bygjohn's blog

Yesterday was voting day for local elections across the UK. Where I live it's been the first election for representatives for a new unitary authority: Cheshire East. Yet it's the first time I've seriously considered not voting. In the end I did, though not without a sense of grievance you shouldn't be feeling in a democracy.

So what's the problem that led me, who has always felt I should vote after my forbears fought long and hard to get it for me, to come close to abandoning it?

• Nobody asked us if we wanted to have a unitary authority. The "official" call for opinions explicitly disallowed any option to retain the existing setup. Our local council organised a referendum, though of course it had no official weight behind it. 85% of people voted to keep the existing setup with improved co-ordination between the county and local councils. Ignored, of course, by the government...
• Of the two new options, they imposed the worst. Having one big unitary authority covering the whole of Cheshire would at least have left all the county services intact, but splitting it into two means that all the services, county and local, are now being restructured at great expense. Not to mention all the rebranding etc which is doubtless going to happen and cost a fortune. Of my money...
• Because we were electing a new authority, we were all given 3 votes. Except that I couldn't use then as here in my ward we had 3 Tories, 3 Labour, 1 LibDem and 1 UKIP candidate. I could never vote for the Tories after the Thatcher/Major years and the damage caused. I can no longer vote Labour because they are just Tories 2 now, no socialist policies left. UKIP are a reactionary joke, so out of the question. Which leaves me with one candidate (LibDem) I can vote for. So I couldn't use two of my three votes.

Talk about being disenfranchised.