Cathles.com

In my belief it’s never been more important for those that are eligible to vote to actually get up off their backsides and go exercise their democratic rights!

Democracy is being able to vote for the Candidate or Party you detest the least.

This year more so than ever, I feel that the above statment is extremely true.

I’m not going to specify who I voted for this year, but I am going to share some of my thoughts about the three main parties.    You of course have the choice and the right to read or not, and of course to agree or dissagree, both in whole or in part.

So here are a few points:

• Exercise your right to vote!

If you don’t vote, then don’t complain when the party (or parties) you don’t like get elected!

I’ve spoken to several people recently, and have been quite surprised that they don’t seem to be bothered about the election.  The general feeling I get is “that they’re all as bad as one another”.   That may or may not be a fair comment, but I wonder how many of those currently ranting and raving about the conduct of our current government actually took responsibility and voted last time?   If you didn’t vote (and who you voted for is largely irrelevant), do you truly have a right to complain?

• Base your decisions on Facts and not Fiction

I’ve made the point in a number of discussions with friends and colleagues recently that the Media should bear a huge amount of responsibility for the current opinions of the general population.  I believe Newspapers & Television should on balance have an obligation to present the facts in an impartial and objective way.   Of course they could have Opinion pieces or articles, but never should an entire publication be allowed to declare it’s allegiance to one particular party.  “The Sun” Newspaper is a classic example of this, having once been a Conservative supporter, and quite sensationally flipped to Labour just before Blair was elected, and now have publically flipped back to support the Conservatives once again.   In an amazing coincidence, all of the Polls comissioned by the Conservative supporting “Sun” all seemed to favour the Cameron Conservatives according to the editorial, even when the numbers didn’t!

The Media is extremely guilty of over hyping and sensationalising events in order to “make news”.   Perhaps we’re all at fault here, with our ever growing demand for more and more information at our fingertips, and on our screens, the advent of 24 hour news channels etc means that the Media has to find things to fill the airtime with but PLEASE stop with coining stupid names like “the Credit Crunch”.   If you keep on and on telling us something, eventually we’ll believe it, regardless of how true it may be.   (this is something Politicians are very aware of!)

That’s probably enough for now.   I would expect some of this to be Controversial, if anyone ever actually read this!