Rule 1: Vote for others
I stood outside Stratford shopping centre the other day. The pavement was a teeming mass of humanity, everybody busy hurrying in different directions. Some were intent on going about their business, others clearly had no business to go about. There were people of every race and colour, each with their own very different lives to lead. There were families with several tiny children, pensioners slowly pushing their purchases home and groups of teenagers staring at an uncertain future. Most of the people I saw came from highly disadvantaged backgrounds, strapped for cash, lugging around cheap goods in flimsy plastic carrier bags, making ends meet as best they could. And when I cast my vote today I shall be voting for them as well as for me. I believe an election shouldn't be about how much I can get out of the system, it should be about how much better the system can be for everyone. Especially the shoppers of Stratford.
Rule 2: Vote on all the issues
Some people have tried to turn this election into a referendum on one single issue. For some people that issue is immigration, but for most people it's Iraq. Even among voters who supported the war you'd be hard pushed to find anybody who still supports the way the Government led us blindly into military action. Today's election finally gives voters the chance to voice their disappointment and to give the Prime Minister a well-deserved bloody nose. I'm particularly fortunate because the choice of candidates in my local constituency gives me the unique opportunity to cast my vote based solely on this one hugely important issue. But I won't. This isn't a referendum about the past, it's a vote for the future. It's a vote to decide who runs our hospitals and our schools, how our economy develops, how safe the streets are and what our foreign policy priorities should be. And I prefer to vote on everything, not one thing.
Rule 3: Vote
No matter what the election - local, national or European - I always make the effort to turn out and draw a cross on a ballot paper. I know my vote doesn't really make a difference, but I believe it's important to be heard. I know all the candidates are as bad as each other, but if I don't vote I risk letting the worst one win. And I know some people would prefer that ballot papers had a box marked 'none of the above', but that would be a cop out (and anyway, nobody would win, every time). It may be hackneyed to point out that people fought and died for the right to vote, but it's true all the same. SylviaPankhurst even launched her "votes for women" campaign literally a stone's throw from where I now live, and I feel I owe her something. I'll see you down the polling station in 15 minutes.
Vote050505: My 3 rules for voting in elections
