Monday 5 June 2017

Vote for Policies


This week is the general election and the 8 week wait after the snap election will soon have ended. Don’t worry, this won’t be a post where I write about who I am voting for and why but I feel like I needed to write this post anyway.


Admittedly, just before the referendum  vote for Brexit happened last year I wouldn’t have said that  was a political person and yet sitting here today writing this and I can tell you that I have full swung into the political mind-set.
When I was 18 I didn’t have much of an interest and turned to what my parents thought or would have voted for rather than looking into the policies and what would be better for us as a country. Young adult life and not much had changed. I had gone to uni and admittedly had my eyes opened more and was on a swing toward Liberal Democrats as many students seemed to be at that time and yet I remember still having a viewpoint that relied heavily on what my parents believed.
Even when I was married, had William, a little house, mortgage and a career I will admit that I didn’t
really have that much of an interest and I would have stayed in the same political bracket that entire time. However, life happened and did so with a massive kick.

Divorce, debt, benefits, unemployment, physical and mental health, parenting, single parenting, education from State and Home and energy and efficiency all hit over the years and made me look at the world differently. Life threw me a curve ball and from that made see holes and shortcomings in the “system” and made me want to change the way things are and hopefully for the better.
Then Brexit happened and that had a massive impact on my life as much as it did across the country to hundreds of thousands of families. Again, like above, I won’t share which way I voted.

The other big change in my view point was living with Ben. Ben is a political animal, a young ideologist with passion and drive to better but, with brutal honesty, is also young and inexperienced. His views whilst living here were quite opposing and every time he opened his mouth about politics he reaffirmed what I felt about my own. I wouldn’t have said I was as politically placed until our conversations but it showed that we had massively opposing beliefs.
I do have a lot of opinions about this snap election and a lot to say about a few of the parties and their leaders but I won’t. If only it was a simple “I’m voting for the Jedi and Rebel Alliance against the imperial rule of the Empire?”

But that, right there, is exactly why I wanted to write this post. The election and process is very personal. However much we get told that we should look at statistics and position, rightly or wrongly, personal situations will impact on how we want to vote and there isn’t a clear cut good guy’s vs bad guys scenario.
I won’t tell you who I am voting for and why. I have my reasons and have looked at all the policies for each party and know what suits us as well as what I personally think will also benefit us a country.

And yet, this election has had a massive growth for registered new voters and I know many are still undecided. Something to consider is not to vote for the person but instead vote for the policies. Ideally backing the party that you think represents you rather than who is leading it.
Vote for Policies is a great site to check out in this scenario:

 It starts off with a list of topics that you find important. Just tick the relevant ones and continue.


The more you tick the longer it will take but I do assure that it is beneficial to tick all that you are interested in.

Next is a simple check for which country you are from.


This next section is quite complicated but you need just need to read and click yes or no for the moment. Each list is from 5 parties and just labelled Party 1 - 5 to save any bias thoughts. Look over what is listed in those categories and tick if they are important to you or not. The ones you choose out of they 5 will be listed in the next section.


At this point you do need to read a little closer as many of the parties want similar things and it is something that you have to carefully consider. Examples are, Do you want £30 billion spent in 15 years of £8 billion spent in 10? Little changes come to what you believe is right.

These last 2 phases is then repeated for every tick box you clicked in the first section.


Once you have done each section you just need to click where you are placed.


Once complete it will give you a list of the parties you are more inclined to follow according to the policies that you have chosen.

Interestingly, for me, this was pretty accurate. It chose my represented parties of interest and I could see why. It doesn't necessarily mean that I will vote that way but it definitely isolated the parties that I don't have any unity with.

With just 4 days to go there is still a lot to consider and all I ask is that you look at what each party and leader is representing rather than being caught up in the school ground "He said" "She said" battle. If you are undecided I do think that Vote for Policies is a great was to and see what you personally believe in and who can represent that for you and the country. Whichever way you side it is democracy at its best and that is something that I will always love.

If you want to check out Vote for Policies and not Personalities please click here.

5 comments:

JOhn Adams said...

I have decided which way I am voting, but I am keeping that to myself other than to say it's for the softest possible brexit. This election really is toxic. I think all the main parties have massive flaws, it's a case of which poison do you think you'll find most palatable? I can, however, totally see how you''ve become more political over the yeras and my eldest is very poitical too (and her sister becoming more so). Great post Martyn.

Plutoniumsox.com said...

I really like this website, I think it's particularly helpful for young people who don't yet identify with a particular political party. I feel that more young people have been galvanised to vote in this election and whatever the result, the shift away from voter apathy can only be a positive thing.
Nat.x

Unknown said...

I used this check list in the last election and it was pretty accurate for me. I know this time who I am voting for, I didn't even vote until my nephew played quite a big part in the film suffrogettes and I went to watch it to be a supportive auntie however it really educated me and I will never miss my chance to vote again. It concerns me that Teresa May has called this in the first place, if she was confident she could do the job surely she would have just carried on ... anyway I agree with keeping your voting Choices to yourself becauss regardless of who you choose someone will be there saying why your choice is outrageous , great post

Pickinguptoys said...

This is a great way for those sat on the fence to choose, I know who I'm voting for, I don't tend to shout about politics because there's always someone who wants to start a row over it. I'm quite surprised at some people's reasons for voting the way they do but we shall see come Thursday hey!!

Through Ami's Eyes said...

It so difficult now days to feel confident in your own decision. Social media is filled with so much conflicting information and I never know what is true and what is not.