BEDM Day 5

I'm going off message with today's post as I'm not that fussed about Cinco de Mayo, haven't visited Mexico and have no favourite parts of Mexicana to write about - heck I don't even like Mexican food!

So what can I write about today? A quick trawl of Wikipedia gave me nothing much to work with so looks like I'm going to have to wing it...

It won't have escaped your notice that there is an election this week. How could it when it seems to be the only thing on the BBC most nights, with a short break for a Royal baby.  This time round I've found the whole process rather overwhelming.

I think it's very important to vote. Not that long ago some members of society were unable to vote and they fought long and hard to make sure all citizens had the right to chose who governed them. I think over the many years I've been able to vote I've actually voted for all the main parties.  My parents were party people in the sense that they supported a particular political party and that's the way they voted. I was like that at one time but then I started to vote based more on who I thought would make a good MP for the constituency I lived in even if I wasn't much of a fan of the party. I never understood the point of tactical voting - I always tried to vote for what I wanted rather than to stop what I didn't. That always felt dodgy to me.

This time I'm fairly sure I know who I'll vote for in the General Election but I'm still unsure about the local ones. There seems to have been less literature from them so I'm still trying to work out who stands for what and whether that means they'll win my support on Thursday.

This election campaign seems to have been going on for ages. This is a consequence of the new fixed term parliaments; everyone knows from the start of the parliament when the next election will be rather than the old system of waiting with baited breath for the PM to make up his or her mind. So we've known for 5 years when the election will be and the build up to it seems to have been going on for several months.

But I guess most of all I'll be glad to see the back of the party leaders begging and fawning over the media trying to get people to vote for them. It's all starting to get a little desperate now and I'd like it all to stop now please...