Just
2 days to go and still so many wondering who the hell to vote for.
Transparency, clarity and certainty are out the window as the news
offers nothing but an unending deluge of incompetence, lies,
manipulation and BS served up in slanging matches that just add to the
ugliness of it all.
The greatest fear for many - is another 5 years of dangerous government under the Conservatives (makes me shudder). The country and the planet are taking a battering and have been throughout their term in office - if it's broken, the Conservatives either broke or neglected it - so all their promises to make it better just sound like the lies they clearly are. Look at just about every aspect of our lives - and it's plain and obvious the government has failed and that government for the past 10 years has been Conservative.
BUT this doesn't mean that our votes HAVE to be for the only other party with a chance of coming 1st! It sounds like it should be true but it bloody well isn't. We're hounded and herded by those in the two parties supporting the 2-party system, into thinking "MUST VOTE RED to stop blue!" But that's only true in in marginal seats (so few) - the rest of us will not be able to change the current Party representing us because of the way our voting system (First Past the Post) operates.
[A general election is a nationwide ballot, but in reality the UK’s first-past-the post system means the outcome is decided in a few dozen swing seats which change hands.]
TACTICAL voting WILL REALLY MATTER hugely - but only in a small number of places:
Here are the top target seats for the main parties in 2019:
Conservatives:
Perth and North Perthshire (SNP, majority of 21 in 2017)
Kensington (Labour, 30)
Dudley North (Labour, 22)
Newcastle-under-Lyme (Labour, 30)
Crewe and Nantwich (Labour, 48).
Labour:
Southampton Itchen (Con, 31)
Glasgow South West (SNP, 60)
Glasgow East (SNP, 75)
Arfon (Plaid Cymru, 92)
Airdrie and Shotts (SNP, 195).
Scottish National Party:
Stirling (Con, 148)
Glasgow North East (Lab, 242)
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Lab, 259)
Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Lab, 265)
Midlothian (Lab 885)
Liberal Democrats:
Fife North East (SNP, 2)
Richmond Park (Con, 45)
Ceredigion (Plaid Cymru, 104)
St Ives (Con, 312)
Sheffield Hallam (Lab, 2,125)
*Do check if your area is a marginal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_target_seats_in_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election
For the rest of us - vote to change things by changing how you vote! Instead of voting between just 2 parties - venture out, it won't change the outcome but IT WILL CHANGE the value of your vote... (hopefully) you will deny the Conservatives your vote and increase the support for another party and this WILL WEAKEN those safe seats that have us locked into an undemocratic process.
Your vote away from the 2-party system will also weaken the 2-party stranglehold on truly representative parliament. If you agree that a 2-party system just doesn't fit a nation as diverse as ours, then *don't vote for the 2-parties that refuse to change it (*unless you're marginal then that's a different set of criteria).
Also, if the result is that neither red nor blue have an overall majority - they will have to co-operate with smaller parties to get things done and the more support those parties are seen to have, the more power (and ideas) shift.
It's shit that this is the way it is but as I'm not in a marginal - the choice is easier and with it, I'll at least know I voted with my personal truth. x
The greatest fear for many - is another 5 years of dangerous government under the Conservatives (makes me shudder). The country and the planet are taking a battering and have been throughout their term in office - if it's broken, the Conservatives either broke or neglected it - so all their promises to make it better just sound like the lies they clearly are. Look at just about every aspect of our lives - and it's plain and obvious the government has failed and that government for the past 10 years has been Conservative.
BUT this doesn't mean that our votes HAVE to be for the only other party with a chance of coming 1st! It sounds like it should be true but it bloody well isn't. We're hounded and herded by those in the two parties supporting the 2-party system, into thinking "MUST VOTE RED to stop blue!" But that's only true in in marginal seats (so few) - the rest of us will not be able to change the current Party representing us because of the way our voting system (First Past the Post) operates.
[A general election is a nationwide ballot, but in reality the UK’s first-past-the post system means the outcome is decided in a few dozen swing seats which change hands.]
TACTICAL voting WILL REALLY MATTER hugely - but only in a small number of places:
Here are the top target seats for the main parties in 2019:
Conservatives:
Perth and North Perthshire (SNP, majority of 21 in 2017)
Kensington (Labour, 30)
Dudley North (Labour, 22)
Newcastle-under-Lyme (Labour, 30)
Crewe and Nantwich (Labour, 48).
Labour:
Southampton Itchen (Con, 31)
Glasgow South West (SNP, 60)
Glasgow East (SNP, 75)
Arfon (Plaid Cymru, 92)
Airdrie and Shotts (SNP, 195).
Scottish National Party:
Stirling (Con, 148)
Glasgow North East (Lab, 242)
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Lab, 259)
Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Lab, 265)
Midlothian (Lab 885)
Liberal Democrats:
Fife North East (SNP, 2)
Richmond Park (Con, 45)
Ceredigion (Plaid Cymru, 104)
St Ives (Con, 312)
Sheffield Hallam (Lab, 2,125)
*Do check if your area is a marginal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_target_seats_in_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election
For the rest of us - vote to change things by changing how you vote! Instead of voting between just 2 parties - venture out, it won't change the outcome but IT WILL CHANGE the value of your vote... (hopefully) you will deny the Conservatives your vote and increase the support for another party and this WILL WEAKEN those safe seats that have us locked into an undemocratic process.
Your vote away from the 2-party system will also weaken the 2-party stranglehold on truly representative parliament. If you agree that a 2-party system just doesn't fit a nation as diverse as ours, then *don't vote for the 2-parties that refuse to change it (*unless you're marginal then that's a different set of criteria).
Also, if the result is that neither red nor blue have an overall majority - they will have to co-operate with smaller parties to get things done and the more support those parties are seen to have, the more power (and ideas) shift.
It's shit that this is the way it is but as I'm not in a marginal - the choice is easier and with it, I'll at least know I voted with my personal truth. x
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to add your voice to mine x