X marks the spot

Outside there is the most eerie golden glow as the sun sets. Half the sky is light, half the sky is dark as the rain falls from a thick dark cloud.

The weather, it seems, is undecided which, funnily enough was my state of mind a couple of hours ago.

There I stood, pencil in hand, ready to put a cross in a box but… which one?

Sometime in the next few months I’ll be leaving this constituency, so that wasn’t a huge consideration for me and, like many others I’m sure, I know that I didn’t want to vote for the Conservatives.

There is, of course, an odd slant in my ‘online’ life where most of the people I follow have a similar mindset to mine and I’d take a fair guess at many of them voting Lib Dem, some voting Labour and others voting Green. I’m sure one or two of them voted Conservative just as I’m sure one or two of them won’t have voted at all.

All of this didn’t really help me though, looking at names I barely knew, and trying not to associate the leader with the party politics. We don’t elect a Prime Minister, we elect a party so quite why there is such a large fuss about the personalities of the party leaders still puzzles me. Yes, of course one of them will be Prime Minister in the morning but it would’ve been good if the newspapers had focussed on policy rather than the fact that, for example, Gordon Brown called a bigoted old woman a bigot.

I will probably watch a bit of the coverage on TV then retire to bed, knowing that, come what may, someone will be in charge of running the company and I won’t agree with all of their decisions and policies. I will take care of my own affairs as I always have and deal with the consequences.

Others will rant and rave, moan and complain but, ultimately, there will always be politicians and as the type of person who is usually attracted to being a politician typically ends up more interested in power and money than the people they are supposed to be representing (exceptions to every rule granted) it’s safe to say that in a few years time I’ll find myself, once again, standing ready to cast my vote without ever being completely sure if anything really ever changes.

Comments

  1. It was a fairly easy choice for me. In our constituency, we have a choice between LibDem, Lab, Con, UKIP and Green. Only one is likely to be returned and it was he that I voted for, on the basis that I’ve been in touch with him on a couple of issues in the last three years and found him to be responsive and positive. I also think his party will do the best job, although I don’t agree with all of their policies – if I could “pick and mix” between the party policies, then I might get a politician that I could get behind. BTW, I think you are wrong, in part, to say that we vote for a party – we vote for a constituency MP who belongs (normally) to a party, that party being a funny sort of club for people with broadly similar ideas (although, compare Skinner with Blair, Bercow with Redwood or Clegg with, um, what Clegg said last week to see the diversity of opinion within the parties).

  2. Well that woman WAS a bigot. Stupid too.
    “Where are these Eastern Europeans coming from?”
    The answer is found within the question darling.

    I still cast my postal vote for elections in my home state of Iowa.

    I know exactly how I’d vote if I was a UK citizen and take an interest in how things are unfolding this morning. It looks as though nobody is really happy with the result and I predict there will be another election within a year.

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