I live in the Constituency of Milton Keynes South West. Our council (Milton Keynes County Council) is made up of councillors who are affiliated with all three of the main parties. LibDem and Tory dominate the council and yet our MP, Phyllis Starkey, is Labour.

Stony Stratford, where I live, have 3 councillors - all Conservative (not that I am..). The next ward along, Wolverton, has 2 Labour councillors and one LibDem. Milton Keynes is very varied in its political affiliations but within the wards tend to be the same party.

A few weeks ago our MP knocked on our door and asked us if she could count on our vote and said that she trusts that we are happy with all the things that they are doing for ud locally. This obviously hit a nerve with my mum who, completely out of character, started challenging Phyllis Starkey. My mum is a teacher in a local primary school and they are often struggling due to lack of funding etc and the catchment area for this school includes some of the more deprived estates of MK so she hears stories of how the council aren't providing for basis needs. Phyllis Starkey had little to say to this challenge. Instead our MP tried to change the subject, as she saw me and my sister, and said that they were making it easier and creating more spaces for young people to go to university. My mum replied with saying how unfair it was to send us into the 'big wide world' with such debt and not really seeing evidence of how this debt has benefitted is - seeing as many graduates seem not to be going into jobs that they could have done when they left school.

I can see where my mum was coming from with all of these issues and I can see why she felt she had to raise these concerns. (By the way Phyllis Starkey made her excuses and left, concluding that in actual fact she could not count on our vote). My mum has said to me that this is the first year where she is unsure who to vote for. Having studied politics for a year I should say that the people who choose not to vote obviously don't care about what happens in our society and therefore should not complain about and public services etc etc. However I do not think this, I think that many people are disillusioned with the people whom we are supposed to trust to guide us in the right direction. People may feel like this for a number of reasons such as the expenses scandal or just the general lack of evidence of all this work that our local councils are supposedly doing for us (by the way I don't claim to be able to do a better job).

I do have one wish though, that they people who do not want to vote actually do go and excercise their 'right not to vote' but ruining the ballot paper. This way councils may catch on to how many disillusioned people there are instead of counting these people as 'can't be bothered'.

I am going to vote. I know who I am going to vote for. I support the LibDems because of their fair policies, they are the best of Labour and the best of Conservative and they are our best chance of getting our outdated practices changed. We claim to be a democracy but have failed to keep up with the demands of our people. A coalition government would probably be the best result of the next election - that way more people will be listened to. This has to be more fair, right? Who knows, it could happen.