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My New Year’s resolution is not to vote in elections
Vic Barlow13/12/2006
I'VE made a decision not to vote in future elections for any of the established political parties. It appears that our elected representatives are only prepared to tell us the truth once they are out of office and have a book to peddle. Seems now like many of the old Labour cabinet were totally against the war in Iraq but weren't willing to say so until they were shuffled out of office.
It took the courageous Ugandan born Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu to take a stand on behalf of the British Airways employee who wanted no more than to wear a Christian cross the size of a five pence piece. During the debate there was not a single word of support from Messrs Blair, Cameron or Campbell.
If it hadn't been for the Christian Muslim Forum writing to town halls all over Britain to protest many local councils would now have scrapped Christmas and replaced it with such ludicrous names as 'Winterval' (Birmingham), 'Luminos' (Luton) or 'Shine On' (Glasgow City Council).
Not one of our current crop of so-called leaders had the guts to speak out at this denigration. When Wolverhampton Council refused to fund street lighting carrying the word 'Christmas' their Asian members offered to pay for the lights themselves. Such is the paucity of leadership.
I'd been wavering on my voting intentions for some time but the spectacle of desperate Alzheimer sufferers marching through Macclesfield after being denied £2.50 a day drug treatment, pregnant women demonstrating outside Macclesfield Hospital at plans to close down maternity and the frantic families of psychiatric patients faced with losing their accommodation while our grasping MPs demand a 66 per cent pay rise finally did the trick.
At a time when our front line soldiers in Iraq are told the £17-a-day bonus they were offered was a mistake and Community Support Officers are having their salaries CUT our politicians are demanding a £40k annual increase.
As pension schemes throughout the land collapsed our grasping MPs voted themselves a gold-plated, index linked pension. What sort of leadership is that?
Everyone must do as their conscience dictates but I cannot vote for any of the three established political parties. I may support an Independent or some party not already sullied by self-serving hypocrisy but I've cast my last vote for the Big Three.
I can't in all honesty give my support to any politician who can see desperately-ill patients denied medication on the grounds of cost then demand a 66pc increase in salary and, yes, I've heard all the old arguments about 'parity' and all that tosh.
Try giving 'parity' to those desperate Alzheimer sufferers, how about our MPs sharing a bit of 'parity' with all those troops they sent out to Afghanistan and Iraq with inadequate equipment, why not share some 'parity' with those psychiatric patients faced with losing their accommodation.
If the Ugandan born Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu starts a new political party I'll sign up for that. I'd trust him whereas I don't believe a word any of the current crop of politicians tell us and the higher up the political ladder they are the bigger the lies.
- THE views on this page are those of Vic Barlow and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Express.
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Alice
25/12/2006 at 18:31
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27/12/2006 at 12:33