AlanAllport.Com

The UK goes to the polls tomorrow for a general election that has, quite frankly, left me cold. For the first time in my life I really can’t, in all conscience, cast a vote.

I have considered simply not turning up at the polling station, but I think that what I’m going to do is turn up and spoil my ballot paper by putting on it exactly what I think of all the candidates and the system they represent.

Now, I have thought long and hard about this, it certainly isn’t a decision I’ve taken lightly. I am fully aware of how many sacrifices so many people made so that we all have a democratic right to vote in elections in the UK, but I’ve grown more and more cynical with the whole process which I now feel needs a huge kick up its metaphorical backside.

We’ve been regaled for the last year or more with tales that don’t reflect well on either of the main political parties of the wholesale abuse of the expenses system. If you add this to the, frankly, completely childish behavior that’s on display during just about every debate in the House of Commons and the political game playing that goes on, the complete unwillingness of politicians en masse to give a straight answer to a straight question, and the only thing that surprises me personally is that I’ve taken so long to become so disenchanted with the whole gigantic game of charades that I’ve decided there isn’t anyone fit for me to vote for.

I’ve been a Labour supporter all my life and I’ve never felt that this party was less worthy of being voted for than they are now. I feel completely let down and betrayed by the mental pygmies that have leading positions in that party today – including the person who I feel is the worst leader that they’ve had in their entire history. They don’t represent me, so they are not getting my vote.

The Conservatives – I’m totally allergic to them – have never voted for them, have never wanted to vote for them, have no affinity with them whatsoever, can’t see myself ever feeling comfortable voting for them in this lifetime.

We have a third party, the Liberal Democrats. Neither they nor their predecessors have been in power since before most of us can remember. They come across as totally naive and unfit to take the reins of power. If they had anything about them whatsoever they would’ve had a field day against two incredibly weak main parties. The fact that they haven’t tells you all you really need to know about them.

Another factor that leaves me totally apathetic to the whole system is the fact that your vote counts for nothing outside of your local constituency – there is no element of proportional representation whatsoever. In the past I’ve voted Labour but the constituency I live in is overwhelmingly Conservative – has been probably since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. So I’ve never actually been on the ‘winning’ side in terms of voting for the guy who ended up as this constituency’s MP in parliament – I think I can be forgiven for being a little tired of this after 31 years of voting.

And you know what the clincher is? I don’t think it’s going to make a fat lot of difference to this country in the grand scheme of things which party ends up in power, or if we have a hung parliament with no party having a telling majority – which is what the opinion polls are telling us is a distinct possibility.

For most of us, our lives will probably go on much as before and we probably won’t notice much difference.

So, with somewhat of a heavy heart that it’s come to this, I’ll be spoiling my ballot paper tomorrow.