Tomorrow is the big day. Everything is about to change. But what are you going to do about it?
Working for a students’ union, the issue of the young person’s vote has been a big part of my day-to-day life for the last couple of years. MORI estimated that in 2001 only 39% of 18-24 year olds voted, compared to 70% of those aged 65. It also estimates that only about half of young people are registered to vote, whereas 96% of older people are. Politicians will only cater their policies/manifestos to those registered to vote as they think they are only people worthy of their time and efforts. In my day job we have spent the last two years campaigning to increase political awareness amongst our students and increase voter registration. And we did a pretty good job – amongst students in halls, we’ve increased the number of people registered to vote by over 550%! And we’ve also managed to get a polling booth on campus, making it even easier for students to vote. But when it comes to actually voting, how on earth do we decide who is worth our vote?
Image via
Again, in the day job, we’ve had several events on campus where we’ve invited local candidates on campus for debates, including candidates from the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Labour, Green, UKIP, Mebyon Kernow (Cornish party) and independent candidates. It was quite an eye opener as parties that I was initially against came close to winning me over and other parties I considered supporting soon had me rethinking my options.
Something I’ve always found infuriating about politics, having spent many hours sitting in the living room with my dad watching Prime Minister’s Questions, etc, growing up, and attending the various debates on campus, is that politicians spend more time arguing with each other and talking over each other than really addressing any of the questions put to them. I want to know what the parties plan to do for me.
The Vote For Policies quiz link was floating around the office a few weeks ago and I thought I’d give it a go. You just select the areas that are important to you (education, health, etc) and rank the policies that pop up. It then tells you how your views align with those of the different parties. Whether or not you side with the idea of voting with your heart or tactical voting (more on that in a moment), at least then you know a bit more about where your own priorities lie.
I took a similar quiz for the European Election and found that I most identified with the Green Party, just marginally ahead of the Labour Party, and so I voted Green. With this quiz, again Green came out on top but the Lib Dems were second, and with quite a significant gap.
Although the Green party wins my vote overall, the NHS and education are massive priorities for me, so should I still be considering those parties? I thought I’d give another quiz a go – TickBox is a pretty popular choice. You start out with an initial ten questions and can then add extra bursts of five questions. Green always came out on top with the second and third choices varying with the more questions I answered. I didn’t care for UKIP coming second the first time round! I reckon that was because of the amount of my ‘don’t know’ answers – I’m admittedly quite undecided on some things but feel very strongly about others.
For a long time I thought I’d be voting Green tomorrow but the more I’ve talked to people about it, the more I’ve heard it’s a wasted vote. Then I saw their video and I started to feel more strongly about it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPgS7p40ERg]
All I really know is that I don’t want UKIP to win, I’m still pissed at the Lib Dems for screwing over students and the Conservatives haven’t done too bad a job (I’m basing this purely on the Shred Parental Leave and Gay Marriage laws which have recently been introduced). On the one hand, the Green party sound great because they want the minimum wage to be £10/hour by 2020 and they promise to get rid of tuition fees but I can’t help wondering at what cost? And how realistic is this? And if a Green vote is a wasted vote, surely my best bet is to keep the others out and vote Labour. But then if everyone voted ‘tactically‘ rather than for who they really want/support, what kind of world are we really living in?
According to the Exeter Express and Echo, 10% of voters will be voting tactically: “Women are more likely to be voting tactically, at 11%, compared to 7% of men, while young people are the most likely age group to be voting to keep out another candidate, with 13% saying they will do so.”
All I know for sure at the moment is that people died for my right to vote and I plan to exercise this right tomorrow. But right now I’m still torn between two parties. What will you guys be doing tomorrow – voting tactically or with your heart? Or will you even be voting at all?