Don't Worry About The Government

A year ago I was a victim of the recession.  Truth is I still am.  I'm earning less money than I was 9 years ago (and I hate to think what that means in real terms) and tomorrow I get to pass judgement in the election.  I've felt very disengaged with politics for about a decade and a half.  Yet this is a time when, more than in a good while, it looks like it could matter a great deal to participate and engage.

I spent the mid 90's dropping out and being a student.  I got involved in all aspects and became something of a student agitator.  I wouldn't call myself an activist as I always acted quite independently and didn't pin my political colours to the mast.  I fought on the identity politics platform and to protect the principles of Free Education.  This was something Tony Blair wanted to erradicate.  By filling the National Union of Students with Labour yes people, getting the conference to agree that the princple wasn't something anyone wanted any more.  If you want to know more about this, drop the MP for Glasgow Hillhead a line as that man, Jim Murphy, presided over this.  I've never forgiven Tony Blair for this, and I never will.  For me getting rid of the principle that education is free, at point of access, to all be they young or old, is a worse crime than the Iraq war.  It has consigned future generations to years of crippling debt spending longer to get a degree and having to take work when they should be studying, just to make ends meet.  If anything made education a place for the "haves" over the "have nots" it was that.

The truth is that the Labour Government haven't done half as much for this country as they would like to have done, and much less than they would have us believe.  Giving a mandate to them would seem wrong as they have to accept at least some of the responsibility for the state of the nation's finances and the recession.  It may have been steeper than anyone predicted but that does not mean you can absolve yourself of all responsibility.  The seeds of destruction were sown under their watch.

So for the opposition.  Apparently it's time for change.  I'm definately not convinced in the case of Daaaaaaaaaaaave Cameron and his posh boy Conservatives.  This is the party which has one ex-leader looking after Foregin Affairs and another formulating its social policy through the Centre for Social Justice which has to be one of the most perniciously disturbing organisations currently operating in this country.  The centre's policies are very old Tory as is there approach to Europe.  Cameron's viewpoint is to go in and debate vigourously with the leaders over getting the best deal for Britain.  Yet his MEPs flounder on the edges with homophobes and holocaust denying fools of the right.  It's a bit like watching the pushmi-pullyu from the Dr Dolittle books trying to go in both directions at once.  All would be a shame - even amusing - if this wasn't our future national wellbeing that was at stake.  There is something fundamentally not new, or fresh here.  I suspect a wolf in Thatcher's clothing lurks just below the surface.  With a soundbite friendly set of policies they seem to have culled from some old Daily Mail headlines this is a dangerously thin attempt to grasp power, and it's not convincing.

Which brings us to the Liberal Democrats.  This election has dispelled the fact that Nick Clegg is Cameron-lite thanks to some combative forces.  There are some great ideas here.  Not renewing Trident is an excellent idea, but too often the detail shows that the truly radical idea may not be quite all it seems.  It's as if they are scared to actually follow the conviction to its conclusion.  The tax ideas are sound and this is the party with more than one ex-city boy amoungst its front bench number.  Yet there are some doubts still as to what will happen. 

This election has produced the possibilty of one truly revolutionary possiblity.  The end of the first past the post electoral system.  If we want a great change in our country, I could not   think of a more beneficial and long term one than this.  Only one party doesn't support this and their idea to shrink the number of seats and give people the chance to recall their MP is a bit like giving an old banger of a car a new paint job and trying to pass it off as new.  This is breathtakingly arrogant.  For politics to mean something to people they have to feel like their vote really makes a difference.  It's easy to do: give them a system that clearly indicates their vote put someone in the House of Commons and not the lottery currently on offer where not bothering almost seems like a valid standpoint.  That's a very sad state of affairs for our so-called democratic system.

So go vote, express your opinion.  There's faults with all politicians and, as the old saying goes, "No matter who you vote for, the Government always gets in" yet your voice has probably never been more important than now.