If you are currently living in Britain, or are a British citizen living abroad, you may be hearing an awful lot about the British election. That is because in May this year, British citizens will have the opportunity to vote for who we want to run our country for the next five years. It’s a big and important decision to be made, but many young people, like perhaps you, will not pay any attention to the election process over the next two months, since you feel it is irrelevant. I was the same when I was younger. I didn’t understand the importance that an election can have on society, but if you find out about politics, you may actually end up finding it quite interesting and fun.
One of the reasons that I find it interesting is due to the fact there are no right or wrong answers and people have huge debates trying to argue that their plan of action is the better one for the future of our country. One of the big innovations in this election is the use of the television debates, which were only brought in during the last election, and this time, we saw the first ever seven-way debate from party leaders. This gave people across the country the opportunity to see all of the leaders points of view laid out in front of them, so that they could really decide where they stood.
Some people hold faulty beliefs about the elections, such as the idea that your vote will not make a difference. The problem is that if everyone thinks that way, then so many people will end up not voting that it will cause a real difference to the voting figures. If all of the working-class people in a community decide not to vote, then the opinions of that whole class-level in the area will be under-represented when counting the votes. Also, a lot of young people think that politics is irrelevant, since they can’t see its effect. When living in your parent’s home and in school, politics may not seem too important, since it’s something your parents have to worry about. However the fact of the matter is that what politicians decide to do today, will directly affect how the world is when you’re trying to get a job, or going to university. Past politicians have got the country in a huge amount of debt and have raised university fees to cope with that, meaning that for my generation, we will be paying back debt for much of our adult life, we will find it harder to get a job, and we will have to work until we are 70. We are currently dealing with problems caused by past politicians and young people out there should realise that the mistakes made by today’s politicians will impact on them too.
For this reason, though currently you may be too young to vote, it is not a bad idea to get interested now and to start watching the news, because it means that you will be much more informed of the situation when you finally do get the chance to have your say!
Image from: http://www2.hull.ac.uk/fass/images/westminster%20dusk.jpg
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