The Dawn Of An Identical Era

So tomorrow the country will go to the polls and decide the future direction of the country for at least the next year, depending on whether the Conservatives manage an outright victory or not.

This election has been hyped up by the media for so long now as the most important General Election since the war. The Expenses Scandal was meant to galvanise the public into making radical changes to the way this country is governed by punishing the three main parties. The old corrupt career politicians would be voted out and we would see the rise of the smaller parties.

This has not happened. Although there will be a huge exodus from Parliament of those who were caught with their hands in the public’s cookie jar, many of those caught up in the Expenses Scandal will carry on. And those that replace them are if anything worse. Nearly 30 Conservative candidates work for the PR industry and lobbying firms, and the story is similar across the other main parties.

Yet despite an early surge in support for the smaller parties, the three main parties have shored up their votes in time for the election. The only major change is that the Liberal Democrats and Labour have swapped positions in the polls. Much of the ‘vote for change’ vote has gone the Lib Dems’ way, and yet they have been crucial in supporting much of Labour’s legislation and have had as many problems with the Expenses Scandal as anyone else – the smaller numbers of those caught out reflects the smaller size of the party.

So whatever the outcome on Friday, the country is likely to end up disappointed by more of the same after the hope of change promised by so many people. A Conservative majority will see a government little different to the current one. A Hung Parliament will see back-door deals being made away from public scrutiny, and could even see Labour cling on to power despite likely coming third in the vote. Worse than that we would not even get Gordon Brown back in, as whatever happens in this election the party is likely to twist the knife in his back and bring in a new leader who none of us would have voted for. Sound familiar to the current government?

This new era will unfortunately be of more of the same old politics and self-serving politicians, the only change being the names of our political masters.