Sunday 2 May 2010

Election Day

It can't have escaped many people's notice that on Thursday of this week there is going to be a general election in the UK.
I know there are many people who choose not to vote for one reason or another. But...people should remember this....It took a long hard fight from some very gutsy people to obtain the vote for every man, it took the Suffragettes to extremes in the early 20th Century, and as late as some point in the late 1950s, early1960s, for people between 18 and 21 to have the vote.
Figures suggest that sometimes as little of 35% vote during elections. This means 65% abstain from voting.
My point is..if everyone registered to vote did go to the polling station this Thursday, the result could be very different than the usual 2 horse race between Labour and the Conservatives. We owe it to ourselves and the people who campaigned for the vote to use our votes.
After all, if you don't cast your vote, you really have no grounds for complaining when the elected government does things you don't agree with.
Sorry to ramble on, but it is something I feel quite strongly about, even though I would say that I am not over concerned with politics.
A couple of centuries back the government was elected by a select few people who were on the whole landowners, the ordinary citizen did not have a say. We were judged not to be capable of deciding our own destinies, if we don't vote we are equating ourselves with the ordinary people of the past.

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