Okay, I get it, you're completely OVER the fact that Twitter and Facebook have been awash with politics these past few weeks, but on this final day I thought it'd be important to briefly talk about why it's important to vote. For those of you who don't know, I'll summarise the situation really briefly. Today was the UK's General Election, where we vote for the party (specifically, we vote for the Member of Parliament) that we want to represent us in our government, which is in the House of Commons. Out of the 650 constituencies (which correlate to the number of seats in the HoC), the majority vote becomes the party in power and the leader of said party becomes Prime Minister until the next election. It's a little bit more complicated than that in terms of what a majority actually means but that's the gist of it. Here are five reasons and general comments as to why I think you should (have) vote(d).
1. "But it's just one vote, it doesn't matter." - Alright, you let me know if that's a valid argument when the results come out and we realise millions of people all had that same mentality. Your vote does matter. You have a voice. Use it.
2. You may not know who to vote for. I certainly didn't, a few months ago. I am nowhere near a politics expert, but I recognised that it was incredibly important for me to try to get to grips with it this time around, what with it being my first general election. I did some research, I took quiz upon quiz to see which party matched my interests, and I read policies that had been reworded into something more easily comprehensible, then I worked out who I wanted to vote for from there.
3. "No one ever does what they say they're gonna do anyway." - Yes and no, but not voting is definitely not going to help the situation. All we can do is look at policies, how these things could affect you personally, what the parties have achieved or done wrong in the past and then decide for ourselves what is the best course of action. For instance, I don't know much about the policies in extreme detail but what I do know is that the last government said they would decrease university tuition fees and ended up tripling them - something that has directly affected me. Thus, it made sense for me to not vote that party back into power.
4. Don't be complacent - prove that our generation cares! We are fortunate enough to be able to live in a democracy and we must take advantage of it and use any power we have to pave the way for our futures. We have no right to complain if we could've made a difference but were too lazy to get off our asses. I'm the laziest person I know and I made it down the street to vote - if I can, you can.
5. Finally, this is more of a change in tone but I think it's relevant. I feel it's an extreme discredit to all the women who fought for and died for my rights as a female to vote. Their dedication and sacrifices allow me to have a voice in a world that for so long silenced me because of my sex, and I will not let them have fought for such little appreciation.
This post has been published after the polling stations closed, which in hindsight wasn't wonderful timing from me, but nonetheless I hope it proved somewhat useful. It's only skimmed the surface of the importance of voting but, y'know, it's food for thought, and hey, if it convinces only one person to vote in the next election then that's a victory in my eyes. Hopefully I'll be seeing some of you at the polling station in five years.
See you next time!
Georgia
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