If you are an adult in the UK, USA, France, Canada, Greece or many other democratic countries sooner or later you will be invited to vote in an election. It may be a "minor" local election or a national one for the leader of your country. Whether you choose to vote or not will by and large be up to you although there have been calls to ensure that voting is a legal requirement. As citizens lose faith in their leaders many turn away from the ballot box but we should never forget that voter apathy is dangerous.

It is true though that voting has become less important to many individuals, especially in the western world. You can argue that all politicians are a bunch of money grabbers only seeking to push themselves forward. However, you know deep down that is not true. Amongst them there will be the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

There will hopefully be one whose political ideals compliment your own.

Once you have found that person or political party why would you not vote for them?. The alternative it to let a person or party whose ideals conflict with yours run your country and make the laws. Now that would be insane, wouldn't it?.

However, why some of us to vote all the time, others sometimes and others never, is down to personal choice. Here is why this blogger chooses to exercise her right to vote every time there is an election.

You can't complain if you don't vote

How can you ever say that you do not like the course a government is taking, unless you have voted?. Your preferred choice of candidate may not have been elected but at least you will have tried to elect an alternative.

You may let unsafe politician's into office

In the UK political fringe parties, such as the BNP, rarely gain any seats in Parliament. If people do not bother to vote though they could so easily be elected.

Are you one of those who says " I don't know anything about politics" or "It does not concern me"?.

This one is hard to figure out. You live in the actual country. You use the country's shops, services, health care and more, so how can which political party is in government not concern you?

As for not knowing anything about politics, that is nonsense. The media will be full of information in the run up to an election. Each party will have a manifesto which you can read if you want to. It does not take much research to get a broad view of the current state of local or countrywide politics.

People in other countries are fighting for the democratic right to vote

Currently there is revolution of sorts underway in the Middle East and beyond. Although the Arab Spring was complicated, with so many countries involved, one thing the revolutionaries desired was the right to a free and fair vote.

Troops, perhaps from your own country,  attempted to help those people get just that. Surely you vote and democracy is squandered if you chose not to vote.

If no suitable candidate presented themselves it would be better to make the effort to visit the voting booth and "spoil" the ballot slip with your thoughts and concerns.

Women fought for my vote

Right ladies and gentlemen, so now we get to what for this is the most important reason why she always votes. The Suffragette movement in the UK fought long and hard for women to get the vote. Some women died, many were jailed and subsequently force fed, and others protested, marched and demonstrated. Many a suffragette in the UK chained themselves to the railings of Downing Street and the like, in order to get the necessary publicity.

Sure in the UK, not all men had the vote once upon a time. That was rectified long before women got the vote though. The suffragettes faced violent reactions to their demands and became increasingly violent in turn. In true terrorist style they even blew up part of a leading politician's house.  All of this aggressive behaviour by the suffragettes just confirmed to some men that we women were not of sound mind and should never be allowed to vote. The arrogance.

UK suffragettes patriotically stopped their protests during the 1914-1918 Great War. They helped the war effort in any way that they could. Perhaps this was what made the ruling men see sense.  In 1918, as the war ended, some women over the age of 30 in the UK, were allowed to vote. It took 10 more years for women in the UK to have the same voting rights as men though. Now men and women in the UK were allowed to vote at the age of 21. These days men and women can vote, in UK elections, once they are 18 years old.

So there you have it

There are many reasons to vote and these are our main reasons for always doing so. Voting seems a small price to pay for the debt we owe the suffragette movement in the UK. Think also about fanatical despots who have come to power in the past by the apathy of some voters. If truth be known the reason some voters do not vote is because they:

• Can't be bothered
• Never make time
• Don't care
• Are too lazy to.

Harsh words? Maybe but probably true in many cases.

Next time you have the option to vote, and do not bother, consider those who have had to fight for the right to do so, and those still fighting that battle.

Thursday May 3, 2012 the UK goes to the polls. That is some people will go to the polls but many more will not bother. Talk to people as you go about your daily business and you may be told, "I will not vote because" -

• They are all the same
• I can't be bothered
  
• Politics does not concern me
• Nothing will change

Or any similar statements.The public performances of certain politicians and so much news of sleaze and corruption has done its work. The majority of people in the UK could not care less who is governing the country and especially their local city hall. In some cases it is not so much that they don't care who but that they view all our politicians in the same light.

Personally this blogger always votes, be it sometimes simply for the lesser of the evils, and here is why. Politics concerns us all. It affects our Internet freedoms or lack of them. It decides whether or not the country will go to war. It manages the UK economy which if mismanaged can cost us all an arm and leg due to high energy, fuel and grocery prices. It sets the level of taxation and what benefits it may or may not provide. It affects us ALL.

If you are jaded or worn down into cynicism you may believe that politicians will simply feather their own nests and you will struggle no matter who we elect. That is not true though. Some have more of a tendency to help those in need than others and so on.

Right now it is important to send a message to our politicians that we have had enough of their nonsense. It is time for them to behave like statesmen and women rather than squabbling schoolchildren,

This blogger also holds the probably outdated view that as a woman people fought for her to have the right to vote. It was not given to women as a right but rather fought for.

Perhaps the single most important reason to vote now though is to stop an extremist party gaining a foothold in the UK. Apathy may be rife in the UK but not amongst those  who support any extremist parties. Fringe parties can all too soon become accepted mainstream political parties. When the going gets tough such people tend to increase their popularity. They offer what they think the people want to hear. By the time you realise how bad they are, it is too late.

Voting has never been easier than it is in the UK right now. Most polling stations are close to where you live. The effort will be minimal but believe it or not some will simply not vote, "because it was raining"

Make sure you use your vote.

Tags: UK local elections, UK extremist parties, bothering to votes, politicians are all same

Double Dip Recession, what double dip recession? It seems that for the privileged 1% it s business as usual.

For more than a year people have been claiming that as the poor continue to sink into deeper poverty and debt the rich continue to rise into obscene wealth. Well today's Sunday Times Rich List certainly confirms the suspicion.

Figures pertaining to the UK show that the combined worth of the country's 1,000 wealthiest people is £414bn, up 4.7%. Their welath has set a new record as it exceeds the level last seen in 2008, before the financial crisis.

Some will be quick to defend those on the rich list maintaining that there is nothing wrong with wealth and that it will help the UK economy. Most of us will hold a different view. If that was the case unemployment in the UK would be dropping as new jobs were created. Whilst earning money and becoming wealthy is nothing to be ashamed of it does depend how such wealth is achieved.

Take the UK banker who paid himself a massive bonus as he continues to shed jobs by the bucket load. Take the UK Spring budget which cut the taxes of the rich at the expense of pensioners. The same budget which stack the odds in favour of the wealthy of the UK in so many ways.

When you look at the UK Coalition's track record of government it is easy to see how the rich are getting rich in the UK whilst the poor get poorer. Perhaps the UK electorate would like to take note for the elections on Thursday. Use your vote no matter whether you feel our politicians are all worthless or not. There is always who you consider the lesser of the evils after all.

It may only be the  local elections but voting is one way to send a clear message to Westminster that enough is enough.

More here

Tags: UK politics, UK rich list, Times rich list, poor get poorer, UK local elections, rich get richer