To vote or not to vote.. for change?

To cast a vote in an election is a right you have been given. Not everyone has got this right. It is not an obvious right to everyone around the world, so we should definitely use it, and make sure that we are to keep this vote as an individual right, a human right.

On 6^th of May the British nation will vote. I predict for a change. I would prefer a change, but not to the total opposite. I would prefer a change where to parties were to work together, forming a coalition and through this new (unique as it would be first time ever in Britain) way the decisions being made would have to be tested even harder by more than one party and its policy to actually become a part of Britain.

Change.

That’s what they are all talking about. How to change Britain, for a brighter future. And then in the next second, instead of explaining how and why this or that could be changed, they start playing the naughty political blame game, cause it’s so much easier to point out what the other parties are doing wrongly to prevent a positive change for Britain than it is to encourage the audience, the voters in a debate concerning what the party itself actually will do to achieve this change within society.

Change.

I am not a British citizen. Therefore, I am not allowed to vote in the general election. What I find a little bit weird though is that even though I cannot vote in the general election, the law finds me important enough to vote in the local election. And I just can’t get my head around it. Yes, I can understand that as a British citizen you are not eligible to vote in the general election, but wouldn’t this suggest that I should not vote in the local election either? After all, a vote is a vote, maybe not for the bigger scale, but still a vote, from a non British citizen in Britain. On the other hand, hey, I pay the £3.000 tuition fee each year, to study in Britain, and isn’t that more of a contribution to the country than many other British citizens do?

I am not arguing for a vote really, I just find it really interesting how so many things, such as paying taxes in Britain, tuition fees and so on, is done every month even though I am not a citizen, but when it comes to an election where I could possibly affect my taxes, tuition fees and student loans, I cannot take part in it...

Change.

If I was allowed to vote, I would cast my vote. For change. But not for the complete opposite of what Britain is today. I already mentioned a coalition. And I would prefer seeing Labour and the Liberal Democrats in it. I do not agree with David Cameron’s policies, they feel as if they would actually make my life as a Swedish student in Britain harder than it already is, and to some extent Liberal Democrats seems to walk a bit along the same route, but not to the same extent...

Daily, you hear people complaining about the economy. About the recession. How badly Britain has been affected and so on. But honestly, I think Labour has done quite an alright job getting out of the recession with a Britain that has survived it better than many other countries around the world. This recession was always going to happen. No matter whether Clegg, Cameron or Brown would have been in power, so I do think it’s wrong to fully blame Labour for it, I mean from the sounds of it their still trying to tidy up what happened with Britain’s economy years and years ago.

I am not a 100% follower of Brown, but I have always been more of a lefty. I do not like everything Labour says, but then again, no one can be fully satisfied with a party’s manifesto. I do think though that the only way forward, only way leading to a change, is a proper change. And if I could vote my vote would probably go to Labour.

So, even if I can’t – you can. And you should.

Thursday 6^th of May.

You decide Britain’s future.

Make sure you make your voice heard.

I know I will, in Sweden, on September the 19^th.