There are more than two parties...

I am fairly interested in politics but I am so fed up with the run up to the general election. It seems to me that this election is about choosing the worst from a bad bunch rather than anyone talking about their policies. ‘Vote for us because we won’t fuck things up quite as much as them.’ Well that is all well and good, but what am I going to be voting for?

Let’s be honest, we all know that politicians make a lot of promises they cannot or will not keep during the election build up (see Lib Dems and tuition fees…) and that leaves a lot of people not even wanting to vote. It’s a case of why bother voting when very few of these policies will go ahead? So how are we supposed to decide who to vote for?

I have found the BBC policy guide to be really useful and simple to understand. You can find it here.

As it stands, it looks as though there will either be a Conservative or Labour government. This is leading to a lot of people considering voting for one of these parties purely because they do not want the other. Many of my friends who want to vote Green are planning on actually voting Labour to avoid the Conservatives winning.

While I completely understand the thinking behind this, consider what might happen if this was not the case. Who would you vote for if there were no statistics and polls flying around? Who would you really want leading our country for the next 4 years?

If people continue to see it as a two horse race and just choose between the two big parties then it will always be this way. Vote for the party that you really support rather than who is likely to beat the party you hate. If you support a smaller party then vote for them, give them the chance of getting bigger. There are more than two parties and as long as we keep failing to see this then there will only
really ever be two options.

Personally, I do not like the thought that in a so called ‘democracy’ we are led to believe that we only have two options – Labour or Conservative. That is not true. We have more options and we should remember that. So I urge you, in the general election, to vote for the party who you would want to win if we had no idea who really stood a chance. If people start voting this way and looking at all the choices then politics might actually slowly start to change in this country and become more representative.

I really believe that things would be different if people realised that voting for smaller parties is not a ‘wasted vote.’ It is encouraging those parties to keep going because there are people out there who share their values. It is showing the bigger parties that they might need to adjust their policies. Otherwise, they will keep doing what they have always done knowing that they will get votes because people have no hope of anything changing.

Politics in this country can change. It does not always have to be Labour or Conservative if you do not want it to be. Do not let the past define your vote. This vote is possibly the only chance you will get to voice your opinion and have it make an impact in the next four years. Use it wisely.

Do not let the political system in this country fool you into thinking that Labour and Conservatives are the only parties in this election.