Time well spent

A huge thanks to Holly for helping me educate myself in the run up to the General Election. She pointed out a useful survey style website which helps you choose which party to vote for based on their policies:

Vote for Policies

I went through and did the survey but I was a little taken aback and surprised by the results I got! There wasn’t an ounce of Labour in my poll results. None of the policies I agreed with were Labour ones. That was one interesting fact. The other was I was almost eveningly split between the Green Party and Conservative!

The Green Party bit surprised me because I like my car. I drive a diesel car and I like driving it whereever I can. I’m never going to give it up. I am against the congestion charging zone. Though I so like some of their green policies, which is where I’m guessing some of my results came from.

I did not see myself as a Conservative at all. Not even remotely! Though I agree with some of their policies for education and Europe – on paper at least.

However, confusion set in again, after watching the debate from last week. Gordon Brown did better than I thought he would have done. Nick Clegg looked a bit nervous but he’d obviously been briefed well on how to conduct himself in the situation. But in the end it still just felt like Gordon Brown vs. David Cameron.

Though I’m a bit less confused than I was last week and since I posted that last entry I feel as though I’ve learnt something about this year’s elections and policies. Getting there slowly!

The General Election is fast approaching here in the UK and usually I have a vague idea of which party to vote for. They’ll be something swaying me one way or another, but this time I’m feeling a little bit confused.

American politics seems easy. From this side of the pond anyway. Either you’re a Democrat or a Republican and both parties have their very strong views and stick to them. Here, the three main parties all seem to pander to what the public want and I can’t differentiate between them.

For as long as I can remember my family and I think Indian Asians living in the area have always voted for Labour. I think this goes back to when Indian Asians first migrated to this country – the Labour party was the only one really supporting their needs. It’s been a tradition of sorts. I remember when I got to vote in my first general election my grandmother more or less ordered me to vote Labour!

It might have been wise for me to have watched the debate last night, seeing as I am so confused. But I was in my own little world and completely forgot and was more keen on watching Justified and catching up on Psych.

I’m not a very politically minded person. I don’t keep up with politics other than what’s said in the media, however I really don’t want to waste my vote. So I will attempt to do some homework before I vote to see if I can be a bit clearer on who I want to vote for!