Why I won't vote

I didn't vote. I haven't voted for some years now. And I won't vote any time soon.

Obviously this draws a lot of rage from my politically-minded liberal middle class friends. And others.

But here's why I don't.

If someone asked me to choose from the following options:

• Get kicked in the face
• Get punched in the stomach
• Have my foot stamped on

I wouldn't say 'yes please' to any of them. I wouldn't answer the question with an affirmative at all. I most probably would just walk away.

There is no way we would think it was acceptable for a person to be forced into choosing to be knowingly harmed, and we would all agree that it was unreasonable to try to force them to.

The villain would not be the person who refused to select an option, but the one who was forcing them to choose which harmful act.

So it is with parliamentary elections.

I cannot with a clear conscience choose any of the three proposed options - three parliamentary parties - that are available. Any one of those choices will do me, my family, my community and my society great harm. Any one of them will be subject to the same supra-national forces of greed and exploitation that mean that our country remains the at the mercy of global corporate interests that prohibit any of the things I want to see represented at a national government level.

I can't vote for something - I can't agree to something, say 'yes' to something, MANDATE something - that I know will cause harm.

And that is what happens in a general election. Our views as individual voters are not transferred to the halls of Westminster via the ballot box, our opinions are not represented, our ethics are not upheld.

What happens is that our vote provides a mandate for the leadership of a particular party to do whatever they want to do.

Brexit is the perfect example.

'Do you want to leave the EU?'

If no then we stay in the EU regardless of what the EU does in the future (and there is a lot of economic protectionism and right wing sentiment in the European states at this time).

If yes then we leave the EU in any circumstances, however recklessly harmful the terms might be for us as citizens.

Just tune in to the media. All you will hear as a bottom line argument from the leave leaderships is "We have a mandate!"

As if a mandate were unconditional. As if a vote on a simplistic question were representative of the will of the people over a detailed answer. As if being the unelected leader of a minority party in the House of Commons (only half of our parliament) gave one the divine right of Kings.

So I don't vote. Because at least I know no one can say to me "This is what you wanted".