Vote with your head…
You’re not stupid.
You’re intelligent.
You can make informed decisions.
You’re not swayed by the right wing press, the left wing press, press barons and media owners, or a media so overly obsessed with ‘balance’ that it’s lost sight of what balance is.
You don’t like the reductive nature of the debate.
You question why some politicians won’t debate in public.
You’ve read all the manifestos you can get your hands on and can work out what makes sense, who’s lying (because they have a track record of lying), and who’s paying lip service to what they think is important to you just to get your vote.
You won’t let opinion polls sway your vote. You’re not going to fall into the trap of backing a winner. Because this isn’t a day at a race meet. You know it’s more important than that.
You know that this isn’t X Factor. Don’t you?
You’re not going to put an ‘x’ in a box because your parents voted that way all their lives.
You’re not voting for anyone just because you have voted that way all your life.
You know how important your vote is, even if it’s the first time you’ve done this.
You’re not voting for anyone based on purely selfish reasons. You’re better than that.
You’re not voting for anyone because of how they look, how they dress, what someone else with their own agenda has said about them.
You care about other people that might become the victims of the policies of parties vying for your vote.
You give a shit about the future.
You don’t like the politics of hate. You don’t want anyone here to feel marginalised.
You know that the rhetoric about recent events is only that.
You spit out the propaganda they’re trying to spoon feed you.
You know we’re at a turning point. That this General Election is important, a crucial moment in history. That things could get worse should the wrong people end up in power, or cling on to power.
You know which parties that have formed Governments previously have a track record of being liberal with the truth, of being divisive, of ripping the heart out of communities, of plunging people into poverty, of underfunding essential services that used to be the envy of the rest of the world, and treating the people they’re supposed to serve with utter contempt.
You know we’re in the last chance saloon.
You’re fully conversant with tactical voting websites.
You’ve read widely. You can see through bullshit.
You know that you’ve built a social media bubble around you that means that your sources of information are limited, but you’re going to burst out of that bubble for a while to assess what’s what.
You know that politics and democracy in the UK is broken and that some politicians can make a move towards undoing the damage that’s been done over decades and start to repair that and get us in a better place.
You know that a shift is required and you’ve been thinking about that, and how to make that happen, and you want to encourage other people to realise that the status quo doesn’t have to be maintained.
You’re not stupid.
You’re intelligent.
You might have party political allegiances, or feel apathetic, or angry, or let down, have been ground down over the years, or think that all politicians are self-serving liars, or may even have had a fleeting thought that you might vote for someone because they’ve got a nice set of teeth. You might even have harboured thoughts of tearing Westminster down because it’s utterly fucked up. But you’re savvy enough to put all that aside to go out and vote and vote for a greater good.
I wouldn’t dream of telling you who to vote for. I wouldn’t expect you to listen to me.
You can make your own mind up. I’ve got faith that you know what to do and that you’ll make a decision that you won’t regret come Friday.
You really do know what to do.
So, I’ll leave you to it. And see you on the other side.