Voting for the Lizard

Last updated: Thu, 05 May 2005 12:01:00 GMT

The election is over. My vote is cast.

I've never voted for the party that won. I think that this is because the candidates that have impressed me most have always been the underdogs, the candidates that can afford not to get drawn into the he-said-she-said playground bullshit that passes for electioneering here. They can afford to stand back and play at being grown ups, because they know their niche.

Having voted a number of times now, the lustre has worn off. I was sorely tempted to spoil my paper this time round. I don't want them thinking I just don't care, but I don't want to vote for one lizard just to stop the other lizard getting in. There was a lot of talk about apathy during this campaign, and how people had lost faith in the system. For me, it's not so much the system that fails, it's the electorate.

The country gets what it deserves. The electorate are morons. They have no foresight, no sense, no principles. I have no hope. We vote for people who tell us that they'll cut taxes and increase investment in public services, as if they can magic money out of their assholes in some way that the current government cannot.

I've lost count of the number of times that I've heard vox pops complaining about the state of our schools or our national health service, and yet they are the people who voted for the government that ran it into the ground. And then they complain about the current government -- who I have to acknowledge have made some inroads into digging the health service out of the hole that it's in -- because they promised not to raise income tax and then raised the tax on our income. In fact, it seems to me that this is the only reason in Labour are in power: they lie about taxes to get the vote, then steal the money they need away while the masticating masses gawp at Pro-Celebrity Foxy Boxing. But this is the only way they can get into power.

I have no love for the current administration, but I have to wonder at the level of brain damage that causes people -- sometimes seemingly intelligent people -- to forget that the fine mess they find themselves in now is the one they've gotten themselves into.

But the most depressing thing about this whole campaign is the obvious swing towards racism. Nationalism is on the rise and the polls show it, not only in the swing towards overtly nationalist parties like the BNP, but also reflected in the swing back to the Conservative party, after their none too subtle play for the white vote. The issues of asylum and immigration are distinct, but no-one tried too hard to make that clear, and Labour were happy to play along and pander.

And the public don't seem smart enough to draw the line themselves. One minute the immigants is coming over here and taking our jobs, the next minute they's all lazy, and you sees them just hanging around town all day eyeing our women.

It's not racist to send them all back where they came from. I just hope they don't send me back when I get out of here.