Politics: what’s the point?

We’ve just had an election in the UK. There was no clear party majority, and as I write this, horse-trading is going on to form a coalition government.

Tactical voting

I voted, but I didn’t vote for the party I really wanted to win. I wanted to vote for the Green Party, because I really believe in their policies. But they didn’t stand a ghost of a chance in our constituency, so I voted for our local Labour Party candidate who is a good guy with good ideas, my kind of priorities and who had a chance of beating the Conservatives. Sadly, he didn’t beat them.

Why we must vote

My question ‘what’s the point’ isn’t asked out of ennui. I really do wonder whether party politics and national government are as important as we think they are.

I always vote and I always will, people have died to give me that right. But does it do any good? (A friend told me of a radio exchange recently. Woman: “I could never not vote, I’d feel I was betraying Emily Pankhurst“. Teenage girl: “Oh, is she one of your local candidates?” Sigh…)

Green politics

I know the argument for supporting minority parties: if all the people who wanted to vote for them actually did, more minority party candidates would get elected and they would steadily gain power. Greens have gained a growing amount of political influence around the world, and one really bright spot in the UK election was that we now have our first Green Party Member of Parliament, Caroline Lucas. Brilliant news.

But I’m not sure we have time for a steady gain in power. We need strong, imaginative policies for the environment, for social justice, for a sustainable economy, and we need them now.

Taking up our own power

by Duncan Rawlinson

So here’s what I think: we have the power both of the individual and of the communal as never before.

Because of the internet, we’re in a brave new world of communication. It’s not called a web for nothing. It gives us the power to reach out and discover like-minded souls, to discover information, to discover ideas. We can come together as world citizens to influence, to lobby, to ask questions. We can form our own communities. People sans frontieres.

And as individuals, we can live in ways that are kind to the planet, to ourselves and to other creatures that make their homes here. We can live responsible lives. (I know, I know, this sounds a bit preachy. But it is Sunday after all, so here I am sermonising.)

Action, not talk

By CarbonNYC

I don’t advocate anarchy, but the days when we could leave it all to the government are long gone, if they ever existed.

I don’t live up to my own principles nearly as much as I’d like. Mother Teresa said:

There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone’s house. That says enough.

So off I go to take up my broom again. How about you?

Main image by Ben Sutherland

Elsewhere:

I just now discovered the blog Cottage Wytch, and these words quoted there by John Rogers seem to me to say everything needed in any political party manifesto.

And a blessed Mother’s Day to all my friends outside the UK (where we celebrate it earlier in the year).