But despite all that…

… I hope, as the very first (always Sunderland!) result comes in, that you voted. I don’t even care who you voted for, or whether you voted tactically or laid your ideologies bare upon the ballot paper. In this election, more than any other in recent memory, the point is that you voted.

I voted Lib Dem. Despite the importance of the front-page issues, you have to pay some heed to your personal circumstances, and as an independent musician and person who works mostly online, any major party opposing the ludicrous Digital Economy Bill was in with a chance of my vote. Add to that their better understanding of the importance of science funding, and it was a no-brainer. I’m basically a disillusioned Labour supporter who is genetically incapable of voting Conservative.

It’ll be interesting to see how the polls turn out, because the run-up to this election reminded me of 1992, but in reverse. The country needed a change, the economy was in a mess, Kinnock was in the ascendancy and the Tories were a spent force… or so the pundits told us. The polls pointed to a hung parliament at the very least, if not a Labour majority. And what happened next? The new generation of Labour voters lost its collective nerve, and we ended up with five years of utter incompetence at the hands of John Major.

I’m not crazy enough to try to predict anything like that this year, as the circumstances are so much more complex, but who knows…

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3 Responses to But despite all that…

  1. Martin Kelly says:

    Hi Adrian – I’m streaming the bbc coverage while enjoying my Steel Reserve (8.1%) and enjoying the 83F balmy evening in Florida! Go Tories! Oops!

  2. antal adriaanse says:

    i don’t understand why you the uk doesn’t have the popular vote yet. if i got this right, the votes went conservatives 36%, labour 29%, libdems 23%, other 12%. still libdems get only 57 seats. which is less than 9%. it seems unfair.

  3. adrian says:

    Yeah, it’s been an issue for years, but the two main parties have been resistant to reform. This time, it seemed like a possibility, but now, who knows? It’s most likely that the Lib Dems will have to form a pact or coalition with the Tories, but I can’t see that the Tories will offer them any guarantee of electoral reform. And Nick Clegg would be crazy to accept any Tory offer that didn’t include electoral reform… not just because it’s his opinion, but because he could lose huge numbers of supporters (even MPs). I can’t say I’m happy with how it’s turned out, but it certainly makes the UK news more interesting than usual :)

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