Don't listen to me.
Election 2010 I have absolutely no right to tell you what to do. I have no right to tell you what to think. I certainly have no right to tell you what to believe. Nothing – not the place where you were born, or to whom; nor where you live and what colour your skin is (or your eyes are); not whether you are a man or a woman, an atheist or a Christian (or a Buddhist or a Nazi) nor whether you prefer coffee to tea or stripes to spots – nothing on this Earth gives me the right to force my own personal views onto anyone else.
Which is why I beg this of you: please, please, please, if you are eligible to vote in Thursday's General Election, go and vote. The decision you make will be yours, your voice will be heard, and it will make a difference.
Sadly, previous elections have been dominated by the phrase "it won't make a difference". Well this time around, things are different. Never before have our ballot papers been so important. Never before has the power of your "cross" been so strong. Never before has each and every one of us had the chance to bring about such real and radical change in the British political system. Because that's what we're voting for: change.
This year, regardless of individual political views may be, we have the opportunity to revolutionise politics. We have the power to put an end to "tactical" voting. We have the power to put an end to the "two-party" system. We have the power to put an end to misrepresentation of the people.
But to do so, we must work together.
In every election, hundreds of thousands of votes have no impact whatsoever on the make-up of parliament, nor on the government, nor on the way this country is run. Unless your vote is for the winning candidate in your constituency, it is worthless. The "first-past-the-post" (fptp) system has favoured the Conservatives and Labour for to long: it has entrenched within each party the expectation of victory and given rise to a situation where only a tiny percentage of the population must be kept happy in order to secure power. This must end.
Here comes the politics bit.
The Conservatives must not be allowed to win this election. Their plans for "electoral reform" are designed to strengthen their own position, and further disenfranchise even greater swathes of the United Kingdom. Regardless of their other policies, I believe we have a collective responsibility to ensure that these reforms are never put into practice. How do we do that? Simple: vote for someone else!
The Liberal Democrats have been advocating the need for electoral reform for years and years, mainly because they have been the biggest victim of fptp. A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for true reform. But there's a problem. The Lib Dems will not win enough seats to govern outright. They will need to form a coalition with the (next-)biggest party, and who that will be will determine the future of this country not just for the next five years, but for the next five-hundred years.
The Lib Dems need Labour just as much as Labour (who look to be doomed to a humiliating third place) need them. Without an outright majority, and without this coalition, neither can protect us from the Great Leap Backwards that the Conservatives propose.
So please consider very carefully who you will vote for on Thursday. I hope it will be for the Liberal Democrats, or, in areas where they stand a better chance of defeating the Tories, Labour. I hope that supporters of the minority parties will recognise that they too must be prepared to switch their allegiances, however temporarily, for the greater good (and for the prospect of future success far beyond the most optimistic "best-case scenarios" of which they can only dream of today). But more importantly of all, despite everything I have just written, I hope it will be for whoever you think is right.
