To Vote or not to Vote, that is the question...

Well, I did, but there have been occasions where I just haven't bothered or spoiled my ballot paper out of disgust of the choice - or lack thereof.

However, I most desperately did NOT want there to be another split council (or whatever the term is) as that's been a disaster - with all of them having a huge say, too many schemes get agreed, they all put their wages up and the council tax just goes up and up, eek!

However, I did NOT vote because of the memory of suffragettes. Now I realise a lot of people feel strongly about these women who campaigned for women's rights, and I respect that and mean no disrespect or offense in anyway, and the following is purely my own personal opinion.

Suffrage duly came up in the curriculum, and I think we supposed to come away all fired up, being an all girls school. I wasn't particularly smitten at first, some personal reading soon shows how deeply unlikable the key players were. However, what sealed the deal for me was they made the mistake of going on and on about Emily Wilding Davidson, showing us the footage and so on, and acting like she was some kind of sainted martyr.

What did she do? She committed suicide at the 1913 Derby by throwing herself in front of the King's horse.

Now, I recognise how desperate these women felt about it, that although the movies and shakers were by and large upperclass, how they really were fighting for all women, and how there was terrible oppression, how awful the treatment was they were subject to in jail such as forced feeding, etc etc., and what a horrible death to be trampled to death by horse is..

BUT - what would be Evangelists usually fail to point out (I went and found out through my own research) was that the horse also died.

You have to understand that I was a teenage girl, completely obsessed with horses above all other things... That was it for me, I completely rejected feminism in all its forms.

And I must say, my view hasn't changed... I'm interested in EQUALITY - NOT for men and women, or black and white, but for ALL, irrespective of gender or sexuality or colour or height or age or... You get the idea!

Anyway, I voted - I voted in memory of all those people who, in the past in this country, and in the present in other countries, were not able to vote, are not able to vote without the risk of being bombed or shot at or murdered.

And I voted in privacy and kept my vote secret (I also steadfastly refuse to register for a postal vote for this reason) - oh how ANGRY those people make me that lurk outside and ask for your polling number! It shouldn't be allowed! How can we have a democracy without a free vote? How can we have a free, unpressurised uncoerced vote if it isn't secret?

Ok, how much of democracy it is when the choices are what they are is debatable, but lets leave that for another day, hey.