I’ll start with my thoughts on the title of this post. You may recognise it as a line from Disney’s Mary Poppins because that, funnily enough, is where it is from. It’s a reference to The Suffragettes and how they would be viewed by future generations. I am grateful to all those who secured my right to vote (albeit through some questionable means) and will be thinking of them when I visit the polling station on Thursday. However, I don’t agree with the notion that everyone has a duty to vote. I recently read a forum post by someone who said they had never voted because they did “not feel represented by any of the candidates present”. This is not unlike my own stance during the 2012 Police and Crime Commissioner Election. I made an active choice not to vote because I did not feel qualified to do so. Yes, I am thankful for the right to vote but I am equally thankful for the freedom to abstain from voting if I so choose.
Now for the choosing part.
I’ve had an idea of who I want to vote for but this has been based on a general perception I have of the party’s values rather than knowledge of their policies. Unfortunately I didn’t watch any of the leaders’ debates and I’m certainly not going to wade through any manifestos, which is why I used the Vote for Policies survey to guide me. It summarises each party’s stance on a variety of topics and lets you choose the ones you most agree with, without revealing who they belong to until the end. I first used it in 2010 and have kept it in mind since. I tried the 2015 version yesterday. I thought I would emerge with a clear winner but my results were much more mixed (to my horror in some cases). My “worst” choice was regarding Education but I don’t feel too bad about this considering it’s an area of which I have very little up to date knowledge. The biggest surprise was my choices for Environment and Health/NHS. These topics are where my strongest feelings lie and yet I chose the policies of a party who wasn’t even my 2nd choice.
The survey wasn’t perfect. I chose to evaluate all of the topics which made for a very longwinded exercise, especially given the duplication involved in the shortlisting (which, unless you are particularly ruthless in your approach, doesn’t actually make the list any shorter). The survey was a useful tool for decision making but its strength was as an entry point for learning about the different parties and their policies. After digesting my results I spent a good while looking back over the statements and making comparisons between them.
Confident that I knew whose policies I liked, I still had the issue of strategy.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about “wasted votes” over the past few weeks which makes me a little cross. Just because you intend to vote for a party you believe in instead of one that actually has a chance of winning doesn’t make your vote a waste. If everybody thought that way then we would never effect any change. My brother introduced me to the concept of a “protest vote” and I like that notion much, much more.
With my election thoughts sufficiently prepped for Thursday I will leave you with a song about political engagement. It’s the new one by Launch Control. They think about things, bang out some stomping tunes and are thoroughly decent individuals to boot. Enjoy!