!
“We won, haw haw haw, you lost, suck it up, aren’t we just so f***ing clever?” will be one of the more coherent Tory cries.
You mean, like Stewart Jackson did at the last election?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgGoOOwXip0
I did my bit and voted this afternoon. Weaver Vale is a knife-edge marginal with the previous Tory incumbent defending a majority of just 806. I'm glad to report the turnout at my polling station has been good.
SteveB: "the young… stand in the rain and wait for the green man to light up"
Well, duh: that's because they're in a group of more than three and they're holding a conversation with them. It's just oldies like you and me who go around in ones and twos without anyone to talk to.
"It is entirely possible that your vote will not make a difference."
I've lived for 15 years in constituencies which were very safe seats. I have always voted, but my vote has been a mere formality every time, and my MP has been happy to disregard my opinions and wishes. I think that First Past The Post is still a disgraceful and undemocratic system, and I want to see it gone.
"But by not bothering, you turn that possibility into a nailed-on certainty"
More than that, Tim: by not bothering, one ensures that someone else's vote ends up counting for *more*. And the odds are that someone is a person you disagree with. So, yes, VOTE!
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