Bobby ponders who to vote for..
The election is in full swing and we have been inundated with leaflets. Not only that – the office of local Labour MP Julie Morgan has rung twice to ask me who I would vote for. My answer was simple: I am not allowed to vote unless I give up my nationality and become a British citizen. Which I simply don’t want to do. The lady on the phone suggested that I could vote in the German election – to which I replied: what’s the point if I don’t live there anymore? British politics affect my life more than German.
My stepfather is in a similar situation. Every four years when the election is looming in Germany he follows the campaign with interest but can’t vote, because he doesn’t want to give up his British passport. I have been living here for eight years, pay my contributions and have never been in trouble, but can’t exercise a fundamental right. What bothers me more than this is actually that a lot of people who have the right to vote simply can’t be arsed (and just moan about it all). To a certain extent I can understand that – given the abysmal choice. Plus I think the British system is not really that democratic. It’s the winner-takes-it-all approach which simply isn’t working and doesn’t do this country any good.
I found an interesting organisation that wants to reform the whole system: Power 2010 www.power2010.org.uk. Among the things they propose are: changing the current system into a proportional voting system (similar to the German system), to scrap ID cards and rolling back the database state, replacement of House of Lords with an elected chamber. I would add another one: allow foreign nationals who have lived here long enough (say 5 years) to vote in national elections. Now there is a thought.
And this is what Bobby thinks of the election:
Bobby is not impressed with the choice.
3 comments
Teresa Lewis says:
May 5, 2010 at 11:59 pm (UTC 0)
I’m for preference voting myself rather than the German system. At first it would be the Alternative Vote followed by the Single Transferable Vote when constituencies expand to include more than three members instead of just one.
Lemon and Chirpy would vote for the candidates that promise gender equality as well as animal rights (except for the roaming cats in the neighbourhood and the alsation next door) if they could vote as they believe that women’s issues should include hen’s issues as well.
Teresa Lewis says:
June 1, 2010 at 4:18 pm (UTC 0)
I see Bobby is a Plaid voter or would be if she had the vote.
Chirpy often says the Welsh word for Liberal Democrats so I assumed she would vote for them. Lemon would go for them because of the colour and logo and not the personalities and policies. She’s a yellow coloured bird so will vote for a yellow bird.
helen says:
September 23, 2010 at 1:28 pm (UTC 0)
Na not really – I think Bobby very much votes for whoever gives her the juciest prawns and lots of cuddles.