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I really really hope that every single one of you who went around saying "all of the parties are corrupt so I'm not voting" or any other such cynical bollocks are pleased with yourselves now. Next time, please, if you're so pomo and sophisticated, just go in there and demonstrate the inherent absurdity of the system by picking a party at random - you've got a 14/15 chance of not hitting a fascist, after all.
And as for those of you who are sitting around on the internet saying "how could they?!" about the BNP voters: the answer is, "all too easily". Voting right (by which I mean left), and assuming that the Guardian-and-Radio-4 worldview is self-evident and will win out in the end, is not enough when people feel that their way of life is being threatened. Dismissing these people as stupid will not make their votes go away.
So what will help? What can you do to stop the same thing happening in the general election?
Canvas for another party. (Oxford people - try Tatchell.) Hell, even just deliver leaflets for another party - you don't have to supoprt every one of their policies to think that an informed electorate is a good thing! Support your local anti-fascist organisation. Challenge racism everywhere you see it, however 'soft' it seems - when Radio 4 makes yet another crack about people from Poland being good plumbers, don't just tut, write to them and complain.
I'm not any better than you. This post is a note to myself as much as it is to anyone else. But I know that I did not do enough, that I've been putting everything off this year with a "once the degree is over..", and that I have to do better to keep this country that I love out of the hands of people who represent no Britain that I've ever known.
And as for those of you who are sitting around on the internet saying "how could they?!" about the BNP voters: the answer is, "all too easily". Voting right (by which I mean left), and assuming that the Guardian-and-Radio-4 worldview is self-evident and will win out in the end, is not enough when people feel that their way of life is being threatened. Dismissing these people as stupid will not make their votes go away.
So what will help? What can you do to stop the same thing happening in the general election?
Canvas for another party. (Oxford people - try Tatchell.) Hell, even just deliver leaflets for another party - you don't have to supoprt every one of their policies to think that an informed electorate is a good thing! Support your local anti-fascist organisation. Challenge racism everywhere you see it, however 'soft' it seems - when Radio 4 makes yet another crack about people from Poland being good plumbers, don't just tut, write to them and complain.
I'm not any better than you. This post is a note to myself as much as it is to anyone else. But I know that I did not do enough, that I've been putting everything off this year with a "once the degree is over..", and that I have to do better to keep this country that I love out of the hands of people who represent no Britain that I've ever known.
