The first question to ask is why bother going to vote at all? If you think that all politicians are the same and what is the point in voting at all then please read on.
Having the ability, no, the right to actually cast your vote is something which people have fought for. In the recent elections in Iraq, the electorate i.e. the normal people like you and me were so determined to cast their vote that they braved bombs to be able to do it.
Did you know that all men in the UK over the age of 21 and all women in the UK over the age of 30 (bar a few exceptions e.g. those committed to asylums etc) only received the right to be able to vote in February 1918? That’s right only 92 years ago. Prior to that most people in the UK were not entitled to vote.
Obtaining the right to vote was through the determination and action of many men and women who fought long and hard for us to have this right (known as universal suffrage). We are now in a position where every UK citizen over the age of 18 has the right to vote in an election irrespective of income, property ownership, gender, colour, religion or background.
So in the last 92 years following the right to vote you would think that we would all be grateful and would turnout to use our vote. There are 45.2 million of us in the UK who are eligible to vote. (Obviously there are a lot more people in the UK but to be eligible you have to be over 18 and a British citizen.) Unfortunately the average turnout at an election is only approximately 70% of those eligible to vote which means that approximately 30% which equates to over 15 million people couldn’t be bothered to vote. That is an insult to these brave men and women the world over who are so desperate to vote they will do so amidst the threat to their very lives.
The men and women who were determined to get us the right to vote did amazing things for us – they chained themselves to railings, threw themselves under the Kings horse at the races resulting in death (of Davison), marched for miles, spoke at rallies and directly disobeyed the police by having public gatherings, endured hideous treatment in appalling prison facilities. The womens suffrage movement had some very militant protesters one of the most famous being Emily Pankhurst.
What do we do when we want to start a protest or make our voice heard in some way – we start a facebook group or some other social media networking (and yes there is intended irony here).
You have an opportunity to cast your vote – you may not know who to vote for, you may not believe in politics and the democratic system as it is currently modelled but do you think that by staying away from the polls anyone is going to take account of you in anyway. Even if all you do is attend the polling station, take your ballot paper and scribble on it a comment to the effect that all politicians are the same and don’t listen to us or are just in it to line their own pockets or whatever then at least you have made your opinion known officially. This would spoil your ballot paper and it would not count but I believe by law the Electoral Commission must retain the spoiled papers so at least your comment / opinion is being heard so to speak.
But wouldn’t it be so much better if you just took a little time to ensure that you are registered to vote and investigate the policies of your local MP candidates and their parties and cast a proper vote. It certainly can’t hurt can it. However, not casting your vote could potentially hurt by allowing a party candidate into office who didn’t represent you and your interests. For instance in Bradford we have an absolutely ridiculous fiasco going on where the whole of the city centre is a hole – a great big building site costing goodness knows how much for the sake of a park, yet other facilities are left undone and our council tax keeps going up to pay for these councillors to keep on making these idiotic decisions. Who is the party in charge – yes the council in Bradford is a Conservative council!
We all have a responsibility to exercise our vote. Imagine if we were in a situation where you either ‘use it or lose it’ and then we would only have ourselves to blame.
hhhmm....an interesting debate. We'll debate this on on the next train journey home! :-)
ReplyDelete