Over the last 6 weeks we have had politicians do all of the talking. Now it is your turn to respond. The election is today. The last 6 weeks are just the ‘lead-up’. This election is right now and it involves you. Go to your local school, post office or wherever the polling station is and put your cross next to the party you believe gets your vote. And BRING ID!
Who to vote for is both personal and not. Politics is a really tricky moral and philisophical matter that has various different uses, means and origins. The democracies the true answer to what the point of politics and ‘voting’ is relies heavily on the era, the nation, the culture and the topics of the day, as well as the topics of yesterday and the topics of tomorrow. In that sense there is no real obvious way to approach politics and the choice of who to vote for.
If you consider yourself politically homeless you COULD take the political compass test (there’s a free version on the internet: https://www.politicalcompass.org/test) or you simply consider this concept which we will make as mathematic as possible.
What is your level of compassion: FROM 1-10
What is your level of faith: FROM 10-1
What is your level of reason: FROM 1-10
Total: /30
Your answer will then give you an understanding of where you are. Where does politics stand on the numbers? Well, if you scored high on the first question you will probably be looking for more left-of centre parties. If you scored high on the second question you are probably looking to those on the very right or left (depending on your answer to the first question). If you score high on the third question you will probably look for something on the centre. This is probably the most basic form of understanding your politics.
The danger of political apathy is strong but non-voting is in itself a choice. If you think not choosing somehow absolves you of responsibility then you are very wrong. Non-voting is a simple rejection of the status quo and indeed the political system, BUT it can be spun be political extremists to indicate a desire to see the entire system overturned. Don’t let your decision be manipulated by bad actors, which can be done with a high percentage of non-voters. Politicians will manipulate your vote however you decide to vote, so maybe you might as well let the politicians you like do the manipulating if they do it at all.
Tactical voting is a big thing in UK General Elections due to the nature of our electoral system. It is a form of negative voting because tactical voting really means that your main motivation is not voting for you who want but voting against what you don’t want in your local area. Tactical voting is going to be huge, and the Labour-Lib Dem pact is specifically designed to coordinate tactical voting. This method of voting is not rudimentary on the right, mostly because the Tories up until recently have monopolised on the right-of-centre vote. In this election this is not the case but there is no such coordination (mostly because the Tories just can’t stomach working with other parties during an election). Tactical voting is a sad reality and one that true democrats cannot and should not endorse. It’s negative and it ends up inflating support for one party or another far more than their arguments have merited.
There is a big issue with people voting for a party or an individual who has no realistic chance of winning according to the polls. It is a big turn off to think one’s vote is ‘wasted’. What’s the point of voting if my vote will simply get ignored and in reality no MP really represents those who DIDN’t vote for them, despite what they say (and they will say it) on getting elected. Some do, they end up being locally very popular, but this is few and far between in the rough and tumble of Westminster politics. The Frank Fields of our time are in short supply, maybe only 100? Who can tell. The answer to this pessimistic attitude is to consider this; if everyone thought that then nothing would ever change. Sometimes you just have to just spend 10 minutes of your time going to the polling station to vote for someone you know will not win. If enough people do that within the local area then hey presto they win. Change does not happen with a lack of courage and a procession to victory; it starts, and ends, with courage. Luckily for you the price of courage is being paid by those standing for election. They have paid the price with their reputation on the line. All you have to do is back up their courage. They believe, whether they state it publicaly or not, that they are doing a service for you by giving you the opportunity to vote for them. You can reward them with the vote. Even if it goes nowhere, each vote is a tick of appreciation that someone had the courage to stand. No vote is wasted. Democracy not engaged in is a wasted democracy.
So what do you vote for? Yourself? The greater good? Whose greater good? Ultimately the question is moral and philisophical and you only really know what that is as soon as you have the pencil (bring a pen) in your hand hovering over the voting paper. You’ll know by then. And vote in the full knowledge that this is not just an election for tomorrow, or next week, or even the next 5 years. Democracy is linked between parliaments, between elections, and what you do will echo for years to come. Though politicians come and go, and promises come and go, and issues come and go, the wave of democracy in the sea of freedom carries on. What you do affects the next 5, 10 years and if you don’t believe this then look at the history of politics in this country. Elections link together. A narrative tapestry is woven with each passing time. 5 years is not a long time. Who knows, maybe there will be an election in 4 or 3 or even 2 years from now. Your vote will affect how others vote in the next general election when it comes to viability of a party, viability of choice and viability of the importance of your vote (swing seats get more political attention for example). Your choice affects others. Is that going to change your vote from a selfish one to a selfless one? Do you want to be still involved in a personal way with voting and the politics of the day? We can’t answer that one for you. You’ll know WHEN you go to vote.
