WHY VOTE?

My constituency is Milton Keynes South West and the local MP is Dr Phyllis Starkey a Labour party MP.Dr Starkey has been an MP for Milton Keynes since 1997 during which time, her website says, Milton Keynes has thrived under her care, there has been a new treatment centre in Milton Keynes hospital, countless new schools and the arrival of MK Dons stadium. Dr Starkey has been elected chair of the communities and local government select committee, covering housing and planning, local and regional government, the fire service and the equalities agenda (www.phyllisstarkey.co.uk).


My local council is Milton Keynes council which is dominated by the Liberal Democrat with 21 seats, followed by the Conservatives with 20 seats and Labour comes third with 10 seats (http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/mkcouncil/)



The council elections have been set for the 6th of May 2010 and there is a general mood around that a lot of people will not come out to vote since they don't know who to vote for that will meet their expectations. This is a pretty bad conclusion to come to because someone will be voted in so I think you might as well use your vote and exercise your right. I think we are very good at sitting back and mourning about something or someone but when it comes to doing something about it we leave it to others even though we have the right and can make a change. We may not get the change we want but a bit of it is better than nothing. I know most politicians have no one else's interest at heart other than theirs, but if we know this and don't vote to get them out, then we are no better than them. We all need to vote in order to leave a better legacy for our kids than we have, surely this should be a driving force if nothing else matters.

I have always voted Labour because I think they represent the common man, and my view on that has not changed. The party has done a lot since coming to power in 1997 especially in regard to social security and child poverty. We now have lone parents deals, tax credits and so on and they have also committed to eradicating child poverty by 2020 and halving it by 2010. Although they have now abandoned the 2010 pledge when the realisation that they are nowhere near meeting the pledge came to light, and have outlined a new poverty bill (http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk). But one of Labour's biggest failure is the Iraq war which they will be remembered for in years to come. My grandmother used to say that if you don,t make mistakes then who is your teacher?. This was a costly mistake that we are still paying for and still losing lives over it but we can't go back and undo what has happened, the best thing we can do is learn from it.

I am not into David Cameron at all and I can't tell you why either because I really don't know. A study done in Bangor University seems to tell us that his body language suggests that he is a better leader than Gordon Brown actually giving him on leadership a 4.34 score over a 3.97 to Gordon. On attractiveness, he got a 4.16 to Gordon's 3.16, anxiety 2.26 to Gordon's 3.84 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/newstopics/politics/7385195/David-Camerrons-body-lang). But seriously I know body language is important, but is this what decides who is a better leader, not going through the manifesto and looking at the policies that affects you and your neighbourhood? What does Cameron's attractiveness have to do with what is happening in my neighbourhood, nothing is the answer and neither is Gordon's non-attractiveness. In my view the politicians have a lot in common and most of them don't know the real issues affecting the people that they represent, but I think this is where we come in, we have to make them listen and we can't do that without voting for sure. My main concern is who of them represents me, Conservatives have been known to connect with the rich, they are anti-immigration and not very good on social security. I was leaning more to the Liberal Democrats because of the abolition of the tuition fees but have now been postponed due to the economic crisis but will wait to see what happens.

So lets all go and vote the best decision you will make in years!!!!.