Richard Hawley wrote:
They are all utter and total c***s every last one of them,we don't just need a change of government we need a new system cos this just isn't working for the majority of people,if the Tories get back in though and they start slashing the welfare state and the NHS we will see poverty and suffering in this country on a mass level not seen since before the war.......I find it terrifying that anyone could vote for them......but then again Blair took us to war and huge debt...........are there any other options?help please
I agree. We need a new system, a new way for society to be. I am terrified, not for me, because I feel I’ve done the right thing and tried to speak out for what I believe in. I’m scared for my kids and what will happen to their world, when the story of how people fought for rights in the past is dimming into history.
I feel standards are constantly being lowered for them – it was ok for middle aged politicians to have had free education, grants, benefits, a living wage, permanent jobs, pensions, a good NHS. But will it be there for them? Today’s politicians have enjoyed the benefits of the brave, new optimism of the welfare state, then pulled the ladder up for their kids and grandkids. And that frightens me.
As for voting, I think if you’re in a safe, safe Labour seat or a safe, safe Tory seat, you can vote for who-ever you like. If you are in a marginal, you have to vote to get rid of the Tories and vote progressive. If I was in Thanet, I’d vote Labour, just to make sure Farage (who the word c**t was made for) didn’t get in.
But I won’t be voting Labour this time. I’m in a safe Tory seat – Ian Duncan Smith, in fact, shithouse that he is. Asked the Labour candidate what he thought about cuts in my son’s music school, which I have been campaigning against. He said he agreed with the cuts and I should think myself lucky it hadn’t been cut before!
He obviously doesn’t want old school Labour votes like mine, people who are anti-austerity, don’t agree with cuts, especially in education. So I am going to vote Green or there is a trade union coalition party in my area, I might give it to them. My vote won’t be ‘wasted’ as I’m using it positively, to vote for something I want not against something I don’t.
Coming from a solid Labour tradition, I am sick and tired of my party doing nothing to properly stand up to cuts before an election, then scaremongering if I want to vote for someone else on polling day. The truth is, we have a Tory government now and we’ll have Tory lite if Labour are elected. And the sad thing is, they just admit it when you ask them.
Saying all that, I’d rather fight a Labour government than a Tory one but I’ll leave that to people who are going to vote for them.
I think the time is long overdue for something else. I have been really interested in the Green, Plaid, SNP women, who have been passionate and articulate and offer a real alternative. Whilst I’m generally not a nationalist, if I were in Wales, I would vote for Leanne Wood, who I really admire.
I think that, whatever happens, good people have stand up and do something, especially for the NHS which I think could be gone in my lifetime.
Off my soapbox and on to the wine now. Take care all. x