Why You Should Vote

As many of you will hopefully be aware, the 2015 General Election is just around the corner. I know that for many, politics is not an issue that you're interested in, and everyday I see people both my age, and older, show a complete apathy towards British politics in general. For many, the issue is that people simply aren't educated, I chose to study 'Modern Studies' in school, which is essentially a course on Politics, and therefore it's always been a topic that I've been immersed in. Not everyone has access to that kind of course in school, and even fewer choose to study it. I can understand why, there is a certain drag to learning about voting systems and how local councils work. However with the number of resources available online nowadays, there is really no excuse to be uneducated, or to avoid voting all-together. 

It is almost cliched to say, but there are still countries around the World where parts of the population have to fight to earn a vote, and yet in the UK and indeed, most of Western Europe, there is a complete lack of care  by many of the people eligible to vote, with only 65% of people turning out to vote in 2010, and a shocking 44% of people aged 18-24. 

First and foremost, you all have to register to vote. I'll put the link here x. and you must register by the 20th of April. Registering takes about 5 minutes and can be done easily online, meaning you don't have to leave the comfort of your own home to do so. Seriously, go do it now. Right now.

Okay, so you've registered to vote, but you still have no clue which parties appeal to you. Well luckily the BBC have put together a really helpful little widget that shows you what each party's policies are on the various issues that affect our country, whether that be Education, Healthcare or more. They feature the 'big parties' like Labour and the Tories, but also the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, UKIP, several Irish parties and a couple of other fringe parties. Essentially everything you'd need to figure out who to vote for. I'll link that here x for you all!

They also have a poll tracker x so that you can follow who is doing well according to all the leader pollsters, such as Ipsos Mori or YouGov. Whilst this isn't something to base your vote on, it is interesting to see how the parties are predicted to do, and how they react to the polls. At the time of writing, and indeed for the entire campaign in the past six months, Labour and the Conservatives are polling at around 33% each, meaning it's likely to be a hung parliament, with one of the parties needing to be propped up by a smaller party. One such situation would see Labour being propped up by the SNP. 

So you've picked who to vote, and you've registered, now all that is left to do is to turn up to your local polling station on the 7th of May (you should get a polling card through the post which tells you where that is, and you can vote even if you lose that!) and fill in your ballot paper. We use First Past the Post voting system in the UK, meaning that come the 8th of May, the person with the most votes in each constituency will become the MP, and the party with the most MPs will win. 

I'm certainly not going to tell you how to vote, and you really should try and make the decision for yourself, however I will say one thing; 

Please, please do not vote for UKIP. 

If you need a list of reasons, here is an article telling you why not to vote for them, and here's another, and another for good measure. 

There we go, I'm sure I've given you all enough reading homework for one day. I'll see you at the polling stations on the 7th of May!