Palace of Westminster, London :: Photo: Diliff / CC-BY-SA-2.5
We are into the second week of the UK's 2017 General Election campaign already! Across the country politicians of all parties, and their supporters, are out pounding the streets, knocking on doors, pushing leaflets through letterboxes, and canvassing for your support on 8th June. But, for a democracy to represent the people, it needs to be inclusive, that means encouraging everyone to vote in elections. The last government was elected by less than a quarter of the voting age population - that is of all those who are entitled to vote.
More people didn't vote at all (39.9%) than voted for any individual party in 2015. In 2015, 8.6% of the voting age population were not even registered to vote!
We have government by a minority and the only way to change that is to encourage everyone to vote, irrespective of which party you vote for. Is it right that the future well-being of a country should be in the hands of a minority of its people?
So what can you do about it? How about encouraging your over-18s to vote? Statistics indicate that the 18-30 age group are the least likely to vote in elections. They appear disconnected from the political process, and that is a worry as they are one of the groups most seriously affected by political decisions: the removal of housing benefit support for 18-24 year olds, the ever-increasing cost of university fees, the rising cost of rented and bought housing, and 38% of all zero hours contracts being held by people under the age of 25 are all serious areas of concern for a sector of the electorate who are disengaged from voting. If you think your under-30s are still unconvinced ask them to watch this!
At the other end of the age-scale, pensioners are becoming increasingly worried about the loss of the triple protection lock and about the rising costs of social care, whilst WASPI women like me, who were born after 1953, have seen their pension age jump suddenly from 60 to 66 or 67 rather than the gradual increase they were promised. All of this adds up to the need to make sure that we have a representative government on 9th June, rather than one elected by a minority. So please make sure you are registered to vote, make sure your over-18s are registered to vote, then on Election Day make sure you go and vote. It is the only way to ensure a representative democracy for our country!
For future reference if anyone is thinking of using the UK Government Petitions service, you need to bear in mind the scope of petitions that can be moved forward for debate, as not all of them can be it seems!
So, when writing your petition you need to include within it a call for a policy action or change, rather than just a petition about a named minister. It is well-worth reading the Rules/Help page to see what can and cannot be included.
This is the reply from the Petitions Committee re a recent petition:
"The Petitions Committee decided not to debate the petition you signed – "Vote no confidence in David Cameron"
"The House of Commons Petitions Committee has decided not to schedule a debate on this petition, because the Committee does not have the power to schedule debates on motions of no confidence, and the petition does not contain a specific request for action on policy.
"It is usually more effective to start a petition calling for a specific change to government policy or the law, rather than a petition about an individual Minister.
"It is still open to MPs to seek time for a debate on this petition in the main House of Commons Chamber, if they wish to do so. However, debates on motions of no confidence are fairly rare. "
So, the moral of the story is, if you want your petition to get discussed, attack the policy not the person!
It still raises the question why, if the petition raised a question outside of the scope of the Petitions Committee, it did not rule the petition out under their standards checking procedure when it was first filed? Would it be cynical to suggest that the petition may have been viewed as an indicator of the popularity of the minister named?
