Vote here worth more than in Britain

AS a British citizen of Irish descent I’m looking forward to exercising my right for the first time to have a (small) say in who goes to the Dáil.

Since coming to live in Ireland in 2005 I’ve felt encouraged by a broader and fairer political system than the stark and socially divisive one I feel to be the dirty hallmark of politics in Britain.

After voting in four general elections in England I see that essentially British politics can be boiled down to this us-or-them model:

“You can have any view you want but you are only ever allowed to stand on one side of the fence.

“You may choose to sit on the fence but your views (and vote) will by and large count for nothing.”

Basically you lump yourself in with the right-wing Conservatives or left-wing Labour though you can decide to support the middle-ground Liberal Democrats and count for little instead.

As a three-horse race it stinks and Britons are becoming increasingly turned off by this style of unreasonable detached politics.

The Republic of Ireland has to my mind adopted a better system that ensures a cohesive and forward-looking country.

Underpinned by a fairer voting system, the Dáil at least reflects a broad range of opinions and in the long run the lower chamber is a fairer barometer of public feeling than the House of Commons.

You also at least feel that the Dáil goes some way to improving the country and occasionally, to bowing to public will.

However proud I am to be a British citizen (and I also qualify as an Irish citizen as my father was born in Belfast), I just don’t feel politicians back home ever get round to making things better.

Instead, they’re experts in the blame game, firing off volleys of statistics and failing ever to address deep-seated problems such as transport infrastructure, crime and quality of life.

For all Ireland’s self-confessed faults, the quality of life is superior here to that in Britain, where work-till-you-drop is official government policy.

Still, politicians make lousy decisions irrespective of whether they sit in Dublin’s Leinster House or London’s Houses of Parliament.

Both sets are still open to the charge that you only ever see them during an election or if there’s a chance to shine in the papers or on television.

Yet, crucially, the political system differs in the Republic because the polling method means that the individual votes of constituents count for more.

If you vote for an independent or other party in Britain, you are basically wasting your vote or protesting against an immovable force of two-tier politics.

But if you go to polls in Ireland then at least your say does count for something whoever you vote for.

And that’s something to be encouraged about.