Voting dilemma

Everyone in the UK knows we are heading towards such an important general election.  In the months and years leading up to this, I felt sure I was going to vote against the Tories but now, astonishingly, I am not so sure.

Without doubt, the outgoing Conservative Government have made such a mess of the country.  Many aspects of their behaviour has been an absolute disgrace.  Firstly there was Cameron appeasing the Brexit branch of his party by promising a referendum which has led to a disastrous result.  Aside from the economic and trading difficulties, our exit from the EU has destabilised and further fragmented Europe and this has been taken advantage of by Russia – just as I said it would.

Then there is the UK’s need for hundreds of Foodbanks, handing out emergency food to thousands of families every week.  In 2010 I hadn’t even heard of a Foodbank.  The health and well being of the country has fallen right down in recent years.  NHS funding has eroded away so seeing a Doctor or dentist is now more difficult for many and this will have a knock-on effect for years to come with people continuing to pull their own painful teeth out themselves.  The housing crisis continues to see homelessness in our cities, towns and villages.  Young people are facing an uphill struggle to get onto the housing ladder.

Arguably the most serious wrongdoing has been the behaviour of Boris Johnson.  He trampled over protocols and rules which have been in place for years and for good reason, the have stood the test of time.  He has been deceitful and has knowingly broken the law by proroguing Parliament in order to stop debate about Brexit.  Utterly disgraceful.

All of these reasons – and others – have reinforced my liberal views and have made me very anti-Conservative.

And yet there is a compelling argument for us to vote for the individual candidate first, with their party being a secondary consideration.

If we apply that principle [of voting for the candidate, not the party] things here in the newly formed Mid-Bedfordshire constituency start to look different.

We had the opportunity to personally meet the Labour and Conservative candidates.  The Labour candidate, Maahwish Mirza, seems a decent person with a compelling background.  She grew up in nearby Luton with a disadvantaged background and has earned a good, solid career in investment banking.  My first impression was she’s relatively young, bright, clever and loyal to her party.  Her party loyalty was, in my mind, her downfall; rather too keen to simply express the party line, the manifesto, instead of expressing her own views and for us to understand more about her as a person.

Then we had the opportunity to meet the Conservative candidate, Blake Stephenson who is also a Councillor in our local authority.  Although I was gearing up for a good tussle, I was pleased when he explained he was at home in the political centre ground (this is generally the most sensible, productive meeting of political minds, in my view).  The question I posed was if he was Prime Minister for a day, what would he do?  The answer was about driving up standards in politics, for example upholding good behaviour, integrity etc to achieve good governance.  If we achieve that, the party in power seems less important.  Good answer, I thought, and not a whiff of Tory drivel.

We continued, briefly, to have a conversation on some other topics but it was his “right wing economics” which had me intrigued.  He explained it meant, amongst other things, easing bureaucracy to enable small businesses to flourish.  But what else?  I’ll try and find out.

So although I seriously loathe the Conservatives for all the damage they have done to the country during the last 14 years, I did warm to Blake Stephenson.  He had character, the courage to speak his mind and even take some flack from me!

Just a few days to make up my mind…..