The upcoming election to many is a premade decision: the Tories are going to come in because people are sick of Labour – which is all rather odd when you think that we’re going through a recession and usually that means a greater need for social security (and hence a shift to the left). Then again, it’s not like Labour are much to the left considering the passing of the Digital Economy Bill and the National Insurance hikes. Add that to the simple fact that the Liberal Democrats don’t really know which side of the spectrum they’re standing at (yes on green issues, no on immigration issues, etc) – and you’ve got yourself in massive conundrum. Or at least so in a country where winning an election is all about first-past-the-post and thus silences the smaller parties.

However, all conundrums have a window of opportunity to create the change people actually want to see – and on 6th May, we may begin to see the rise of a much smaller party who we won’t have to campaign against to create the change we want to see. In three major constituencies, the Green Party (which believes in all the things that us People and Planetters campaign for) has an opportunity to become MPs in Westminister: in Brighton, Caroline Lucas; in Lewisham, Darren Johnson; and in Norwich, Adrian Ramsay. These gains are not born out of a political system in crisis, but also because people do not want to waste their vote by voting for parties that do not represent their views.

The time for only voting for either two (or three) major parties is over. As students, none of them represent what we need right now:

• fair and affordable education,
• international justice,
• freedoms of speech/press/expression,
• equality & equity,
• improved national public services,
• increasing employment,
• fairer tax systems,
• cheaper and more reliable public transport, etc.

All of these are policies that the Greens are representing with fairer national and international economics which put people and sustainability before profit. It is sad that our generation sees politics as the epitome of evil and distrusts every politician. Political support is a predominant reason (but not the only one) as to why so many social reforms have occurred in the past, including the right to form unions, the right to vote, and the emancipation of slavery.

We are young, and we are those who can still have hope. We campaign and are members of People & Planet because we care and because we think that change is possible. Let us not lose hope. Let us make a political movement and shout out loud our concerns. The Green Party represents what we are as a generation of those looking for change. Thus I urge you - vote for (and join) the Greens.

Alternatively, have a look at the main election website (which is actually rather cool) .

This post was initially posted on AcaciaThorns (http://www.acaciathorns.net)