With increasing age one’s political beliefs settle. I know that the ideal situation for me would be one where people and business are left to get on with it and the government was there as a referee to make sure that it was as fair as it can be by creating rules and regulations. The government would not run schools but set the standards which schools should met. The government would not run a health service but would ensure that all could afford health care that met minimum standards set and policed by the government. The government would concern itself with the defence of the country and consider long term problems which the short-termism of capitalism might miss. An example of this would be ensuring the countries long term ability to create electricity, energy security as it is known. You get the idea. People and business can do what they want within limits and with this freedom comes the obligation of a responsibility to make it all work.
So for whom do I vote to foster this desirable, for me, utopia? Well, I have always thought that the Conservative party was the closest I could get but I have been worried by the Blair-lite attitude of David Cameron. I feel that he is peddling a bland centrist approach that was what the country clearly wanted twelve years ago; I am not sure that this is the case now. I am even more sure that what is being offered doesn’t hold the prospect of the sort of world I would like to see. My concerns about David Cameron are confirmed by a piece written by Gerald Warner in today’s Daily Telegraph, which I would heartily recommend reading. In it he concludes:
I know there are many patriotic, Conservative-inclined voters who flinch from such honest appraisal of Cameron. The vital thing is to get rid of Labour; Cameron is better than Brown; the Tories will come round; life would be more liveable under their rule... Sorry, but that kind of self-deception can only lead to disaster. Three months into a Cameron government, with Britain absorbed into Europe, protests ignored, the same PC tyranny, the same impotence in the face of mass immigration, the whole Blair agenda continuing, such comfort-seekers would recognise their mistake - too late.
The decades-old, arrogant mantra of liberal Tory grandees regarding their betrayed voters - "They have nowhere else to go" - no longer obtains. Dave will be responsible for the dissolution of the historic Tory Party.
Whither my vote now?
1 comment:
Before any of the negativists get their say in, let me say that who you vote for is secondary to voting.
I'm regularly accused of having certain partisan sympathies, but I'll never recommend making your mind up before you know what's at stake and definitely not to let someone else make you mind up for you. I have my principles and I stand up for these before, during and after any party talks about them.
So vote, but only do so in the full light of day, knowing as much as possible/necessary about the choice of candidates you have before you. And be a floating voter - this means you can change side and not feel guilty and you don't have to hold your nose to stick with the same party.
I think if everyone was at least open to the possibility that they could change the way they vote then we'd all be making conscious informed decisions rather than rubber-stamping someone else's selection.
It's up to each of us how we weigh our own sympathies, but so long as we actively weigh up the choice we are faced with then we can have confidence in the system of democracy.
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