For the first time since 1997 there’s a true sense that the government may change after Thursday night, the question that no one is certain of, is how?
Will we see the Labour party hold on to power, or will we see the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats pull off a stonking great victory which would see them take control.
The most popular belief seems to be that the election results will announce a hung parliament, during which all three parties will have to haggle their way for some form of positive result (I think).
While I’m personally ok with the idea of a hung parliament, one question has been plodding about in my mind for the past few days with growing importance, should I vote tactically in this election?
A tactical vote could mean that my constituency will keep its Labour MP (providing everyone else in my position also voted for Labour) however; I don’t personally want to vote for the Red Team.
That said, I can think of few things worse than a Conservative government.
Now, I might not be the strongest political thinker in the world but I’ve done some research and I understand why I don’t like the Tories.
One of my reasons can be described by this Venn diagram which compares voting records between Labour and Conservative cabinet members on the subject of gay rights.
I myself am heterosexual, so the voting records won’t personally affect my life, however I have friends who are gay, and I feel very strongly that all of societies members are equal, and that we are unable to have a free democracy if any member of society is deemed to be a lesser person.
Another reason for my concern is shown in this diagram which illustrates which budget cuts the three main political parties have announced in order to help fight Britain’s debt.
By viewing this diagram and discovering that the Conservatives have only declared 17% of their proposed savings. (At a time when, they claim, the other parties are not capable of leading the country out of the current tough financial times) I’m simply led to feel that the Tories have a far more sinister plan ahead for the rest of the cuts, one which will be detrimental to a significant part of British society.
There are other reasons as to why I’m not going to be voting for the Tories on May 6th, but if I were to continue I’d sound like a raving ranting liberal, and would detract too far from my original point.
Would a tactical vote for Labour actually benefit my political beliefs? Or would it simply be, for me, the lesser of two evils.
While I don’t see Labour in the same light as I view the Conservatives, I believe they leave a lot to be desired, and by that I don’t mean the cabinet personally, I mean my local council (although, some of the cabinet are awful).
You see, my local Labour council is truly dreadful, to the extent where they continue to dig up the local roads simply so they don’t waste their road maintenance budget, rather than simply deploying the money somewhere else where it’s needed more.
Granted I don’t know how easy it is to re-distribute council funds, but we’re in the 21st century and all my council seem to be doing is wasting money and causing needless disruption as a result.
The other problem I face is that thanks to boundary changes, I now have a local MP who seems to have no interest in my home town as all of the issues surrounding my home town still fall under the remit of my former local MP.
So when I have concerns about Transport in my local area, Crime, all the usual things, my MP isn’t really the person I need to talk to.
As a result I’m stuck in a political rut, do I vote for the party that I believe represents my views? Or do I simply vote for the party that I think has a better chance of keeping another party out of office?
It’s a confusing situation, but sadly I don’t think I’m alone with this dilemma for the election.
