2017 update: the Government has called a snap election (that means it's outside the normal 4-5 year cycle). This will take place on 8 June, and the deadline to register to vote is Monday 22 May. The reasons for the election being called are complex, but basically are a result of the Brexit referendum result. Whatever the reasons though, you are still voting for your representative in Parliament and the system is as described below.
Here's my original 2015 post:
Unless you've been living in a hole for the past few weeks, you'll have noticed that there's an election soon, on Thursday 7 May in fact. Yes, I know politics has nothing to do with sewing (unless you think politics has to do with everything, in which case I'm bang on message...) - but this is my blog and today I want to write about something else that I care very passionately about.
I love politics, me - I was brought up in a very political household, went and did a politics degree and now spend half my life working with local councillors. I know this is not normal, and most people don't feel the need to get down and dirty with political theory. But with election fever hotting up, a number of conversations with friends recently have made me think that it's actually quite easy to get to my ripe old age of 33 without knowing much at all about politics, or at least feeling like you don't. We never studied it at school, and a lot of politics chatter in the media assumes a lot of knowledge, so it's like trying to butt in to a conversation to which you haven't been invited. It's a bit like that even when you do know a bit about it.
There must be plenty of people my age and older who don't really know where to start when it comes to choosing a candidate on their ballot paper - I spent four years staring at books about it and I'm still in a muddle over who should get my vote. There is no doubt there are a lot of people being missed out, or even misinformed because of a simple lack of basic information, who switch off when politicians start to speak, or feel they don't have the tools to make an informed decision.
So, for all my intelligent, mature, sensible friends (and the unintelligent, immature ones too...) who just haven't found their political mojo yet, this is my attempt to produce an unpatronising and unbiased guide to the election, written in plain English and assuming no existing knowledge. I won't tell you who to vote for, but hopefully this will give you some pointers to help you work that out for yourself.
A quick disclaimer - I've written this from my own general knowledge, from the subjects I have studied and information I have read. Where I've taken sources from elsewhere I have referenced them. It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide or an academic essay, and some of these points are a lot more complicated than I have explained them here - this is just intended as a quick introduction to give people a bit more confidence and knowledge when talking all things politics. There are lots more sources of information out there, and if I find time later I might post some useful links - but for now, these are the basics.
I could write a guilt trip here about all the people who died to give you this right, but actually for me, the most important reason to vote is because politics is all about you. The business of politics may be confusing, complicated and messy, but the bottom line is that politicians are there to make decisions that will affect your everyday life, and the point of the electoral system is to give you a say over who makes those decisions. Everyone else is making their opinions be heard, so why shouldn't you?
If politicians are not getting through to you, then frankly I think they’re doing it wrong. Unfortunately this is not that uncommon, as most people involved in politics are so immersed in it, and the issues are so complex, that it’s hard for the uninitiated to understand what they are talking (or arguing) about. Some (very silly) people also seem to think that talking politics is some kind of exclusive club you can only join if you know all the theory - it's not, and your opinion about how your life should be governed is just as valid as anyone elses.
You might find politics boring, or irrelevant, but if politicians start changing the amount of tax you pay or benefits you get, the education your child receives or the health services you can access, it suddenly becomes very real – you might feel you know nothing about politics, but I'm sure everyone has opinions on these issues when they think about it. Your vote is your chance to say what you think about these issues, and potentially change who gets to make those decisions on your behalf. And you get to do it all over again in a few years time - so if you don’t like what the current government are doing, the general election is your chance to do something about it. And, if you do like what they're doing, you can show them your support.
How Do I Vote?
This bit is easy – first you register to vote with your local elections office (you can now do this
online). You have to do this in advance, the closing date for the May 2015 election was 20 April. If you’ve missed the deadline this time, do it anyway now so you’re set up for the next one. (Registering to vote also has other benefits, for example, did you know being on the electoral roll can improve your credit rating?)
You then get a polling card, and on election day (Thursday 7 May) you pop along to your allocated polling station (written on your polling card) between 7am and 10pm, and cast your vote. If you’ve never voted before, the polling station staff will be happy to help you – they’ll be sat there for 15 hours straight so will be glad of the interaction (I know because I am that bored poll clerk). You don’t need your polling card to vote – just turn up to the right polling station with your name and address and they’ll show you what to do.
If you can’t make it to the polling station on election day, you can register for a postal vote, but again you need to do this in advance – contact the elections office in your local council to set this up.
Deciding who to vote for is a not quite so easy – I hope the information below will help guide you through the many policies and promises currently being presented to you by the various political parties.
How Do I Find Out About The Different Parties And Candidates?
First find out which constituency (voting area) you are in, and which candidates you have to choose between - there is
a handy postcode checker on the BBC website. Then look at what the different candidates are promising. If they are part of a political party, that party will have a manifesto (a list of policies and ideas) which sets out what they intend to if they are elected. If you have any independent candidates (not attached to a political party) they will also have a manifesto but this will probably be less well publicised - check online or in your local paper for more information about all your local candidates.
Reading through manifesto promises can be a tricky task - whatever you think of politicians, good, bad or indifferent, they basically become sales people around election time, trying to persuade you that their ideas are the best to get you to vote for them. Just like you wouldn't automatically believe everything a salesperson tells you, you need to approach manifesto promises with a critical mind - are the policies realistic? Affordable? Desirable? What will be the real impact? By giving more to one group, will they be taking away from another? Having said that, don't get too hung up on analysing whether they're telling the truth or not - you'd need a crystal ball to really know that, if you agree with the policies and have considered the impact, you just have to trust they will deliver what they've promised. If they don't, you can vote against them at the next election!
