If you're living in the UK, the last few months should have been a pivotal time for you, as we have been facing the General Election. An opportunity to vote for the political party which will run the country for the next 5 years is a bit of a huge thing for me, and I was far more excited this year than ever before.
This year saw my second ever 'proper' election, and much as the first one was a bit exciting (think, 'eep this makes me an adult now, capable of making adult decisions!') I never really understood the politics surrounding it. Such topics had typically never interested me, and a lack of education around political matters resulted in me having very little care towards the way the country was managed.
Since that day, however... I have been to university, been elected into my Student Union, helped to execute two more elections, worked in two different industries, and now have a vague idea of the career that I want to end up in. All of this has worked to shape my views and lead me to have my own political outlook on the world.
Anyway, this year I was greatly excited, anticipating the canvassing and fantastic debates that would take place both with the major party leaders, and with the people on my doorstep trying to win my vote. What actually happened? Well, we had a couple of live debates which were pretty fun to watch, although the Liberal Democrats didn't seem particularly concerned with gaining a majority vote. Clearly discussions had been had to say that they should just ensure that people knew they'd be great in another hung parliament and therefore they didn't even try to get a majority! Let's be honest, if we worked on 'Alternative Voting System', their method wouldn't have been a bad one. In a country where we, in fact, use 'First Past The Post', it's truthfully useless. I'm sure those 8 seats they got in Parliament will result in their opinions really getting heard *ahem, sarcasm*. Needless to say, Nick Clegg has resigned, and I'm not too surprised at this.
I don't know about the rest of the country, but I do wonder if the votes may have swung slightly if people had actually bothered to do any canvassing. The argument is that people live in a 'safe seat area' but how can candidates be sure of this unless they actually pull out all the stops?
The only people that bothered to send us any flyers were what I affectionately call 'the racist parties' who all seemed to crawl out of the woodwork in time for the election. So is it any surprise that UKIP came second in my constituency?
I shan't go into great lengths about my own party political views, but what I will say is that this year the parties got lazy. If there's one thing I learned in my university elections, it's that people vote for who/what they know and this applies to the General Election too. If someone has been in power for 5 years, the liklihood that people will vote for them again (unless they have done a particularly rubbish job and, let's face it, there have been far worse Prime Ministers than David Cameron. Not that I'm in any way endorsing him, by the way). So if people go into an election with a half-hearteed approach, that's what will happen!
Other parties, let this be a lesson to you: buck your ideas up next time, or it will be like Ground Hog Day all over again.
Oh, and something to think about David Cameron, you've discussed how you will support GP's and nurses, but what about the other practition roles in the NHS? I have met a lot of people who require a speech therapist, for example, but the funding simply isn't there to support them. What's in the pipeline to ensure that those who need it actually get the support from professionals rather than relying on unqualified volunteers to fulfil the roles? A discussion for another day, perhaps, but an area I would definitely like clarification on nonetheless.
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