UK Politics

FPTP is child abuse

I live in the Huntingdonshire constituency. When John Major was our MP, this was the safest Tory seat in the country. Even now, with a privileged, chinless dolt as the local Tory (Jonathan Djanogly), the bastards are immovable. Our town council has never had a Labour councillor and other than a few council estate wards, Labour may as well not exist. As someone who has knocked on his fair share of doors in his time, I can tell you that Labour canvassers round here are about as well received as leprosy.

At last year’s General Election, I finally cracked. Instead of heading to the polling station, I gave the dog an extra bit of a walk and read my daughter a second chapter of ‘Horrid Henry’. Anyone who tells me this was a betrayal of democratic rights that our forefathers spilt blood to win, an affront to those who live under tyranny, can bite me sideways. I am confronted by a system that condemns my vote to the dustbin the second I make my mark. Voting anything but Tory here means participating not in the democratic process but rather a fantastic charade in which I’m not only a victim, but also a co-conspirator who knowingly confers legitimacy on a system that is designed to fail to reflect the preferences of the ever diminishing number of us persuaded to play a role in this electoral farce. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

Until the 2001 General Election, voter turnout since the war had never dipped below 70%. All General Elections this millennium have failed to reach 70% turnout, the highest being last year’s 65.1%. More than one third of the electorate just doesn’t bother. If you’re genuinely concerned about voter participation, this should appal. There are no doubt several reasons for such voter apathy, but a system which renders voting in all but 30 or 40 marginal constituencies a complete irrelevance cannot help. A switch to AV is no silver bullet, but tell voters that a failure to support the candidate commanding a plurality of votes does not render participation itself worthless, and you just might encourage a few more of us to climb out of our chairs every 5 years.

As any responsible father, I intend to mould my children in my own image. They will grow up believing that Annie Hall is the best film ever made, that Kenny Dalglish played football like no-one else and that you vote Labour if you’re not a heartless prick. But unlike the first two, they’ll be entitled to question the validity of the third edict if we persist with FPTP and they’re still in Huntingdonshire.

Vote ‘YES’ today to increase voter participation. Vote ‘NO’ to make two young girls confused, and possibly make them cry.

Bastards.