15.5 is how many times you will vote if you lived until your 80!
Which means including the 2015 UK General Election coming up, I have 11 more votes to cast. Mmmmmm…
My initial feeling was, actually thats quite a lot but then part of me also thought will I actually ever see major change in my lifetime? I have not really ever considered myself hugely political but over the last couple of years I find myself more interested in what its all about, not the nitty, gritty detail although I am sure this is to some, critical, however more just trying to live in todays society. As someone who just wants to work hard, learn, love and grow as a person (I don’t mean this to sound too soppy!) and ultimately be happy and be accepting of everyone individually, I have increasingly found that the way the country I live in is run is very much down to the government.
At times this country can feel like an uphill struggle, don’t get me wrong, I consider myself to be a lucky person just to have my health, a roof over my head and food babies regularly swelling my stomach! I have ore than most and am thankful for that but I have a niggling, can’t quite put my finger on what it is feeling that a country like the UK, in the western world could be a lot easier to live in.
As some of you know I have been trying to buy a house after years of working, paying uni fees, living in gross flats, house shares and I am trying to do this in a country that feels like it is red taped to the max. One of my main reasons for wanting to move is to be closer to work. I commute daily, a journey that can take anything from 45mins to over 3.5 hours depending on the time of day, traffic conditions, railway services. With this comes battling NCP parking charges for parking just outside of the faded painted white lines even though I paid the ticket price, a daily toll charge on the Dartford tunnel bridge which I understand was paid off years ago, train tickets that have gone up god knows how much over the last 5 years and certainly not relative to wage increases – I am not even going to get started on the road rage, the anger, the miserable faces I see daily. I know life is not easy and I know I’m up for the challenge and I am certainly not alone but I do question how this county is run and whether there really, truly can be change to make the everyday living easier.
With the general election just around the corner you can’t help but get involved in some of the hype, the political game playing, the media frenzy, the staged interviews , live panels, and visits to help people around the world, the promises, the acts of kindness to try and gain trust.
In my mind it doesn’t feel like I’m asking for a lot, mostly to try and make my life simpler, a commute to a job that takes less time so I can try and live my life the way I would like to, not life of riley type living just well…balanced.
Will I vote? Yes of course I will, after all this was a battle that was fought for us so we each had a voice. Who will I vote for? Ummmmmmm….
Let me know your thoughts 🙂
PLANET PICCOLO 