Guest Blog - Be brave; the voting booth is not a time machine - By Donald Lyven

By Donald Lyven,

 

If you’ve been paying even a casual attention to recent current affairs you may be vaguely aware there is a General Election coming up next Thursday; I think it’s even been mentioned on TV and radio once or twice!

This one has been a long time coming; what with that 5-year-term malarkey foisted upon us back in 2010, we’ve been looking at its approach for ages, like an express train far in the distance that looks so small and hardly moving, until it roars noisily through the station at colossal speed.

Well likewise, this election is speeding up and before you know it, it’ll be the week after next, and we’ll all be wondering what the fuss was about.  A bit like Christmas really; much anticipation, a bit of excitement on the day, and then the drudgery of the tidying, mountains of washing up and then the debts to juggle with over the weeks that follow.

Of course, in the General Election’s case, after the excitement of the count, the days that follow will be all the juggling of loyalties, back-street deals and shaky alliances between the flotsam & jetsam of MPs from the various parties, who would have won their seats in this harsh political fight we’re witnessing, but still wonder whether they’ll end up in government or opposition.

Have you made up your mind yet?  It really does astound me the way some people seem to be fearful of voting for a particular party for fear of inducing the wrath of the gods and bringing back some displeasing past experience.

I’m referring to the odd conversation on the doorstep like: ‘Well, the last time I voted that Labour lot in, they went to war with Iraq, they didn’t fully repeal union laws, and they brought in Academy Schools; I don’t want to make those mistakes again’.

Time moves on.  People, aspirations and priorities change.  It’s this constant evolving of a political party’s internal dynamics that make the next term of office different from the last, or should do.  Nothing surely gets the backs up of the electorate than a leader saying: ‘Vote for my party and we’ll carry on as before!’  Because chances are they will have pissed off more folk, than those that have benefitted from their past doctrinaire reign.  I welcome and always look forward to positive change.

If Cameron had promised something really different, he may even have persuaded some new voters to go his way.  Their campaign has been mostly negative, boring and gaffe-ridden; and seems to perpetuate the undercurrent of the nasty party; and only really benefitting the better off.  For Cameron to say Russell Brand was a joke also seemed unnecessarily mean-spirited and evidently a very stupid thing to have said.

Personally, I have become poorer over the past five years like no other time in my life and yet never worked harder.  I have been directly affected in an adverse way by Tory implemented policies.  So sorry Cameron, like your once air-brushed posters I don’t believe what I see.  And what is it with the local chap Freer; why does he think blocking local residents from his Twitter account will do his cause any good at all?  We all know what eventually might happen if you choose to keep your head in the sand!

Labour too have made some errors but their campaign has been the livelier, more fun, positive and the one full of much needed hope and potential change.  For many voters currently, and I include myself in this, hope is all we have left.  Removing the cruel and barmy bedroom tax is a good enough reason on its own to vote Labour.  The Twitter sensation that is #Milifandom started by @twcuddleston has shown everyone that being positive is the better way to behave during a political campaign.

Poor Nick Clegg; one only wishes he and his FibDem ilk receive better treatment at the Job Centre the following week than unemployed people currently do.  For completeness, I feel the need to disclose I am also a quarter Scottish….

Democracy as we have it in this country is never perfect.  Until a change to true PR is implemented; we have to work with what we’ve got.  But don’t be afraid to make a change.  The truth is the voting booth is not a time machine.  By voting Labour, you won’t be summoning up the governments of Tony Blair, Callaghan or Wilson.  Similarly those voting Tory can’t bring the Thatcher era back no matter how neatly they mark their cross on the ballot paper!  If Miliband wins, he’ll either grow into the job as Prime Minister, as incumbents do, or in due course be replaced as even Thatcher ultimately was.

I have voted in 10 General Elections so far and contemplated carefully who got my vote on every occasion, due to reasons I thought correct at the time; and that has included tactical voting.  There was also the spell I married into the green party, with whom my then wife was heavily involved and I felt duty bound to switch; but that allegiance ended more than three years ago when I could see the destructive shift to the right Barnet Tories were heading, and I returned to the Labour fold, the only party in Barnet capable of deposing them.

So this time, as I have done in the past, I will be voting Labour, and locally for Sarah Sackman, who I have met and seen speaking on several occasions, and like everyone who sees her, has been mightily impressed with her depth of knowledge and experience.  And some people just have it, that ability to captivate, enthuse and inspire.

Those who steadfastly vote for one party throughout their life are similar in a way to the intransigent non-voter; they probably don’t really care about issues, fail to understand their individual responsibility and unable to read the political mood locally or of the nation.  It would be like only ever shopping at Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s; sometimes it’s good to see what another shop or brand of politics may do for you and your fellow citizens.

Locally, with all the daft and expensive shenanigans our local Tory party got up to, with the Future Shape/easycouncil /One Barnet privatisation scheme they and their council officer overlords wanted, would any rational fair-thinking constituent have voted them back in last year?  Course not.  The Tories relied on the careless voter and apathetic non-voters who drift through life without a thought, yet probably curse at any unfair parking ticket they received, not realising their part in letting NSL blight our streets.  The expensive mistake of paying Crapita to ru(i)n our services is already coming home to roost, as the ever-observant Barnet Bloggers are weary in keep reminding us.

Last year’s council elections were close mind; with the Conservatives losing many seats to be eagerly picked up by aspiring Labour candidates with the help of intelligent empathetic voters, who could see the bigger picture and how the Borough of Barnet was being ruthlessly dissected and hived off for profit.

Remarkably this Thursday is special for Barnet in a way much like in 2010, when the General Election coincided with the Local Council elections; there is a by-election!  Five years ago all 63 council seats were up for grabs and the count took forever with several close recounts.  This time Barnet Council could change hands on the throw of one seat in Hampstead Garden Suburb.  It’s an all-or-nothing opportunity for Labour to wrest control with the help of the one Liberal Democrat councillor, after 13 years of Tory misrule, a time for all concerned people in the Ward to do the right thing, and show compassion for those in less prosperous districts of the Borough and vote Labour.

Miracles can happen, but a fly in the ointment makes matters harder; the local Greens, bless em.  With the current knife-edge situation at Barnet Council with the slimmest of majorities of just one seat, is there any Barnet citizen facing library closures, or resident of West Hendon, Sweets Way, Grahame Park and Dollis Valley estate facing eviction, who is thrilled the Greens are standing in the Hampstead Garden Suburb by-election?  I don’t think so.

Please vote next Thursday, but please be mindful too of the good and the damage that can result in countless people’s lives by putting that seemingly simple cross in the correct or wrong box.  You have the power; use it!

On Election Day, march forth, change history and forge the future….

Thank you,

Donald Lyven

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Guest blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye

Donald Lyven is a resident of the London Borough of Barnet since its formation in 1965 and has lived in Finchley in all that time.  He knows all parts of the borough through his work as a decorator and is a member of several local committees and a keen allotment gardener.  This Thursday will be the 11^th General Election he will have voted in….