Today is a day of enthusiastic voting – well, it is in the UK anyway! Citizens of the kingdom, which is united, will be visiting polling stations to register their vote for their local government and European Parliament representatives. There are even a good majority of citizens who have already submitted their votes by post, and are seriously on the ball.
If there is one thing us British do well, it’s the thing the rest of the world calls democracy. As a nation, we are fearlessly outspoken about who we want to lead us politically and are unafraid to bring lazy politicians to their knees. People take pride in their votes – and they most definitely should be. Every significant candidate is scrutinised by the media under the watchful eye of the public, so that when the time comes to put a big juicy cross next to the name of your choice, you are very well informed about your decision.
So that’s great…yes, but despite living in a super-multicultural society, with people from every possible background, faith, sexual orientation and socio-economic status, there will always be a handful of the population who want to vote for a party which only favours those who are pro-segregation, racist, intolerant and just darn right silly. Unfortunately, there isn’t a shortage of such parties wherever you go in world.
Now for the gossip low-down! There is a party which calls itself the UK Independence Party, otherwise affectionately known as UKIP. They are the definition of that racist, backward and intolerant mentality that we all want to cleanse from this Earth. Anyway, so they thought hey, let’s show people how we can use technology to look like we care about the public’s opinion – why don’t we gather some virtual support for our waste-of-space-excuse of a party by encouraging people to use #WhyImVotingUKIP.
And people took to it like a pig to mud.
What was initially invented as a way of gathering positive support before the big election, was quickly devoured by the glorious sense of humour and effortless sarcasm that make the British so awesome. For the first time I really really liked Twitter! I found myself laughing at the hilarious genius behind the long list of tweets and sat there for a good hour just soaking it all in. Boy, did UKIP’s efforts at social media backfire! It’s hard not to feel proud that these are my people – their wit and their fearless objection towards intolerance will protect the interests of everyone who calls the UK home. Regardless of who you are and what your beliefs are, you have the right to be here and have your say (even if you do want to vote UKIP), but that right is actually a privilege which is defended by the tolerant, compassionate and crazy cool people who make up majority of the population. You cannot yap on about the importance of your freedom without giving a single thought to the freedom of your neighbour – so when you do vote make sure that your choice is one which will enable others to have a choice too!
Now here are some of my favourite #WhyImVotingUKIP tweets:
#WhyImVotingUkip because I want to go on holiday but I can't afford it so getting deported is easier
— Sim (@sim_w0t) May 21, 2014
#WhyImVotingUkip because it's forecast to rain tomorrow even though it's been dead nice today. Must be the gays. Definitely the gays.
— Lauren (@whatlaurendid) May 21, 2014
#WhyImVotingUkip because less Asians means lower grade boundaries 💅
— Anmol (@Anmol_Saggarx) May 21, 2014
