I know, I know. You’re hearing it from everyone around you. You should vote in the upcoming General Election because people died so you could vote, blah blah blah. I’m not going to tell you that. Partly because you already know it, and partly because it doesn’t matter how many times you hear it – if you weren’t persuaded the first time, you won’t be the hundredth time you hear it.
So registering to vote is difficult?
Wrong. It’s super easy – you just need your National Insurance number and this web page – www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.
Voting is a total faff!
Well, yes, going to the polling station can be a right ball ache. I’ve not voted in the past because it would take me 90 minutes each way to get to work, and by the time I got home, there was no chance I was leaving the house again. But then I realised that anyone can register to vote by post (I used to think it was just for old people and people who couldn’t get out!) and now it’s super easy to vote.
Who should I vote for?
Honestly, I had no idea. In my constituency, there are 8 people standing – from the main three parties to the not so serious ones and I had no idea (and not really time to go through all of their manifestos). But thankfully, there are sites out there like Vote for Policies and VoteMatch which I preferred the format of the questions asked – you’re given a statement, asked whether you agree, are neutral or disagree with it, then are asked how important it is to you if you’re not neutral about it. At the end of the quiz, you’re asked which parties you would never ever vote for, but I wanted to see what my choice was without any bias.
If you want to know everyone who is going to be standing in your constituency, YourNextMP is really useful – just pop your postcode in and get a list of who will be sending you a ton of leaflets.
Do I really need to talk about the election?
No! My mum always said that her vote was between her and the ballot box, so it was a bit of a shock when I went to uni and everyone was talking about politics so openly. I still don’t feel comfortable talking about politics openly – whatever my opinion is on who will be best for my area and the country, it’s not going to change your opinion on who is best.
That’s the last I’ll say about politics on this blog – back to your not at all regularly scheduled content.
Here, here! Feeling smug ’cause I sorted out my overseas proxy vote before we left. I’m glad there are more conversations around politics and voting (anything to keep it in the front of minds) but I agree that it’s not really anyone’s beeswax what box you tick.