I am going to vote for the Green Party because their manifesto is the closest to my views. Everyone tells me it is a wasted vote. I tell them that voting for what you believe is not a wasted vote. However it is a wasted vote. 59% of people in my constituency voted Conservative in the last election. This is not going to change. The Greens have no chance. This means my vote has no impact. This is not right.
3.8% of people voted Green in the last election. They should have had 3.8% of seats. They didn’t. The archaic system meant they had 0.2%. My second choice, the Liberal Democrats, got 7.9% of the vote but only 1.2% of the seats. By contrast the SNP got 4.7% of the vote but 8.6% of the seats. The Conservatives with 36.8% of the vote got 50.8% of the seats! There was 6% difference in the votes between Labour and Conservative but 15% difference in the number of seats.
Voter turnout was 66.1%. For the 18-24 age category it was 43%. Maybe because they know that in most areas, their vote will have no impact. Maybe more people will vote if they knew their vote had a direct impact on the makeup of the government.
It’s time for a change. It’s time for Proportional Representation. It’s time for all voices to be heard and for policies to reflect all those voices.
I will be voting Green regardless as that’s what I believe but I will leave the polling station saddened that this will not be reflected at all in how the country is run.
