VOTE. BUT ONLY IF YOU WANT A POLITICIAN

byHARRY BLACKWOOD

More than ten years ago when I first started banging on about the not voting thing, virtually everyone thought I was bonkers.

Now, I'm in great company. Not only are millions of 'ordinary' people realising that we can't change the system unless we first smash the system, but people like Russell Brand are articulating perfectly what I've believed for ten years. Hell's teeth, even Jeremy Paxman has said he totally understands Brand's stance on not voting.

Sadly, there are people out there who just don't get it. They blabber on about voting being our democratic right and something that people fought in wars for, blah, blah, blah. Actually if they opened their eyes just a little, they'd see this "democracy" is a complete sham. Smoke and mirrors. Throwing a few crumbs to keep us plebs happy.

Well, I'm not happy. I'm absolutely seething.

Here's why.

* I don't want to live in a society where the weak, the vulnerable, the sick and the disadvantaged are picked on and picked off one by one. That is precisely what we have seen the Tories and their LibDem bitches do since they came to power. The sick. The disabled. Those with too many bedrooms. The long-term unemployed. All have been in the cross hairs of the nasty party and ace marksman Iain Duncan-Smith.

* I don't want to live in a country where young people are told they have to work in crap dead end jobs or they'll lose their few quid job seekers allowance. Or where bright young people work for three years at university to get a degree and then find they are £50,000 in debt and the only jobs available are part time supermarket positions. Or where people graft in Poundland for free to give them work experience. Imagine that: working in a shop where everything is worth a pound except you.

* I don't want to live in a country where obnoxious footballers are paid more in a week than a neuro surgeon or a heart consultant will earn in a year. We have nurses run ragged on £25,000 a year or less but Wayne Rooney and his mates are earning a million quid a month. From a moral, ethical and compassionate point of view there is simply no justification for this nonsense.

* I don't want to live in a country where corporations and wealthy individuals are allowed to find loopholes in tax laws to avoid billions in tax every year. Tax that would mean those poor bastards who are being made to suffer could actually have decent lives.

UNDEMOCRATIC STATE INTIMIDATION ENFORCES YOUR 'DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS'

ONE of the reasons I've taken to the intent with my blog Named, Blamed and Shamed, is to get people to think and to do their own research. In fact it's the main reason.

My thinking is quite straightforward. I know that when people do their own digging they'll come to the same conclusions as me.

So when I did my blog piece recently on the threatening letters sent out to people like me who refuse to register to vote, I was delighted that JAMES CAMPBELL not only read it but started thinking about it. Better than that, he's written a guest blog. Here you go . . .

DON'T REGISTER TO VOTE AND WE'LL SCREW YOUR CREDIT RATING

By HARRY BLACKWOOD

I'm regularly told by those who oppose my DON'T VOTE stance that my vote is important. I'm told it's a hard-won democratic right that should be cherished and acted upon?

Well, let's just say for the purposes of debate, that's correct. If it is, the Powers That Be should be so comfortable that they occupy the moral high ground that they'd be happy to allow us to make a personal choice.

If you want to vote do so. Of you don't then it's your choice.

That is certainly not the case. For starters it's illegal not to complete the form you get to enter your details on the electoral register.

Here's the official bullshit:

DON'T VOTE. IT ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM

by HARRY BLACKWOOD

It's now more than 25 years since I voted in any sort of election and I've spent the past ten years actively campaigning to get people to follow suit.

You may have been told otherwise but voting is not actively taking part in democracy. It is actively taking part in an elaborate con trick. It's stupid and I know I can convince you that I'm right.

My politics can best be described as compassionate socialism. My leanings have always been left of centre. So, living in Hartlepool - a Labour stronghold in the North East of England - I should have been a happy bunny. Not a bit of it. I've always had a deep-seated mistrust of politicians and when, in 1991, Labour parachuted a smarmy, middle class spin doctor into constituency, I really began to think about how voting and democracy actually works.

That man was Peter Mandelson and his arrival in my home town not only changed my views of politics, democracy and voting, it changed the entire course of my life. But all that is for another day.

So, why was Mandelson handed the safe Labour seat of Hartlepool to fight in the 1992 election? Well, it certainly wasn't for his strong Northern roots or his working class background. Both were non-existent. And it wasn't because of any political achievements. It was a reward for favours done and favours expected.

When Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Stephen Byers, Alan Milburn, Mandelson and others plotted to hijack an ailing Labour Party, they weren't doing it for the good of the nation, the good of democracy or the good of the Labour Party. They were doing it for the good of themselves. Just like the Great Train Robbers divided up the spoils of their haul, so the architects of New Labour did for many years to come. Instead of getting a few mail sacks full of £20 notes, Mandy got the safe seat of Hartlepool as a launch pad to becoming a multi-millionaire Bilderberger and political power broker.

But don't think this scam is unique to New Labour. Far from it. The Tories do precisely the same; as do all political parties. It's the same grace and favour system operated by Royalty and rich landowners for generations.

But here's the rub. This is the bit where hopefully you wake up. They can only get away with it if
you go out and vote. They are desperate for your vote. They will do anything and say anything to get your vote. Without your vote they are finished. It has nothing to do with democracy or policies or principles. It's all about power and control.

Don't believe me? OK try this. At the last election the parties spent more than £30 million trying to get your vote. The Tories spent more than half the total amount. Do you honestly think they spend these vast sums of money to benefit democracy? Give your head a shake. They do it for power. Agreed?

So why do they want power? For power's sake. OK I'll give you that, they're a bunch of power mad psychopaths. So how about thinking further. Where did that £15 million that the Tories spent come from?