Friday May 7, 2010 at 11:06am
Voting for the first time
It was with great excitement that I went into a Polling Station at 0700 hrs and Voted for the first time in my life yesterday, I am 40 in 3 month’s time. I know I feel quite ashamed to be honest.
Whenever there was an election on, I always seemed to be on Ops and never bothered to use my proxy vote or postal vote.
To me there was never any real need to vote
The way I saw it, the country is always going to need a defence force. I was always paid at the end of every month without fail. I always had a roof over my head even if it was a poncho at times. Free medical and dental and a pension plan. If I had kids I would of received an allowance to send them to a private school.
I spent most of my time in foreign lands whilst serving nearly 24 years in HM Forces as a single soldier. So I never needed to worry about who had the best education, immigration and health policies. I didn’t require any benefits.
So as a member of HM Forces what did it matter if I voted or not, sure there have been a lot of defence cuts and it has been frustrating at times with the lack of kit on Ops.
(Service men and women do die due to the lack of the right kit, but who is to say they wouldn’t have died anyway. Not a very nice thing to say I know, but I was leading a Patrol in Southern Iraq in 3 soft-top Landrovers when my vehicle broke down.
10 mins later 3 armoured vehicles drove past after stopping to see if we were ok.
500m down the road they were hit by an IED, the commander and one of the top-cover died. Speaking to the agencies on site after, they said if it had been my rover I would of died but the top-cover would more than likely survived.)
The point is I did not have the right kit, but they did. I shall leave you to ponder that statement.
Learning Curve
As you may know, I am on leave until my dine out. Which has left me with a great deal of time to follow this year’s election.
I have watched the debates and have tried to learn as much as possible about each of the political parties’ manifestos leading up to Election Day.
Having spent all my adult life protected in a bubble from the outside world, I find myself now having to face issues such as employment, health care, immigration.
I feel I have a vested interest about who I feel best represents the UK needs.
For me one of the biggest issues facing the UK has to be immigration. Immigration has knock-on effects with employment, health care, crime and the economy.
I happened to be in a hospital in Birmingham the other week. The thing that shocked me was the welcome message in about 10 different languages. Don’t even get me started on being able to understand what the doctor said to my girlfriend.
How does this help the cohesion of this GREAT country? I served this country for 24 years and what for? I feel I am partly to blame, for not taking a greater interest on who should be running this country. How many people should accept the blame with me?
To say I am disappointed today is an understatement, I now feel my vote meant nothing. I shall now have to read and find out what these results really mean and watch with everyone else how it all unfolds.
Is electoral system out-dated?
Is the UK a sinking ship?
Should I jump ship and head for greener pastures?