We could look at the crisis in Parliament in two ways; we could throw our arms in the air and give up, shredding our ballot papers or deliberately voting for someone extreme that we don’t really want OR we could take the opportunity to grab back our democracy.
In Zimbabwe, Iraq and other countries where the right to vote is new, fresh and seen as a great privilege, people will queue for hours and risk their lives to make their small statement on the type of government they would like working for them.
Here, we have forgotten how lucky we are to have a vote, at all. For years, I was just as bad, thinking there was little point voting because they were all the same. I didn’t think about the thousands who’d died fighting to give us a democracy, disempowering the robber barons who ruled by the sword from their palaces and castles.
Well, they say we get the government we deserve we are now paying the price for being complacent about the representatives that we employed. Because we haven’t kept a weather eye on the candidates the parties offer us, we are now paying for chandelier and moat cleaning for a cartoon caricature cabal of privately wealthy toffs and funding the property speculation of some champagne socialists who are, without doubt, playing the system. We haven’t cared about our government, so why should they?
Now, I see this as an opportunity for us. Perhaps it’s time we started studying not just the parties, but the people they give us. When we vote in the European and County elections next week, and the general election in a few months, let’s start taking a bit more interest in who is standing and what they are standing for. Do they really know the people they are representing? Do they argue intelligently or just toe the party line like a sheep? Can they debate well and so win your argument for you? Is their background knowledge useful to the job they’re going to do? Do they really seem to care or just turn up at the opening of an envelope with nothing of their own to say?
There are plenty of ways of doing it and it’s no good saying you haven’t got time. It’s too important to leave to parties or pressure groups to choose who is going to make our big decisions for the next five years. Every party has a website; most candidates have blogs. They’re all spun to suit their argument, but compare and you’ll soon work out what they really mean. The local press could do more but letters pages are a window into the attitudes of candidates – see if you can spot a standard letter sent by party central office or an honest self-penned expression by a candidate? Leaflets might be little more than adverts, but they often tell you something about the type of person who wrote it, as well as things about their opposition.
Then, cross-check their claims against government statistics, independent research and a range of the quality press. Are they lying to you or just trying to scare you with a twisted version of the truth? If so, you know where not to vote. And if the candidate is already in power, check out their performance on their authority website. Wyre Forest District Councillors, for instance, publish their expenses, attendance records and other aspects on the council website ( for 08-09 in Wyre Forest, see http://www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk/e-dms/resources/includes/file.php?id=2964) and you are entitled to go and view their detailed expenses as and when you like.
In the next two elections, let’s take our democracy back. Let’s choose our representatives on the basis of sound knowledge, rather than tradition. Let’s choose men and women who will represent us first and the party line second, so they’ll stand up in their assembly and speak freely, rather than being told what to say. Let’s choose people who really know their constituency and their constituents. I’m hoping to stand for parliament next year because, after years of not voting, I’ve finally realised that making Britain better takes community participation. I really believe I could do a better job than the current lot. We can’t just leave it to hereditary toffs, rich spivs and subversive extremists. We need to run our country ourselves and that takes work. Get out and vote but know who you’re voting for.
Neville Farmer Wyre Forest LibDems Parliamentary Spokesman
