Always use your vote

When I was at school I remember going through the history of achieving universal franchise in the United Kingdom. I was taught about rotten boroughs that returned MPs to Westminster but they only had a dozen or so people on the register. There was no secret ballot and no great objections to MPs buying votes. We have come a long way in order to get our universal franchise. There are a few people who still can't vote but the vast majority of men and women does have the right to vote.

I meet people who are disillusioned with politics and politicians and they tell me that they have stopped voting. I read that many younger people do not use their right to vote. There are also those who recognise the hard fight to gain a universal franchise and to maintain it. We criticise dictatorships but our system is causing less and less people to vote despite people who have died to extend the right to vote, notably the suffragettes and those who have died to beat dictators, notably Hitler.

If anyone says that they are all as bad as each other tell them to use their vote even if it is to spoil the vote. It sends a strong message to politicians that they need to improve their act. Even better, tell the cynics to stand for election, after all, who is better than that individual to make political decisions.

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