As some of us may be aware, there is an election tomorrow. It seems like it’s been a lot longer than five years since the last once – possibly because the last time I voted in a general election I was pushing my brand new, 2-month old baby boy in his pram, whereas tomorrow I’ll be dropping him off at school, then walking his 3 and a half year old little sister to the polling station, where there’s a reasonable chance she’ll disrupt proceedings when I don’t let her use the chubby pencil to make her own marks on the ballot paper…

My vote tomorrow will largely be ‘wasted’ in the purely political sense: we’ve moved house since the last election and now instead of the excitement of a marginal seat, we have the iron-clad, locked-tight certainty of Tory-voting, I’m-alright-Jack villages to contend with in our new constituency. Not much – if any –  chance of an upset here, unless UKIP manage to grab a few votes from the disgruntled right. The did look like they were staging some kind of invasion last week when they parked an ex-army jeep in the centre of the village, slap-bang in the middle of the home-time school run…And in addition, I know that my husband will visit the ballot box at some time tomorrow, directly cancelling out my vote.Love is indeed a beautiful and mysterious thing…

So why am I writing this post? Well, because despite all of the above points, I have never considered not voting. To me, not voting seems to be the equivalent of not actually existing as a  person, of saying  that you have nothing valid to contribute. This campaign – more so than others I can recall – seems to have been full of apathy from a vocal minority of the general public. I’m not sure that this apathy is genuine:  I don’t think that people really don’t care –  it’s just that it’s much easier to pretend that you don’t care, because then you don’t have to do anything. Statement such as ‘Well, they’re all the same’, ‘There’s not one of them you can trust’ are very, very easy to say and – frankly – it’s a cop out. Untrustworthy some of them may be, but would you vote for them if they told you the cold, hard truth that you claim to want so badly? We get the  politicians that we deserve and if perhaps as an electorate we were a little more sophisticated and realistic then we might hear the truth more often. Not a political animal? I think you are. Do you use the NHS?  Care about the quality of our social care and housing?  Worry about your child’s education? Moan about taxes? Then you are political.

I’m aware of being something of a hypocrite as I write this post. You see, I’ve spent the past month or so ‘thinning ‘ out my newsfeeds after they seem to have become overrun with people trying to a) convert me to some form of religion they have newly discovered (I’m happy you’re happy, but you’re not getting this girl) b) tell me that there is one way to raise a healthy child and one way only (always from a sector of the middle class new hippy movement) or c) convince me that (yet again) there are razors on the underground escalator handrails or if someone flashes you in their car it’s a new kind of crazy gang initiation (please, people, snopes.com before you post – unless, of course, you actually like believing that crap…) So, I’m a hypocrite; I dislike being told what to do, and yet I’m telling you to vote. Please. Would you? Thank you. (And yes, that goes for those of you voting for the bat-shit crazy parties too) That’s how much I believe in the democratic process.