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Why I am going to vote


Daniel

Daniel is 18-years-old and lives in Buckinghamshire. He's in his first year of studying - wait for it - Politics, at the University of Exeter. He voted in last year's European Elections and defiantly intends to vote in the General Election (using a postal vote). When not talking about or studying politics, his other pastimes include being lazy, drinking and eating terrible halls food.

If the media are to be believed, young people are more interested in voting for the winner of Big Brother than the next government. Daniel proves this just isn't the case.

So a General Election has been called for May 5. We have our only chance to influence what happens in Britain for the next four or five years. Yet, when you ask a lot of young people who they are going to vote for they say: "I'm not going to vote" or even: "I don't care about politics". All I have to say is, if you don't vote, how do you expect to change anything? It annoys me when people don't vote because they just can't be bothered. Here are my reasons why I think people should vote, and why they are just plain stupid not do so.

Many young people seem to think that all political parties are the same and that the same things will happen no matter what party forms a government come May 6. This is wrong. You just have to look at party policy.

A quick glance at the key party priorities tells you that the three main political parties are very different from one another. For example, the Conservatives want to lower taxes, while the Liberal Democrats want to raise the tax threshold for people earning over £100,000 a year. If we look specifically at crime and drugs, we can see that the parties advocate very different things. The Conservatives want to send heavy drug users to prison in the 20,000 extra prison places they say they'll create and Labour wants a few more extra prison places and would try to rehabilitate drug users. The Liberal Democrats would use more community sentences for lower level criminals and target drug dealers rather than drug users.

Many people often forget that the main parties differ radically on Europe, transport and other key issues. These three parties are not the only choice. There are many other smaller parties you could vote for, like the Green Party, the Socialist Party and many single-issue parties. People have to go and search for a party to vote for that represents them. Even if you can't find a party that represents your beliefs, you should at least go and spoil the ballot paper. This way you are still taking part in the democratic process.

"If people don't vote when they have the chance, they don't have a right to complain if the government does something they don't like."

If people don't vote when they have the chance, they don't have a right to complain if the government does something they don't like. You had their chance to voice your opinion but you didn't. Vote, and I believe you have any right to protest at government legislation, whether you voted for the government or not.

I believe everyone should vote because of the fact we actually can. One hundred years ago only a small minority of the population could vote. No women and very few people from the working class even had the opportunity to vote. People suffered (and died) in order that we could have our say. If the Suffragettes had not given their lives, who knows when women would have been given the vote.

It's also essential to vote because it is low turnouts at elections that allow nasty fascist groups to gain political representation. When normal people don't bother to turn out and vote, it gives a chance for extremists and their die-hard supporters to get a foot in the door. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to sit back and do nothing.

So please, I urge you to vote on May 5. If you don't, then maybe you would rather not be living in a democracy at all.


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