A 2007 General Election? Cameron Gets My Vote
by matt @ 10:46 pm. Blogged under Thinking
A week ago I began to pay a bit more attention to the political conferences and the responses of the various leaders to all the speculation of an autumn general election. Yesterday’s speech at the Tory Conference in Blackpool by David Cameron had me persuaded to vote for him by bedtime. One key reason is that speaking for an hour without supporting notes on a subject you aren’t passionate about and aren’t knowledgeable on is quite tough, so he comes across as somebody who will do what he says. I also found many of the subjects raised and suggested solutions rang true with me. Of course I’m not stupid enough to think it wasn’t all very well planned and researched, but even his joke about Facebook amused me despite being a blatant attempt at winning over young voters. Gordon Brown doesn’t seem to have made any effort, he has an air of complacency about him and I don’t trust his eyes… and I already blogged the irritating Brown chin.
I don’t normally pay too much attention to politics, two weeks ago David Cameron was definitely off my radar on the impression stakes. The Tories haven’t hit me with PR in the press to change my mind; I get most of my news from BBC Online. I think as the Prime Minister’s smugness during the Mariella Frostrup interview has played on my mind I’ve begun to resent him more, that and his visit to Iraq this week reminded me that the Labour Party took us into an illegal war despite several million of us marching against it… AND they have yet to give us an EU referendum as promised. If an election does come along in 2007 I’d like to see the back of the Labour Party, and that means switching my vote from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives who incidentally also have by far the best website of the three major political parties.
I would never have voted for Hague, Duncan or Howard, but Cameron definitely has something about him, which is more than I can say for Sir Ming Campbell who I just cannot relate to, he’s just too old and has yet to say anything I find interesting. On the news tonight it’s beginning to sound like Gordon Brown might regret the subtle hints about a looming November election as other people have also been impressed with David Cameron’s conference speech. At least Brown can still say it’s not a good time because of the problems with the electoral registers being so out of date - I’m convinced he’ll use that as a get-out clause if necessary when the poll figures come out.
One day somebody will realise that the Internet is just waiting for a new political party to start up, it’s the perfect platform for greater democracy, one could even imagine there being weekly votes by millions on a range of topics to govern the country… for me it’s the next Facebook and might actually overcome voter apathy because who wants to wander down to a stuffy old village hall with that old papery stuff to contend with anyway?
Technorati Tags: general election, david cameron, tories, conservative, labour party, gordon brown, liberal democrats, ming campbell
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October 15th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Hooray for the end of the Ming dynasty, nice bloke but too old.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Like you I used to vote Lib Dems, but not liking labour, I am tempted to vote Conservatives just to get labour out.
I still wish they put an option on the ballot forms “None of the above”. I’m fed up of hearing how party x stayed in power and how it might be because only 5% of the voting population voted. Only 5% voted as the other 95% don’t like any of the parties. I’m pretty sure if they made this an option all the major parties would get a shock when they realise that getting 55% votes last time doesn’t mean half the country likes them, it means half of a dozen thousand people like em, and 50 million more hate them!
I also used to think of a party where the country was run by poll. If a system could be developed that couldn’t be cheated it would be awesome to have a forum where top issues were publicised and available options listed. However I can see all the good intent and “nice options” resulting in the downfall of the country. Money would be put into short-term quick solutions without considering the long term well being of the state etc.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
The conservatives have nothing new to offer and I will NEVER forgive them for 79-87. David Cameron is my MP so that certainly wouldn’t persuade me to vote conservative.