I did not vote for two reasons:
1) My vote does NOT make a difference. Thousands and thousands of people who normally vote stopping voting - that would matter, but just my one vote - nah - no difference to anything. TRUE democracy is proportional representation - not this poor excuse of a democratic system that we have today. Unless you live in a marginal seat, it's pretty pointless.
When I tell most people this, the standard comeback is "well - if everybody thought like that........." - to which I say: if EVERYBODY else thought like that, then I definitely WOULD vote, as my vote WOULD make a difference - so yes - as soon as my vote actually matters to anything - let me know - then I'll be there. Until then, I've got better things to do with my time than reduce a 10,000 majority by 1.
2) Secondly, and more importantly, I didn't vote because I am not qualified to do so.
I do not understand anywhere near enough about most of the decisions politicians have to make to be able to determine who is right and who is wrong.
eg. "Should we join the Euro?" - how the frig should I know? The top political and economic minds in the country differ in their opinion, so my comparatively uninformed opinion can't be worth a button!
eg. "Should we have joined the war in Iraq?" - again - dunno - I don't know nearly enough about the balance of the human, political and economic aspects to judge.
The more I think about it, the less I consider myself to be in any way, shape or form qualified to decide on these things.
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Oh - and I've come up with a good idea to help fix the political system:
An independent body should be set up to assess how well an elected candidate meets their pre-electoral promises. Any shortfalls in meeting their promises should actually be calculated as a numerical value and deducted from their votes in subsequent elections.