This question has puzzled me for upwards of twenty years, and I am not going to pretend to have the answer.
It is accepted as a truism that the election is really determined in 50-100 constituencies 'Key Marginals' and those of us living in 'safe' seats might as well stay at home for all the good it does.
This wasn't how I felt in 1992, though (see below)...
(and rest assured Keith, or friends of Keith, who may be reading, I will get my sorry arse over the road to VOTE KEITH on 5 May!)
I could recount anecdotes about the ward in Nottingham, where the highest placed but unelected Labour candidate came a mere two votes behind the lowest elected Conservative. This lead to the Conservatives having an overall majority of one seat on the two-party council, and, thus, overall control.
I could relate the story of a then colleague and husband, Labour Party members but not activists, who slinked away from the polling station, unable to meet the eyes of the Labour Teller, having tactically voted LibDem - the Lib Dems defeated the sitting Tory by 57 votes.
Or I could give you tales of the approximate method of counting votes - indeed, I will, but on another day...
Each vote can make a diference. In the way that if you keep putting your loose change in a jar, you suddenly find you have enough money for an airfare, or the deposit on a house. "Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves."
But my vote doesn't matter.
At the risk of sounding dreadfully old-fashioned, I do believe that there is such a thing as society. It's not always what we do as individuals that count, but what we do as part of society.
You can rest assured that the far right extremist hate parties will be incredibly well organised to ensure that their supporters vote in their droves. I confidently believe that not one person who reads this blog will vote BNP (and Fuck Off if you do, your readership isn't wanted), so I say to all of you, if you have a BNP candidate standing in your constituency, please examine your conscience and cast your vote in a way that ensures that those hate-filled scum maggots are denied the oxygen of publicity, and, even worse, a Parliamentary seat.
For many years, I trotted out parrot fashion the phrase that many women sacrificed a great deal in order that I can vote. When I first stood for election in 1994, in Brixton's Town Hall Ward, and spent very many hours canvassing votes, I was overwhelmed by the number of black, mainly young-ish, people who said that they were going to vote, perhaps for the first time in their life, because they had been so moved by the scenes from the South African election, where black people were able to vote for the first time. Not that I count myself in the Nelson Mandela league...
There are also other considerations in casting a vote - even in a 'safe', one way or th'other seat, the vote eventually gets aggregated, and forms the historical record of the election, being used in the formulae for all those wonderful psephological games. I love psephology, me...!
I find it hard to formulate a convincing argument, even to myself, that me voting, or abstaining, or spoiling my ballot paper, or voting for a fringe party, can make any difference. To be honest, that is why, over the years, I have actively campaigned, stood for election (and won, and served eight years).
That is why I write to the media, that is why I lobby my MP, that is why I write stuff on this blog. My vote is only the key to unlocking my democratic participation. If you don't vote, you can't complain, I said yesterday. I actually think it should be - if you don't complain, you can't complain...!
Profile: In 1992, Keith Hill ousted Sir William Shelton - who had represented this constituency for the Conservatives for more than 22 years - to become Streatham's first Labour MP since the seat's creation in 1918. He increased his majority in 1997 to more than 18,000. In 2001 this was 14,630 on a lower turn-out. The A23 London to Brighton road runs through the constituency which extends beyond Streatham (the name means hamlet on the street) to take in parts of Clapham, Balham and Brixton. It includes Lambeth's Town Hall in Acre Lane. This is a mainly suburban seat but increasingly inner-city in nature and in a state of some demographic flux, perhaps more so than other comparably-sited halfway city seats. Streatham Hill and Streatham High Road were once major shopping streets - known as the West End of south London. The departure of the John Lewis store in 1990 marked a rapid decline though the area is beginning to pick up with a number of new bars and restaurants in addition to the long-standing Streatham Ice Rink, cinemas and bowling alley, once visited by none other than the princes William and Harry. The constituency's age profile is young - only a quarter of the population is over 45. Almost two-thirds are from ethnic minority communities - 22.5% are African-Caribbean in origin. Flats account for two-thirds of dwellings; only 21% are local authority renters. Brixton's reputation as a whole is on the rise. It is increasingly cosmopolitan, fashionable and buzzing with nightlife and is the home to young professionals, artists and those in the media.
source: BBC
The Guardian - boo, hiss - says
runs from Brixton town hall to outer London, plenty of rented housing in a suburb that has gone down in the world
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