THE GENERAL ELECTION 2015

Initially when planning this post, it was going to be unbiased without stating what political party I lean towards by using code words and confusing language to disguise it, but frankly it just didn't seem worth it. And also because I'm not ashamed of the party I support, and nor should anyone else be - we have the privilege of freedom of speech and the right to say what we like and yes we may come into conflict with people but isn't that a good thing? It makes our values stronger and fortifies our beliefs when we have to defend ourselves. And as women, I believe we have the responsibility to vote every time an election comes around as my mother once told me as a small girl, "women fought for us to vote. Women died to secure us this right, so you must always vote no matter if there is no one you agree with". As a turning point in my life I think it has been deeply embedded into the person I am today hence why I get upset, and frankly angry, when women all over the country take no interest in politics and refuse to vote based on outdated views such as "it makes no difference" or "there's no one worth voting for". There will never be one party that reflects everything you want to happen but as cliché as it sounds, every vote matters and truly does make a difference.

 

Polling Station - photo by The Guardian

So what was the General Election result? Conservatives have won a majority of 331 seats, Labour with 232, Liberal Democrats with a measly 8, Scottish Nationalist Party with an outstanding 56 (out of 59) and UKIP and Green Party winning 1 each. And this was just the beginning. Conservatives have increased since the previous 2010 election where they won 306 seats meaning that they had to join coalition with the Liberal Democrats. However the backlash from this formation has hit the Lib Dems the most with them now dropping from 57 seats to the shocking 8. But the biggest shock of all from this election was the fact that the predicted polls had it so wrong. Going to bed on Thursday night, we all imagined we would wake up with a hung parliament - a parliament where no single party had won a majority but as the votes were counted and the numbers flooded in, the decision of the British public was clear: Conservatives would get another 5 years in power. For me this was a shock, had people actually bought Cameron's miserable attempts at relating to the working class and pretending that he would genuinely try and make the country better for them? Because obviously tax evasion and avoidance, zero-hour contracts and non-dom status is a great thing for our country and that by putting Cameron in power we are definitely doing the right thing. But it's clearly not this easy and voting is a difficult task as we have the Lib Dems who have predominantly back tracked on everything they said they wouldn't do (University fees, VAT increases, tax cuts to the millionaires, the list goes on) and Labour who wrecked our economy in the previous term in parliament.

What will the next 5 years bring? With Conservatives stealing the majority of seats, their plans for the next years are mainly decent but can we trust a party who seems more concerned with making the rich richer and poor pay for the funding our country needs? David Cameron plans to provide £5000 of free childcare, have an income tax-free minimum wage, seven day access to GP service and give an annual £8bn boost for NHS funding. These were just some plans that stood out to me but some stood out even more such as repealing the Hunting Act and that they are committed to four-boat Trident nuclear deterrent. Honestly to me these don't seem like things the country should be trying to promote - increase the sport of hunting and the development of submarine and war machines which, as Plaid Cymru, SNP and the Greens have said, are "unusable and indefensible". And I'm obviously against the fact that Cameron has turned a blind eye to the rich avoiding tax and pursuing the elitist nature in our country. And what I find most unfair is the fact that Conservatives can get away with the fact that the banker's bonuses have risen by 64% in 1 year (while my mum is 12% worse off under Conservative leadership because her salary hasn't increased with inflation), food banks usage have risen by 700% and 1 million people are employed on zero-hour contracts and the list goes on (in fact 100 more reasons are viewable here) and to me this doesn't seem like a successful 5 years at all.

After the news this morning we have had three resignations; Ed Miliband (who's speech can be seen here), Nick Clegg (who's heartwarming speech can be seen here) and Nigel Farage (which can be seen here). It's sad to see the Labour lose so many seats after such encouraging attempts at trying to prove they are the better party but most of all, the Lib Dem catastrophe has to be the worst with Clegg loosing so much because of being the smaller party in the coalition and having to take the backlash of it. Especially as Nick Clegg's speech was heartfelt and honest, something that seemed to be genuine and truthful, which sadly we haven't seen a lot of lately.

All in all, we have dangerous yet exciting times ahead of us, what will happen with the EU question? How will the Scottish problem be solved? Who will become the new leaders of Labour, Lib Dems and UKIP? Hopefully we'll find out soon, if not see you in 5 years time...