Next year's going to be a big year for me as well as my age group. It will be the first general election in which I, and my age group, can vote. However, I fear that the turnout for next year among my age group may be lower than ever before.
Why? Because this Government is so divisive among our demographic. Why? Well, allow me to explain my thoughts. I want to say now that these are only my views and do not reflect the views of anyone else I know or anyone in general.
1. This Government had tripled tuition fees for students. No-one can deny that. That is a fact. The Liberal Democrats promised to abolish tuition fees if they got into power and it became one of their flagship policies. However, the Conservatives said they would triple it and, well, we all know who won that argument...
2. There appear to be more young people supporting the Conservative party despite their lives being majorly affected. The under-25 population are increasingly becoming worse off by the ConDem Government as it appears in the media that most of its policies seem to somehow rebound back onto us. Despite this, more and more young people seem to be supporting the Tory party. As a left-leaning liberal I personally find this staggering but it'd be a very boring world if we all shared the same views would it not? As far as I'm aware, out of my lecture group, there are only 3 non-Tories (myself included). Which I find frankly bizarre but I respect them nonetheless. In that group there are also two Thatcherites (in fact one of my best friends in uni is one of them. We don't agree on politics but she's a Whovian, a Sherlockian and a Queen fan so I let her off from time to time...) including one who is a self-proclaimed Marxist.
3. There aren't really any alternatives. There's Labour with Ed Miliband and Ed Balls in charge. Now, I like Miliband but I'm not too keen on Balls. (Take that any way you want to). And I think that if Labour were to come back to power next year I think Miliband should be very careful who he puts in his cabinet. Because I don't think, in this instance, two Eds are better than one. (Ba dum, tsch!)
Any way you look at it, it's going to be an interesting general election. But this is really all I can write right now due to the fact that I'm ill, I can't think of anything else currently, and I can't really make any more points without reading each party's manifestos which'll probably come out sometime later in the year.
But what are your thoughts? And if there was an election tomorrow, who you would vote for?
I personally wouldn't vote if there was one tomorrow but that's not to say that I'll do that next May...
Here in uni, I haven't met many (if any, come to think of it) Tory voters. That being said, there is a Conservative society, so there must be some. I am most certainly not intending on voting for them next year, but looking at the choice, there doesn't seem to be much of one. I have been disillusioned from voting for the Lib Dems (way to go, Clegg), and have no faith whatsoever in the Labour party nowadays (I am from a Blair-hating family, and although I think there is a certain potential in Milliband, I dislike the rest of the party, everyone seems out of touch in politics). Not a fan of UKIP either.
ReplyDeleteOverall, if there were an election tomorrow, I have no idea who I would vote for at all. I would still vote, but would be hard-pressed to think of who for. Now would be a good time for a SANE other option to appear (no, I do not count UKIP as sane).