Bulshit, Boris & Voting - What is Democracy?

Tomorrow I will vote. There have been very few times when I haven't in my 56 years of being eligible. I will vote with my heart, my conscience & my intellect. Not with tribal loyalties, or for the person who I like most or dislike least.

When I use public transport I don't choose the bus or train on the basis of which vehicle I like the most. I choose on the basis of which vehicle will get me nearest to where I want to go. Similarly in a Democracy we should be voting for the party which, on balance, offers the manifesto nearest to what our beliefs are.

We are not voting for the face fronting the Party. We have a Parliamentary Democracy with a Cabinet. No one person is anything other than a titular head. Personally I don't want either Boris or Corbyn as my Prime Minister. But that is all that either of them would be - the Prime minister. Not God, or anything approaching that. They are just the leader of a Party. They have power, but that can be held in check by the Cabinet & Parliament, as the last 3 years have shown.

Disraeli supposedly said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". Disraeli would have been shocked had he listened to the campaign we have just undergone. Lying, misinformation & bulshit have all reached unprecidented heights. What makes matters worse is that we have a media & newsprint business which seemingly struggles to tell the difference between those 3 & the truth.

So, forget Brexit if you can. There are much more important things at stake here.

Vote for something, for the party who you really believe will do their best for the country & everyone who lives here. If you hold things like the NHS, the Education of our children, Justice, Transport & Infastructure, Housing & Homelessness, Poverty; dear, then think very carefully whose hands you want controlling the purse strings. We all need all of these at some point in our lives.

I'm lucky. I'm relatively comfortably off. I have a home I own, enough food to eat, heating & lighting, medication to control my health conditions. I want the basics for everyone. I want to feel confident that my 14 year old grandsons will grow up in a world which truly cares about people & the environment.

I'm not confident that I'm going to get that tomorrow.