Think Twice: Why you should definitely vote on the EU referendum

Recently, Rupert Read claimed in the Green European Journal that we should spoil our ballot papers when we come to cast our votes in the EU referendum on 23rd June, or not vote at all: http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/voteneither-how-you-can-help-both-sides-to-lose-this-pointless-referendum/#comment-152475

I believe this notion to be an incorrect argument-here is why:

1. Spoiling your ballot paper or boycotting votes achieves nothing. In elections and referendums, whatever the choice, you should always vote even if the best choice is not always available, so that you can make your voice heard. All spoiling ballot papers actually does is waste time, and boycotting votes is just as ineffective in practice. I instead advise that if you have a right to vote in elections, you should use it to achieve what you believe in or at least the best possible outcome.

2. We can make a difference in the EU membership referendum. It is true that Cameron's planned negotiations over British membership of the EU are clearly only designed to benefit his interests and those of British elites, and not us. We however can use this referendum to demand better EU reforms ourselves-the European Union is in great need of internal and external reform and it needs to be much less controlling and intrusive.

3. This referendum is long overdue and we need to make our votes matter. Only very rarely does Britain get the opportunity for direct democracy of any type (unlike Switzerland or Ireland), and this EU membership referendum is one of these. With so much having happened in the 41 years since the last EU membership referendum was held in the UK (back when it was actually the European Economic Community, or EEC) we must use this opportunity to decide Britain's next course of action, and make the will of the British people imprinted in EU history.

So instead of spoiling your ballot paper, do cast your vote in the EU membership referendum on 23rd June, whether your circumstances and values lead you towards voting for Remain or towards votin for a Brexit. And make your own informed choice about this matter-this crucial vote must belong to we, the people, not to the media, not political elites, not business leaders, or anyone but us.

Alan.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My analysis of the Swedish general election of 2022

The Swedish general election of 2022 generated some surprising results, despite also averting pollsters' predictions significantly. The last three years in particular proved to be a rough ride for the Social Democrat led governments of Stefan Lofven and Magdalena Andersson respectively. Although Sweden's laxer approach to the COVID-19 pandemic (compared to most countries in Europe, which imposed lockdowns during much of 2020 and 2021, an approach that arguably caused more problems than it solved) proved effective, Mr Lofven's desire to lift the austerity tax (which only affected a wealthy minority, similar in nature to the wealth tax initiative of former French President Francois Hollande) and to join NATO proved contentious, with two of the Social Democrats' former coalition partners (the Swedish Greens and Swedish Left Party, who had both pulled out of confidence and supply) unsurprisingly voting against Swedish accession to NATO membership (all other parties in the R
Read more

On the 2020 Serbian election: Why a boycott will only worsen things there

First of all, I apologise for the recent hiatus; however elections are still postponed or on hold in many countries, including the UK. Serbia, however, was able to proceed with its 2020 general election amidst this crisis. Its overall result proved reminiscent of Hungarian elections under Viktor Orban's tenure (2010-present), since the leading national-conservative coalition, the SNS (Progressive Party of Serbia) coalition led by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic (Ana Brnabic is the Serbian Prime Minister, and the first woman and openly homosexual person to hold that position), polled 61.6% of the vote, giving them as many as 191 seats out of 250 and a majority of as high as 132, almost unheard of in any country with proportional representation. Press freedom has endured significant curbs since President Vucic first came into power as Serbian PM in 2012 (he became President of Serbia in 2017), as have civil liberties of Serbs in general. Nepotism and corruption in the Serbian
Read more

On the Spanish regional elections of 2023-a warning for progressives

The Spanish regional elections of 2023, especially those in the "Empty Spain" regions far west of the federal capital of Madrid and prosperous yet famously rebellious Catalonia, resulted in a sharp shift towards conservatism and conservative populism. Both Partido Popular (PP, Spain's equivalent of the Conservatives) and Vox (the Spanish equivalent of Reform UK/UKIP) made sweeping gains in all regions, notably taking overall control in Madrid (normally an impossible feat under Spain's PR system), more than doubling their seat total in Valencia to top the poll there, and wresting control of Asturias, La Rioja, and Cantabria from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE, Spain's equivalent of Labour) and the Cantabrian Regionalist Party respectively. Under the tenure of Pedro Sanchez, the current PSOE-Podemos coalition is floundering and has not done much to ensure Spain's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic since the last restrictions ended in 2021, and P
Read more