boglin: (Default)
boglin ([personal profile] boglin) wrote2005-05-05 04:35 pm

Another voting post...

Well, I've just been across the road to vote.

I remember the first General Election I voted in was an incredably exciting experience, even if we didn't get the result we wanted. I remember the election when the Tories fell, and the sense of elation watching the results come in that night.

I've always voted Labour, voted from the heart as well as the head. And I've always been in the situation where I could vote for what I believed in. Even when the red flag stopped flying. Even after Blair's first term.

But, as many Labour supporters have had to realise, Father Christmas is dead and there ain't such a thing as fairies.

So today I voted to make a point. I voted because the thing I believed in doesn't exist any more. It may be that because of me, and everyone else round here who's done the same as me, we become a Tory seat. It's not something I've done lightly. And it's actually something that has made me very sad.

As I scurried back home with my poll card folded in half, two of Steve McCabe's minions were coming down the road, red rosettes fluttering in the breeze. One of them just caught me as I walked up the path.

"I'm sorry", I said "but you're too late - I'm on my way back."
"Oh" he says, sounding rather crestfallen "I take it by that, that it wasn't a Labout vote?"

So I told him I'd voted Lib Dem, and that although I'd always voted Labour in the past I couldn't do so with a clear conscience whilst Blair was in No. 10. He was very nice about it, and said he understood.

I told him that I hoped I could vote Labour again in the next General Election. And I do.

[identity profile] emma-emily.livejournal.com 2005-05-05 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I voted Labour but it took me a long while to make the choice. As youknow im as staunch a socialist as your good self and it comes to something when even we have to carefully consider not voting Labour. I respect your vote for the Lib Dems and totally understand why you did it even though i admire Blair and want him to win again. As for the elationof the 1997 election, that was some night! Its so sad to think how full of hope we all were and how wrong we were about what it would mean. Having said that i dont think any party could have lived up to what we all hoped for. But at least the country is in a better state than it was prior to '97.

[identity profile] quercus.livejournal.com 2005-05-05 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I want Blair to win too, I just don't want him to be such a cocky little shit.


(another LibDem socialist)

[identity profile] emma-emily.livejournal.com 2005-05-06 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
I totally understand that!!