We here at the TDL Times want to encourage positive voting. Vote for who YOU want based off of YOUR value structure. What do you value MOST? Yourself? Your family? Your local community? Your national community? The global community? Some deity in the sky? Don’t listen to the boring ‘a vote for __ is a vote for __’. These people have a vested interest in how you vote. They will benefit from this line of thought, not you. Don’t listen to the argument that a vote is a wasted vote. Don’t be tactical. Vote for what YOU want based off of what is important to you. If everyone does this then our politics becomes better, less toxic and more honest. Politicians are naturally reflective of the kinds of votes from the kinds of voters they get. Good voters create good politicians. Cynical voting, or voting based on toxic attitudes related to how you should vote leads to cynical politicians. If you want a better politician vote on better lines and attitudes. We are as much to blame as we are to take the credit for the value and state of our politics.
Our electoral system isn’t great. In many of our articles we have mentioned again and again the shortcomings of our electoral system skewing our politics and making the national vote share almost meaningless in terms of the awarding of seats. This does not really matter. Outside of the winning party, it doesn’t matter how much of a majority they get aside from small dynamics in Westminster we have no control over as the electorate. It doesn’t matter whether the Tories come second or a distant second. It doesn’t matter if Reform get 1 or 4 or 10 seats. If the winning party wins with a majority of 1 then they can do what they like. If they get 50 or more then it really doesn’t matter if its 50 or 250. This election forces Labour to win whether we like it or not due to the nature of our electoral system (Labour are set for a landslide win when they are projected to get as many votes as they did in 2017 where they were something like 50 away from the 325 target). So in this election we are awarded an unusual amount of freedom to vote for who we want. If you vote for a party outside of the 2 establishment parties then you are voting for a potential change in the electoral system. A ‘supermajority’ doesn’t exist; if you have a majority then that’s all you need. Government defections only affect parties with a majority less than 10 or so.
But remember this; we don’t vote for a prime minister. We don’t vote the the individual ministers. We don’t vote for the opposition leader. We don’t vote for the people who make decisions. Heck, we don’t even vote for the civil service who pass more laws than in Westminster (look up something called Statutory Instraments). We don’t vote for those who sit on influential panels within Westminster. We don’t vote for the governor of the Bank of England. We don’t vote for those on the Office for Budget Responsibility. We don’t vote for anyone in the House of Lords. We don’t vote for government advisors. We don’t vote for the decisions governments take during a parliament. We just vote for our local MP, and that’s it. Our electoral system is an example of LOCAL democracy. What happens after that is completely out of our control as voters. It’s not great. There are tons of flaws in it, but whilst this is the game we are playing we have to understand the rules and play by them. If the rules ever change, and if there is a clamour for that change, then we can have another discussion about this. But the rules for the 2024 election are that we as the electorate must focus solely on our local battle, based on either local issues, national issues, or a combination of both. What happens afterwards we just have to hope it will be good. So don’t panic about things you simply can’t control. We don’t have that luxury. For now, vote for what’s in front of you based on a value structure that you understand yourself. Be aware of the possible ramifications of your vote, but don’t let fear of what might happen affect your decision today too much or you’ll end up not voting at all.
“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today”. These words etched on the memorial of the 2nd British Division cemetery in North-East India at Kohima should be in your head to help you choose to vote. Many went before you and paid the ultimate price so that you could live in a free democracy. There are millions of men and women who would give their all to be in the place you are in today. They bore the slings and arrows of autocracy, of fascism and communism in order for you to be able to go out to vote. It is not a choice, it is not a right to vote, it is a duty. It is always and will forever be a duty for you to go out and vote. You don’t get to live your life independent of the past; you are a product of it. Whether you like it or not the great mass of brave men and women fought hard and in many cases died so you could have the opportunity to choose who leads you, to bring down those who have led you peacefully and to choose a new and better path. You are the beneficiary of those who set this whole thing up and defended it. Now it’s your turn, and wow are the stakes far less for you to do your bit. Who knows, maybe in the future we will all have to pay another great price to defend what we have. But it is not this day. This day all we need to is take 10 minutes out of our day to vote. That’s a price worth paying. There was a greater price people wanted to pay before. Are you really any better than them?
Go out to vote for yourself, your cause and your country, in whichever order best suits you.
If you’re going to the polls and have a dog please take your dog, take a picture of your dog at the polling sign and post it on social media. We love to see it. It makes us happy.
Whether you are interested or not interested in politics remember this; politics is interested in you.
This article first appeared on the TDL Times. For more information, articles and more please visit www.thetdltimes.com.
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