A few points to bear in mind regardinging voting in UK General Election 2019

Looking at newspaper stands on my regular Co-op shop has exposed me to the hegemony(1) of mainstream mass media's portrayal of General Election 2019 as very much a 'two horse race' between party leaders Boris Johnson (Conservative aka Tory) and/or Jeremy Corbyn (Labour Party).

The pro-Brexit newspapers such as

• Daily Mail
• Daily Telegraph and
• The Sun

have largely demonised Jeremy Corbyn as 'antisemitic' and pro-Remain newspapers such as

• The Guardian 
• i Newspaper/The Independent and
• The New European

have gone along with that idea while showing more of the tarnished halo of Boris Johnson. The pro-Brexit papers portray Johnson with more referential terms such as 'The Prime Minister', etc; the pro-Remain papers generally show him as untrustworthy but deride Jeremy Corbyn as supposedly antisemitic.

There is much of pantomime about these portrayals, as could be expected by, for example, the offshore ownerships of the pro-Brexit media, and the fact that former Press Secretary to Tony Blair Alastair Campbell is Editor in Chief of The New European. Would either group and the interests that they represent be keen on the idea of a man of Jeremy Corbyn's principles being Prime Minister of the UK?

But the 'two horse race' imagery borne of a 'First Past the Post' voting system helps to breed a generally false impression of choosing a personality over knowing anything really about the policies on offer. There are more political parties in this UK General Election 2019 than just Conservative and Labour, and I am a Green Party member in one of the 316 parliamentary constituencies that Electoral Reform Society reckons to be a 'safe seat' where tactical voting would not be relevant.

You can check whether yours is one of the 316 'safe seats' at https://action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/53250/action/1

Voting for policy preferences is more valid in 'safe seats'

I'm in e-mail communication with Green Party members in less 'safe' seats who will reluctantly vote Labour this General Election 2019 so as to keep the Tories away from Government or at least to minimise the continuation of harm that a sizeable Tory majority could reap on vulnerable people.

Yet the existence of Short Money as a link between votes cast for a particular political party and the funding they receive from UK Government at further general elections. So voters in 'safe seats' can value their vote more and hold their nose less when they come to vote.(2) and (3)

If you care about Fuel Poverty and Climate Emergency, read this

 Ruth of Fuel Poverty Action writes:

Make your vote count against fuel poverty tomorrow!

Dear friends,

FPA are not party political, but want to draw your attention to some information relevant to fuel poverty in this election.  Insulation programmes have been gutted in recent years, profiteering on energy -- a vital need for all of us -- has put lives at risk, and the climate emergency is already costing many, many more.  Every well-placed vote is crucial now.  .  

On current policies and promises, see  for example:

• Re insulating homes (4) (which must be done with safe materials and accountably to residents!)
• New report re bringing energy back into public ownership (5)(which can be at national, local, or community level)
• Climate change = poverty.  Floods, fires, extreme winters and rising food prices kill.  See Greenpeace scores (6) on climate change policies, and  Friends of the Earth (7) scores and different parties' comments.

Please draw your own conclusions from these and other sources, and make sure everyone you know goes out to vote!  There is more at stake than ever.

Ruth

I should add, however, that delays in speed of responding as exampled in the Friend of the Earth evaluations of parties' policy commitments and responses to Friends of the Earth initial reviews of their manifestos, resourcing aids timely responding. So, when the Friends of the Earth evaluation of Liberal Democrat and Green Party policies states:

The Lib Dems set out additional pledges to its manifesto in a letter to Friends of the Earth, recommitting to the policies in its previously published Climate Emergency policy document. However the Greens did not provide any additional clarification or restate previous pledges in a number of policy areas ahead of the deadline we set. A letter was subsequently received from co-leader Jonathan Bartley, which we have not included in the scoring document but have published for transparency

 consider the argument that in the case of the Green Party — with fewer corporate backers and their vested interests — that "the spirit was willing but the resourcing was depleted by tactical voting in a First Past the Post electoral system, to lower the amount of Short Money received."

So, I hope you have your polling card at the ready for you to vote, although I realise that postal voters have already cast their votes.

 

Alan Wheatley

Notes

1. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=hegemony
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Money_%28Parliament,_U.K.%29
3. https://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.com/2015/03/value-your-vote.html
4. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/nov/02/labour-scheme-homes-energy-efficiency
5. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/09/numbers-public-ownership-uk-utilities-nationalisation
6. https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/labours-plans-for-climate-and-nature-score-twice-as-high-as-the-conservatives-according-to-election-manifesto-ranking
7. https://friendsoftheearth.uk/general-election/general-election-2019-manifestos-final-scores