If you don't vote, please do. Being a citizen offers right and duties, including voting.
I don't usually get political on this platform. The things I write about are intrinsically political, in the sense that I critically argue against a system (neoliberal capitalism) and for the re-establishment of alternatives (nature, ecosystems and social justice) through empowerment of people and renewed political systems which currently clearly represent corporations rather than people.
I discuss systemic changes, I don't discuss parties.
However, today, I want to break the rule. For those who don't know, I'm based in Edinburgh, in Scotland. I've been living in the UK for years. And there are general elections coming up on Thursday 12 December, which means that the UK is going to chose 650 MPs (Members of Parliament) to decide how to run the country.
But I can't vote.
That's due to a very outdated system where only Irish, British or qualifying Commonwealth citizens can vote. It therefore excludes me, and million of other people in the same situation. I've been living in the UK for six years, but I can't vote. However, a New Zealand citizen who's travelling here for three months can (I've got nothing against Kiwis, it's an example). Anyway, that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about who I would vote for if I could.
I would vote for the Scottish Green Party.
I'm not going to go into details into their manifesto or analyse what they put forward - that's your job to find out as a citizen. I want to propose a broader reasoning, and share a few thoughts on why we should seriously think about how we vote. If you don't vote, please do. Being a citizen offers right and duties, including voting. The Guardian offers a good breakdown of the different parties' manifestos if you really don't have the time or the energy to read them.
- Voting is one of the most powerful tool we have to have our say
In the mainstream media, we're being told that we cast our vote through what we buy. While this is true to a certain extent, when you buy something you don't chose how the company is going to be run, or the actual impact it'll have on people and planet. This is what voting in elections offers you. You cast a vote for a specific project, for people who will represent what you believe in. This is probably one of the best part of democracy. I understand that you might feel overwhelmed by the political landscape, because it is overwhelming, both internationally and in the UK. But going on different parties' websites requires only a few minutes - you probably spend more time on Instagram.
- The Greens have been pretty consistent for years. The party dates back to the 1970's, with the People's Party and the Ecological Party who focused on the issues of climate breakdown and natural disaster before the scientists even had a consensus on climate change.
- They wrote the Green New Deal (yes, the one we all talk about now), 11 years ago, just after the financial crisis of 2007.
- The Tories (Conservative party) wants to establish policies which will make rich people richer. They want to introduce an agenda based on a neoliberal system which gives increasing power to free-market and the private sector. That means less effective public services (think crisis of the NHS getting worse). The Tories also only have a vague environmental agenda - they treat nature as a commodity, focusing on its financial value (like putting a price on ecosystem services, water, air etc) rather than saving nature because we're reliant on it.
- The concentration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - the stuff that makes our planet warmer and less safe, has hit a record high. While it's satisfying to see the climate emergency brought forward in every party's manifesto, the Greens have a proper agenda to solve the climate crisis, combined with social justice, and the possibility to make collective decisions about our common interests.
No matter what you vote, please vote. In times of increasing uncertainties, worldwide violence and anxiety, we often feel lost and powerless. We often don't know what we to do.
Voting is a way to do something.