Hopes for future elections shared by independent

An election is an opportunity to vote for something, not against something else. Despite what anyone says, you also have a right not to vote if you choose. What surprises me is the number of people who voted for Boris Johnson in the 2019 General Election because they didn’t want Jeremy Corbyn to win. The manifestos of both Labour and the Conservatives pledged to increase government spending and increase taxation. Even without COVID-19, we’d have still seen our freedom smashed and our economic liberty shrink. Boris hasn’t betrayed you; he’s fooled you. He was never a libertarian in the first place. Your vote endorsed a dictator in waiting, and now we’re all paying the price.

If you believed there was no real choice, then you could have provided choice yourself by standing as an independent candidate…

Christopher J. Wilkinson

Back then with the parliament in deadlock and public anger arising from a stalled Brexit process, I expected a low turnout and eventually voted for an independent who, in my view, could do the least harm. I have yet to understand why nearly 14 million people took a wrong turn by voting against something instead of for something else. If you believed there was no real choice, then you could have provided choice yourself by standing as an independent candidate or for a pro-liberty political party, or simply not voting. The lessons of the Blair era had evidently been lost quickly. Triangulation is the toxic politics of consensus, not conviction; where the voice of one is lost in the collective voice of all.

At future elections, we need a greater amount of political knowledge and education to help us make informed decisions.

Christopher J. Wilkinson

At future elections, we need a greater amount of political knowledge and education to help us make informed decisions. Read the manifestos. Understand how policies will affect you. Research the background of political candidates. From the experience of the 2019 General Election, I hope people have learned a valuable lesson about democracy… what’s left of it.