WITH all due respect to Mr Bill Williams, in his letter “Respect will of People” (May 12), he tells us all to respect the decision made in Thursday’s General Election.
I’m sorry, but I am unable to support a Conservative government for which a clear minority of the public voted.
When you take into account the fact that 63 per cent of voters voted against the Tories, that percentage does not include the 34 per cent of the electorate who didn’t vote, and that more than a quarter of people living in Britain could not vote at all, it becomes obvious the majority of Britain does not want to be governed by the Conservatives.
For example, having just turned 17, I could not vote and the Conservatives, who having damaged the education system already, will now be deciding how my education is run until after I have finished university.
I will have spent almost two decades (more than 80 per cent) of my life in the British education system. In that time, the ten years in which I have taken and will take the most important exams of my life, will have been under the Tories.
I will never have had a chance to influence that decision or the policies which they advocate. It’s also worth considering that in the weeks before the election, a right-wing press successfully demonised Ed Miliband to avoid having to implement the Leveson Report, amongst other things.
How does Mr Williams think this demonstrates democracy for which our veterans fought? For me, democracy means the government is chosen by the majority of the public, and not just that we have the right to vote. Sadly, this was not the case in Thursday’s election.
Mr Williams may remember after the Second World War, the heroes of 1945 voted to create a completely free NHS and a more equal Britain — values which have gradually been forgotten by today’s politicians.
To add to this, the will of the people is being demonstrated very clearly by the anti-Conservative protests in London which are being filtered out by mainstream news channels and social networking sites.
These are peaceful protests in which thousands of people (not the hundred reported by the BBC) have participated, and have managed to bring Whitehall to a standstill. In my opinion, this is a much clearer demonstration of what the British public wants than a so-called majority in an election biased by the press.
ELLA MARCH Tudor Crescent Swindon
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