On May 4th voters across England will be taking to the ballot box for the Local Elections. While they don’t receive the same level of hype and saturated media coverage as a General Election, the importance of local elections should not be understated.

Local councils make decisions every day that affect our daily lives, from education and training through to crime prevention and recycling, if you want to affect change in communities local government is the place to do it.

Yet all the predictions point to a low turnout, particularly among many of our members in the 18-24 bracket. In principle, this is a worrying trend; casting a vote at election time is one of the most simple and important ways to engage with society as an active citizen. It may sound like a cliché, but it wasn’t so long ago that people were losing their lives to vote and around the world many more are still doing so.

Low turnout undermines our campaigning force

But in practice, low student turnout is damaging our influence and stake in society. Right now, strategists and pundits will be looking to those all important swing voters in wards and constituencies across the country. When students vote, they can have a huge difference on the outcome of elections, the problem is that many of them don’t. Small wonder then, that David Cameron wasn’t too worried about alienating the student vote by U-turning on top-up fees or that the Liberal Democrat council in Cambridge hasn’t responded to years of calls for better lighting across the city. I’m sure there are Labour councils out there, too, that have prioritised the demands of other residents above students, simply because they know that students are less likely to vote.

So the message to our members is simple: if we want to have a stake in society, if we want to listened to and if we want to be taken seriously, we have to start voting. Voting with your feet at demonstrations and lobbies makes no difference unless you also vote at the ballot box.

Finally, I want to talk about political parties and the choices we face in this election. Do not believe those who say that all political parties are the same. They are not and one party in particular stands out like sore thumb.

Stop the fascist BNP

The British National Party is hoping to make a number of gains in these elections, because they know that where turnout is low, they have a shot. And when I call the BNP a fascist party, as someone who studied a range of European fascist movements as a student, I do not do so lightly. The holocaust began with a brick through the window of a Jewish shop in Germany, so when I receive a leaflet through my door, as I did last week, telling me to use my vote as a ‘Referendum on Islam’, I take their threat seriously.

The mainstream parties are not the same either and there are no surprises about where my votes are going in these elections. I could talk about the record of the hardworking Labour councillors I have been campaigning for, but talking about local councils in a national forum isn’t the most exciting read or the most appropriate way to talk about why I’m supporting Labour in these elections.

Voting Labour, fighting fees

Instead, I want to talk about the national record of this Labour government. Top-up fees and the Iraq war form part of that record. But without meaning to sound like a Party Political Broadcast, so too does the minimum wage, the equal age of consent, the Human Rights Act, the Race Relations Amendment Act, the Disability Discrimination Act, the lowest unemployment for 30 years, Sure Start, New Deal, free museum entry, record numbers of teachers, doctors and nurses.

This did not happen by accident. It happened because people voted Labour and I’m not too young to remember growing up on a council estate under the Tories, who said that single mothers were to blame for their circumstances, that gay relationships aren’t valid, that slashed funding in public services that benefited the poorest communities so that the rich could enjoy a tax cut: the same Tories who now expect me to vote for them simply because they’ve undergone a re-branding exercise. They don’t need a ‘Clause IV’ moment, they need to apologise for the damage they inflicted on the poorest communities during their 18 years in government.

Politics is about more than single issues and the personalities that make up public life. That’s why I’m voting Labour, fighting fees.

I hope you’ll cast your votes for Labour and if you disagree, you know what you can do about it: use your vote on May 4th.

Related Links

www.labour.org - The Labour Party
www.electoralcommission.gov.uk - The Electoral Commission
www.officeronline.co.uk/campaignsupport/participate/democracytoolkit/271774.aspx - Resources available on Officer Online

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