‘If you don’t vote, you can’t complain’ by @MadDavison
If you don’t vote, you can’t complain
By Mark Davison
If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.
Yes, you heard me. Don’t give me any rubbish about your vote not mattering. In the last general election, more eligible voters didn’t vote than voted for any political party. And as today is the deadline to register to I thought I’d use this platform to remind people of all the things you can’t complain about if you don’t vote (if you aren’t able to vote please use this to make your friends register, and feel free to complain about all these things). This list isn’t exhaustive, but hopefully it’s convincing.
If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about:
- How much tax you pay
- How much shopping costs
- How much rent you pay
- Your rights as a renter
- How much your mortgage is
- How difficult it is to buy a house
- How much food costs
- How much holiday time you get
- How much tuition fees cost
- Your student loan interest rate
- How much going on holiday costs
- How long you have to wait to see a doctor
- How long you have to wait at A&E
- If it costs money to go to see the doctor
- If it cost money to get a prescription
- How long you get for maternity or paternity leave
- How much pollution there is in your city
- How much CO2 we produce as a country
- How often or where we send solider to fight wars
- What type of school your family can go to
- How much your train ticket costs
- How much petrol costs
- How people in prisons are treated
- How much you are able to claim in social security benefits
- How much others are able to claim in social security benefits
- How Brexit happens
- How your friends who are immigrants are treated
- If your friends are allowed to stay in this country
- How we treat refugees and those in need
- How we treat homeless and disabled people
- If you parents or grandparents have access to social care
- If you parents or grandparents have to sell their house to afford care
- How much your pension is worth
- What age you have to work until
- You rights on the internet
- Your rights to be surveyed and rights to privacy
- How much your parents can leave you when they die
- The tax on women’s sanitary products
- If our food comes from this country of overseas
- How we work to reduce climate change
- How much aid we send to foreign countries
- How many or few people are allowed to immigrate into this country
- If there’s no fish left around our island
- If rich people who don’t pay tax
- If big companies don’t pay tax
- About the freedom of the press
- If we’re friendly with Donald Trump
- About the price of cigarettes
- If weed is illegal or everyone is high as a kite
- When you have to go outside to smoke your vape
- If we build more nuclear power plants
- If doctors, or nurses or trains go on strike
- And many many more.
So please, don’t be silent, don’t be complicit, register to vote!