I haven't been able to update this blog as regularly as I would have liked due to lack of time. However, with a bit of luck, hopefully I can get back into the swing of things!It's election time in New South Wales, the four yearly opportunity for us to decide who is likely to make the least mess of things. Voting is compulsory, which is just as well as the majority of eligible voters wouldn't bother to vote. Some will argue that such an attitude is a betrayal of democracy, and wax eloquent about forefathers dying in the war, and being one's duty. Others will argue that in a democracy, it is their right not to vote, and even justify their decision by claiming that abstaining is in fact, making a political statement. Both arguments have their positives and negatives.
What annoys me however, is the type of voter I heard on radio earlier today. Such people are invariably elderly and working class. Wherever you may live - you have no doubt come across them Those who proudly boast, 'I've voted Labor all my life and so did my dad."
That's nothing to be proud of - unless you happen to think stupidity is a virtue, which I don't, which is why I don't particularly fancy either of the main candidates in this year's election!
That is not democracy - that is conditioning and more of a betrayal of civic duty and democracy than those who decide not to vote.
It always seems to be Labor voters who adhere to such practices. Heaven knows why, I have lived under Labor governments in both the UK and Australia and in neither case have they done much for their working class supporters, but plenty for themselves - especially in the UK, where salt-of-the-earth, die-hard socialists end their political careers quite happily swanning around the House of Lords, wearing their Establishment peerages.
Vote for the best - or least worst person for the job, not illogical family or socio-demographic tradition! There are those around the world fighting and dying for the right to have such a choice.
Wherever you may be - be safe
Copyright Mike Hitchen Online, Lane Cove, NSW, Australia. All rights reserved
