OPINION: Why I’m going to spoil my vote

My vote will make no difference. I live in Hackney North, which is one of the safest Labour seats in the country.

I’m disillusioned with the policy choices on offer. With every general election the manifestos seem to get more and more pedestrian. Where are the visions?

I don’t believe in the politicians. Our system is awash with mediocrity; the career politicians have completely taken over. Any hint of free thinking is snuffed out by centrally-driven message management and an overriding imperative to not be seen to slip up. The result is a bland gloop of caveat-ridden double speak that no one believes a goddamned word of. Where are the visionaries?

And I don’t buy in to the argument that it is my responsibility to vote because our ancestors fought and made huge sacrifices for suffrage. Those people fought for democracy. In 2015, at least where I live, real democracy doesn’t exist in the general election voting booth.

When the result is a foregone conclusion, the policies stink and the politicians are rotten, the voting booth is a sham, an insult to those who fought for our right to vote and merely a red herring that gives the illusion of being able to change things when in reality it will achieve sod all. There are many other ways to change things.

So why bother traipsing to the local community centre just to spoil my vote? For what it’s worth, I want my disillusionment on the official record. I know it won’t change anything. But then neither will voting.