I was too young to vote in the 2010 election by only a few months. Politically unaware and uncommitted, I’d probably have voted Lib Dem like most young people due to the policy of scrapping university fees; marching against the Tory/Lib Dem coalition’s subsequent decision to treble tuition fees was my first political protest just a few months later.

Since then, I’ve voted in every local and general election based on strongly held convictions (including once for myself — though only as a “paper candidate”). This has generally meant the Green party. For about 8 years I lived in Labour-stronghold Liverpool, and voting and knocking doors for the local Green party to Labour’s left was a way to keep Labour honest.

Now I’m back in a deep-blue rural constituency, with no commitments to any major party. There is no clear challenger to the Conservatives based on 2019 data. It’s a choice between two flavours of Tory-lite, or another vote for the Greens (whom I currently consider a bit of a basket-case party despite aligning with them on many things, something I may elaborate on in another post). Perhaps more polling data will point to a decent tactical vote closer to the date.

This is what it feels like to be an undecided voter. Not in the usual sense of being a floating voter between Red or Blue (a creature I don’t think I will ever understand), but just… so uninspired and uninterested. We are on the verge of ending the 14-year streak that has left the country in tatters. Every public service is failing and living standards have barely budged over the entire period. The pandemic killed over 200,000 people despite the strategic advantages of being an island-nation (New Zealand had around 5000 deaths and overall less disruption to business as usual by taking early decisive action against outbreaks). Why does this not feel… better?

Starmer has demonstrated he is a snake who courted the left only to utterly betray and purge them. He’s also deeply boring, and not much different from the Conservatives on many key issues, notably fiscal policy and Gaza. The end of Tory rule should be a time for hope and relief. But here we are, and the government will fall not with a “whoop” but with a “meh”.