Possibly because I am old and stupid, but I feel impaled on the horns of a dilemma since it seems, as far as parliamentary democracy goes, the only game in town still revolves around the 2 parties, Labour/Tory. While I can see that a: politicians have limited power since they are mere puppets for a wider invisible corporate ownership of power and b: there are few substantive differences between them, this leaves me feeling that a non-vote is my only option...and yet, this is reprehensible, indeed, almost impossible to willingly disenfranchise myself further by destroying a ballot paper or simply not bothering. I do feel horror at the prospect of another 5 years of Tory rule if only because a win might seem to give them a greater mandate to continue on their vicious course.
So, do we disengage from the fiasco of Westminster politics and simply work on a personal local agenda - community activism and so forth? Less than a century after women have died to secure a vote, a refusal to participate seems simply wrong and yet, here we are, arguing ourselves into oblivion. I have no idea how a Labour partywill 'govern' but since I have been living under a Tory yoke for the last few years, I do have a very clear belief that I do NOT wish for more of their vile neo-liberal, one-sided rule.
