Does Voting Matter?

Thursday 22nd May

I have watched many many elections, and a few demand a recount.  But in all my experience, except maybe in small council ward elections, one vote has never made a difference – in fact I have never encountered a tie.  So in that respect voting doesn’t matter.  And the truth of course is that in the vast majority of constituencies there will be no change.  The marginal seats are only a handful really, maybe 50 to 70 out of 650.  Mind you with the emergence of UKIP, which if they even get 10% of the vote may well upset a lot of calculations.

More and more people I fear are deciding that voting doesn’t matter, if for no other reason than that the potential voters see no point; even if the other lot get in things won’t really change – in their opinion.  And there may be some truth in that.  However any change even in the size of a majority, or lack of one will and does make a difference.  If the LibDems had not gone into Government with the Tories then we may have had a minority Tory administration which might have been far more careful about what they decided to do.  They may not have lasted that long either.  Of course the LibDems would argue that they have ameliorated the worst of the Tory policies, and introduced a lot of their own policies.  Fat lot of good it will do them.

But there is a far more important reason for voting, more important than the result, either in your constituency or overall.  That reason is that you are taking part; you are a part, a very small part admittedly of the Governance of the country.  Anyway how can you possibly complain about the Government you get if you did nothing to elect it.