Harry's Blog

I’m having a quandary today, it’s the local elections and I’m due to vote. But I find it hard to do honestly. I only moved into this area in October and know nothing of the local political scene. If I was still living in Stockport I’d have been out and voted already. But here in Brentwood, I haven’t the information to make an informed choice yet, I feel I have to live here a bit longer first.

This flies against my normal viewpoint. I believe that voting should be compulsory. I’m sick and tired of hearing people moaning about things they have the power to change. Local council elections such as today’s are pretty stupid too, due to the way people vote. On the one hand the turnout will be very low. Secondly the people who do vote will be die-hards making some kind of point.

I agree that the current Labour government has made a series of cock-ups recently, but I don’t believe a local council election is the place to make a stand on the issue. Local council elections are about getting your bins emptied, not trying to give Tony Blair a bloody nose.

I live in a predominantly Tory area. It’s typical Daily Mail country, mostly white, wealthy and full of genteel elderly racists who believe the evil foreigners are invading because they saw one black person yesterday. These are the gullible people the Daily Mail preys on and feeds with scare stories.

Here in my little corner of Brentwood, as you’d expect, the Conservative Party holds control of the council. It holds 21 seats, with the Liberal Democrats trailing behind with 13 and Labour with just 3. Yet it hasn’t always been a true blue area. Between 1991 and 2002 it was the Lib Dems that controlled the local council. Before that the Tories controlled the area for as far back as 1973. 2003 saw the balance of power shift back towards the Tories, with the Conservatives finally taking control a year later.

It will probably stay the same this time. For all the nauseating nonsense of “Vote Blue Go Green” from David Cameron and the reinvention of the Tories as some kind of inclusive everyman’s party, the local blue rinse brigade will probably continue to tick the blue box – despite there being dubious darkies and poofs in the party these days.

For me though I just couldn’t ever vote Tory. I remember too well the effect Thatcherism had on people I knew as I grew up. Yes the unions were too big for their boots, but Thatcher’s government destroyed families and communities all for the sake of their political goals. In my mind the destruction of the coal industry in this country was an act of evil and a long-term strategic folly. They’ll never get my vote.

That leaves me with the Lib Democrats and Labour. There have been no canvassers calling at the door, neither has explained their local policies to me. So I find myself of being in the strange position of not being able to vote.