I also like the
Vote for Policies site - their survey takes you through all the policies without the party names attached. You pick your favourites and at the end it tells you who you've agreed with most. The text is straight out of the manifestos so not always very clear, but if you have time to work through the survey properly I think it's a useful tool.
Most of the talk around election time focuses on who might be the next Prime Minister, but you are actually voting to elect your local Member of Parliament (MP). However because the party with the most MPs also gets the Prime Minister spot, your vote could also impact on this - something to think about especially if you have strong views for (or against) a particular party.
As described by
Oliver Wright in the Independent (at the bottom of the link after the Grace Dent article - read that too if you like, it's quite funny), there are essentially three ways in which you can choose to use your vote:
Vote local
Who is the most capable candidate putting themselves up to represent you? Do your research, find out where local hustings (debates) are taking place so you can listen to the candidates and question them. Then cast your ballot on the basis of the individual who you think will best look after the interests of your local area, regardless of their party.
Vote tactical
Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system means that your vote may not count unless you use it tactically. Some parties have very little chance of winning in some seats – so decide which party you really don’t want to win and then vote for the person most likely to stop them.
Vote principle
Vote for the party which you most believe in, regardless of their chances of winning. If you support the Greens, for example, you may not end up with a Green MP, but you will be registering your beliefs and you’ll leave the polling station with a clean conscience.
Different Elections and Levels of Government
As a local government employee I am of course going to point out that not all decisions are made in Parliament. The political system is split up into different levels, each with different powers to make certain decisions. What each level can decide is set out by law.
This year there is a "General Election" - these are held at least every 5 years, to elect your Member of Parliament. MPs make and vote on laws and policies that apply to the whole of the UK.
Local elections are held to elect your local Councillors who decide local policies and byelaws. There are also regional elections for those living in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to elect representatives to their local assemblies / parliaments. These regional assemblies have been given (devolved) powers by the Parliament in Westminster to decide certain policies for themselves, for example about Health and Education matters. Some parties in this general election are also promising to make changes so that laws specific to England can only be voted on by English MPs (at the moment all MPs vote on these even if it doesn't affect them, which some argue is unfair).
European elections choose representatives for the European Parliament, who make laws and policies that affect the whole of the European Union, within an agreed list of areas (set out in the various treaties we as a nation have signed up to). This is another hot topic in this election, with some (e.g. UKIP) arguing that we shouldn't be part of the EU, and others (e.g. the Conservatives) promising to hold a referendum for the people to decide this.
Parliament, Government, Majorities and Coalitions
In a general election, the party with the most Members of Parliament elected then goes on to form the Government, and the Leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints his or her top MPs as Ministers to run the various government departments, and together they are called the Cabinet.
Parliament is actually made up of two "Houses", or debating chambers: the House of Commons, where MPs sit; and the House of Lords, which is made up of unelected hereditary and life peers - in order to become law, policies have to be supported by both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. I won't go into all the detail of this here, but you can find out more about the organisation of Parliament and how laws are made on the
Parliament's webpages.
Very basically, the Government puts forward draft laws based on their election promises, and presents them to the MPs in the House of Commons, to debate and vote on their ideas. If they win the vote, the idea is supported and has a chance of becoming law (before it does it needs to be supported by the House of Lords too).
To gain an overall majority in the election, a single party needs to win 326 of the 650 seats in Parliament. This simply means that when the Government proposes a new policy, they should have enough of their party members in the House of Commons to make sure any vote goes their way (if they all turn up / do as they’re told…)
If the winning party (with the most seats) fails to secure an overall majority (more than half the total seats) at the election, this is called a “Hung Parliament”, and it means that the winning party will need to get support from members of other parties if they want to be sure to get their policies voted in. Sometimes this is through a formal coalition, like the current government, where two or more parties draw up an agreement, form a government together and agree to vote together to make sure their policies get through. Or you could get an informal coalition, where the parties make agreements to vote together depending on what the issue is.
Left and Right Wing Views
Political views are generally classified on a left to right scale. This is somewhat of an oversimplification, and some people have devoted their lives to telling us why, but this is the description that is most generally used in the media so this is what I will attempt to explain.
To put it in simple terms, at the extremes this gives you Communism (redistribution of wealth, power to the working classes, state-owned industries) on the far left and Fascism (control by an elite ruling class, preserving nationalist interests, anti-immigration / anti-integration) somewhere over on the far right.
The mainstream UK parties all hover somewhere in the middle, none of them offering very extreme views. Of the main three, Labour are classed as left of centre, the Conservatives right of centre, with the Liberal Democrats in the middle. UKIP are also over on the right, whereas the main regional parties (Plaid Cymru / SNP) tend to be left of centre, while also arguing for more independence to their respective regions of course.
This does not mean that all Conservatives are closet fascists and all Labour supporters are wannabe communists (although their opponents would probably tell you they are…) – most people believe we should have a fair, just and democratic society, they simply disagree about how to achieve it.
That's the basics covered I think - hopefully this article will help some more people get to grips with the process of voting, that's certainly the intention. I'd be interested to hear your feedback too - I can be contacted as usual through the
Ellie, Boo and Beans Facebook site.
