Tomorrow I will Vote for the first time in my life and I am 60

Oh don’t worry I can hear many of you gasping in dismay that I have taken such a freedom and then stepped all over it. I, like many I would have to say have similar reasons for not voting over the years. My first reality check was upon leaving the Army after 8 ½ years and finding myself homeless. I found abruptly that I could not even sign on to a waiting list for a council property due to the fact that I had not been a resident in a single place for at least three years. This was in 1979 and might I add this had nothing to do with the EU, we were not in the EU at the time and it had not even been thought of in its present form. I became disenfranchised. I had been willing to give of my life for my country and all I asked (like many) was to be treated fairly. 

I had the opportunity to go to America in 1980 and did so with the idea of returning home to go to college to further my career. I stayed for 25 years, it was a very long summer.

Over the years I have watched as politicians have become more and more ridiculous until many of the voting public have thrown their hands up and said ‘I can’t be bothered’ just as I did back in 1979. Not voting is not something I am proud of, you were right to gasp in dismay, it was a waste of an important opportunity and I squandered it. However I want to vote for the best candidate not the one who has the best slurs against the other candidates.

Tomorrow however is different; I am not voting for a person and my vote will have an impact rather than settling for the best of the worst. The politicians have muddied the waters as usual and really we are left with only one choice, to use our own common sense instead of being given strong well rounded arguments from both sides. Some politician have blatantly lied once again, disenfranchising the voting public and putting them at odds with each other instead of rallying them to do what is best for the country.

Many years ago I heard an argument in a management course I was attending, the course leader used the argument of marriage as a platform in which to compare life’s options to. The single guy who like to still go out with his friends says “I cannot commit to marriage I will give up my freedom, I won’t be able to go out on a Friday night with my friends for a drink or go away for the weekend every now and then or buy that motor bike or”

“Why not?” says his Fiancé

“Because I will be married.” Exclaims the single guy.

“But I never set down any rules that we didn’t both agree on, why do you feel that you cannot do all of these things?”

“Because…We will be married.” The single guy repeats weakly and the argument becomes less and less valid as it appears that the single guy has listened to too many of his friends who got married, their wives also having a look of confusion about the assumptions being made.

Could it be that in any marriage there is some give and take? True, you may lose some things altogether but there are some things that when combined are stronger and more productive for it. If we decide to stay in the EU, can we still go out for a drink on a Friday night with our friends? In fact, we may make some new friends because of the strength of our combined lives. As a country can we still make our own laws, govern our own country, retain our Royal Family, and toast the queen (Should we want to)

The thing about marriage is after we have tried in earnest to make it work and if it still does not, we are free to divorce and go our separate ways, there is no law stating that we must remain in a marriage we are truly unhappy in. However the idea of a marriage is to go into it with a genuine desire to make it work, to get a long with our partners friends and family and to give our all.

I am voting to remain tomorrow not because I think that it’s the best idea, I don’t really know what the best idea is due to the disenfranchisement of voter and politician. I am voting to remain out of common sense and a desire to make it work. Because I have a vested interest in the country that I was born in and would have died for as a young man. I believe that this marriage will make us stronger if we let it and that this great country of ours is worth fighting for along with my friends and family, warts and all.