As Tony Benn pointed out during his final contribution to Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, people died for the right to vote their cause should not be considered "boring". We hope that the "apathetic" tag is a misjudgement of the electorate.
Elections don't happen very often, and the outcomes are determined not by Gallup, NOP and MORI, but by us, the voters
But we do contend that participation at election time requires all of us to turn out. In this fragmented age, there are few remaining bits of "glue" that bind the nation together. A general election is one of the unifying occasions in which we can all celebrate.
Every election determines the future direction of Britain's politics, and that is never boring. If voters treat democracy with contempt, then they themselves deserve contempt. To the TV interviewers, the public give a range of reasons for their reluctance to turn out: "There's no point, it's a foregone conclusion", "My constituency is a safe seat anyway", "Politicians are all the same", "None of them represents me". Different reasons none of them valid.
It is true that, had we a proportional voting system in this country, every vote in the country would be equally vital. Nevertheless, no MP can take their electorate for granted: no seat is "safe" in perpetuity.
Elections don't happen very often, and the outcomes are determined not by Gallup, NOP and MORI, but by us, the voters
But we do contend that participation at election time requires all of us to turn out. In this fragmented age, there are few remaining bits of "glue" that bind the nation together. A general election is one of the unifying occasions in which we can all celebrate.
Every election determines the future direction of Britain's politics, and that is never boring. If voters treat democracy with contempt, then they themselves deserve contempt. To the TV interviewers, the public give a range of reasons for their reluctance to turn out: "There's no point, it's a foregone conclusion", "My constituency is a safe seat anyway", "Politicians are all the same", "None of them represents me". Different reasons none of them valid.
It is true that, had we a proportional voting system in this country, every vote in the country would be equally vital. Nevertheless, no MP can take their electorate for granted: no seat is "safe" in perpetuity.