Election 2010 – some initials ponderings…

This is a very quick and dirty look at the subject of choosing a party, I am deliberately not going into much detail at the moment

So, we are to have an election (at last)… of course this raises lots of questions, who to vote for, how to vote, should we even vote? Well, I am going to vote, but I am really going to try and not just vote strategically as I beginning to come to conclusion that its not worth the effort and can end up being worse.

So of course that means I need to find a party I can follow, which is no easy task.

Labour and Conservatives are just so far away from what I believe politically these days, when I was growing up I leaned towards Labour. The BNP and UKIP are at the best isolationist and the worst bigoted racists. Other parties are either too focused on special issues or are full of idiots that they are not worth my time

Most “christian” parties (which frankly belong under the previous single focus party statement) are either right wing groups flying a supposed christian banner, or they seem to want a return to a “christian empire” (aka christendom) where christianity gets special privileges or protections. I even saw one group claim some MPs were against their particular declarations when in fact they were just guessing they would be.

I digress, so where does that leave me, well, I should vote on the issues that matter to me, which are: Science and technology, environmental policies, equality for all regardless of age, race, creed, religion, sexuality, whatever, and an improved and fairer political system (such as proportional rep, a constitution etc).

Having looked at the current state of play of some parties election policies, there is still no perfect fit, there are two which are close runners, the Lib Dems and the Greens… which I never thought I would say, but they do have some quite good non-green focused policies, however they may still be too singular of purpose to be able to pull off any of their other policies. The Lib Dems are a known factor however they seem to have lost their edge of late and their actions of the digital economy bill have not won any favour with me (yes I know many opposed it, but so did some labour and conservatives)

So as time goes on I guess we shall see how these initial views change and develop.

I do hope that the UK people actually get out and vote this time. It is time for the people of britian to give a damn about their political system. When we look to other democracy’s we see greater turnouts, more passion, here we are lucky if we get enough to count.

So regardless of your views, political leanings, look past the spin, the rhetoric, open your eyes, investigate the parties policies, and look at their tracks records on their voting (either publicwhip.org.uk (more detailed) or  theyworkforyou.com), yeah the politicians have shafted us recently with scandals and idiotic bills, but instead of lapsing into apathy lets instead really show them and vote in record numbers for who we really want. Don’t listen to the nay sayers, every vote DOES count.