I have Voted Tory Before But

I see there is a new hashtag going round. #IveNeverVotedTory, well you see I have, on more than one occasion.

Before my Lib Dem friends hang me out to dry I must say that on none of those occasions was my vote an X it was merely a number (on one occasion 2 digits) and thinking back I do not think my vote transferred to a Tory on any occasion.

You see no matter what the Conservative party think about proportional representation it is just one vote, I've actually had more votes in electing multi-member councillors in Kingston and Coventry than I do in electing my multi-member seat representatives in Scotland. Indeed I had three votes to elect three Lib Dems the last time I voted in England, I had only one vote to go toward the 3 councillors that now represent me, and yes it did move as none of them is a Lib Dem.

Indeed when I lived in Coventry my one vote never elected anybody either to council or Westminster, indeed nor have my votes to the Scottish Parliament. Which just shows that the additional member system which is one of Labour preferred options is also a flawed system. My party is stronger elsewhere in the region than here so we only once have the people outwith certain seats in Edinburgh had Lib Dem representation, and then only briefly in 1999 before Lord Steel was elected to be the first presiding officer.

In all my adult life only in Northern Ireland (except Westminster), the last Scottish council elections and the last couple of European elections has my vote actually elected anybody (outwith internal party elections). Is it any wonder that so many people are turned off by politics. There is no need for parties to be actually different just have the air of being different. It is what David Cameron is doing now and what Tony Blair did in 1997. They were not that radically different from the Government of the day, they were just not them.

With proportional systems you have to show where you are different, people will consider how to vote down the list. They may not go all the way down the list, I didn't for the first Assembly elections. I didn't vote for anyone who was anti-Agreement though my vote never transferred anywhere after my first preference, but the thought was there.

So there you have it, I have made a vote that included a preference for the Tories, they just have never benefited from it.