
Lisa Mckenzie
by Lisa Mckenzie, author of Getting By; Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain.
“I didn’t vote in this election, which for me was the right choice, and a choice that is seldom given debate to within the national media.
My reasons were this: our political system asks us to vote for members of parliament to represent us in Westminster. I didn’t want any of the people on my ballot paper to represent me.
I also don’t think the system of parliamentary political party politics is truly democratic. It serves the greater good, it compromises what individuals believe in order to serve a middle, a mainstream, and a mediocre. It always has to sacrifice something, and someone, and the sacrifice is usually those with least power. I cannot endorse that.
“…the sacrifice is usually those with least power.”
The Labour Party have annoyed me for a long time (forever actually) but especially over the last two years.
I have been involved in many grass-roots organisations and campaigns and I know how difficult it is to keep people’s confidence up when they are having all kinds of institutional power thrown at them from all spectrums of political ideology.
However over the last two years this situation has become much worse, with the internal fighting of the Labour party. Many Labour supporters as well as politicians have taken sides and instead of being an opposition to the Government that has caused so much misery to the poorest people in the UK, they have opposed each other.
Continue reading ‘Compromise, sacrifice and confusion: why I didn’t vote’