Voting can be fun…

Whenever I have the opportunity to vote, I always offer a silent prayer of thanks for the efforts of Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes who paved the way for  women to have the opportunity to vote in 1918.

I also consider those so much less fortunate that us in the ‘free world’ who still risk a bullet when they make a stand for democracy.

As I place my X in the appropriate box, I get a feeling of wellbeing, similar (but less uncomfortable) to when I donate blood – the sense that one is making a least some tiny contribution to the common good. And yesterday’s local elections and alternative voting referendum in the UK was no exception.

But on a lighter note - voting can be about so much more than your collective responsibility to society. It can be fun and informative too!

I shall never forget the first time I voted in a general election. Feeling very grown up – at 18 years old, I went with my parents to the local village hall to complete my ballot paper. As with most polling stations – there were free-standing three sided booths, often in groups of four or six, to enable privacy while voting. Dippy at the best of times, my mother forgot who she wanted to vote for, and, pen in hand stepped out of the booth to consult my father. As she walked towards him, pen, attached to booth, still in hand, she dragged four booths with her and left three startled voters – standing anchorless and without means to vote -  in the middle of the hall!

Forward at least three decades and I realise that I am nearly as bad. In the general elections last year. I turned up at our local polling station, another village hall, but took the wrong entrance and ended up in an over 50’s Pilates class! I must confess, I had no idea that exercising your democratic right could be so exhausting….

No such mishaps this year, but I did narrowly miss a Women’s Institute meeting. However, after I voted, as I left the hall I walked past two elderly ladies, sitting outside by the entrance. They were both sporting blue rosettes so one could safely assume they were from Camp Cameron (Camp Cameron – that conjures up an image..)

I wasn’t in a hurry so I stopped for a chat. And very interesting it was too. These ladies were extremely well informed and we had a lively debate on the Tories’ first year in power. We came to the conclusion that we agreed on four key points.

1.      The Tory party’s leadership has been weakened by an apparent desire to avoid upsetting their coalition partners (nothing new there then).

2.      Lansley has got it totally, utterly wrong with the Healthcare Reform plans and Cameron needs to step in and backtrack (I was surprised at this as I assumed that ‘non- medical’ people would rather like the idea of patient and GP power – but even the man in the street can see through the rhetoric).

3.      Cameron was right to wear tails to the Royal Wedding but should never have considered wearing a lounge suit as all Heads of state would either be in Uniform or tails.(For my readers from overseas, there was a lot of press about Cameron fearing that dressing up in top hat and tails would make him seem too posh)  Speaking of Posh – Beckham was happy to wear tails of course!!

4.      And perhaps most important – Samantha Cameron should have worn a hat to the Royal Wedding – her fancy hair decoration was ‘simply not enough’!

So there you have it – if you want to find out about the burning political issues of the day, hang around outside a polling station.

But at all costs – avoid rooms full of middle aged ladies in lycra…..