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Forgive Faust · 29-07-2008, 03:04 PM

I'd like to give you an example of my own constituency; it is mostly made up of urban housing, on the edge of a city, with a collection of farmers sitting on its borders. The rural population makes up bout 20% of its voters, most of who vote conservative.

My constituency is considered a Tory stronghold, yet amongst the urban estates where I live I know of very few who would vote Tory. The majority of people of course just don’t bother to vote. Traditionally people in rural areas do vote, consistently also, which means you essentially have a disproportionate representation of society through the negligence of its own population.

A situation that may come about would be a bill that would have a negative effect on urban environments and a positive one on rural, such a bill would be backed by my MP even though the majority of the people he is ‘representing’ live in an urban environment.

The obvious argument here is that people should get off their backside and vote and your right, ultimately how our country is governed is something we should all be interested in and we all have an opinion on it, but why is it so very few exercise the right to vote? Why is it also that people living in rural areas tend to vote? What is the difference?

There are no doubt similar situations throughout the country, and with the continuing crumble of The Labour party as well, there is a massive opportunity here for the Liberal Democrats to take some initiative and break the mould, to get people off the couch and into the voting booths, so why haven’t we seen it yet? Is it because it’s too soon, a general election may still be some time off, or is it because ultimately we don’t have an answer for what can only be described as rather stale and politically un-keen society.

29-07-2008, 03:04 PM	#1 (permalink)
Forgive Faust Newbie Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 1	The issue of noone voting? I'd like to give you an example of my own constituency; it is mostly made up of urban housing, on the edge of a city, with a collection of farmers sitting on its borders. The rural population makes up bout 20% of its voters, most of who vote conservative. My constituency is considered a Tory stronghold, yet amongst the urban estates where I live I know of very few who would vote Tory. The majority of people of course just don’t bother to vote. Traditionally people in rural areas do vote, consistently also, which means you essentially have a disproportionate representation of society through the negligence of its own population. A situation that may come about would be a bill that would have a negative effect on urban environments and a positive one on rural, such a bill would be backed by my MP even though the majority of the people he is ‘representing’ live in an urban environment. The obvious argument here is that people should get off their backside and vote and your right, ultimately how our country is governed is something we should all be interested in and we all have an opinion on it, but why is it so very few exercise the right to vote? Why is it also that people living in rural areas tend to vote? What is the difference? There are no doubt similar situations throughout the country, and with the continuing crumble of The Labour party as well, there is a massive opportunity here for the Liberal Democrats to take some initiative and break the mould, to get people off the couch and into the voting booths, so why haven’t we seen it yet? Is it because it’s too soon, a general election may still be some time off, or is it because ultimately we don’t have an answer for what can only be described as rather stale and politically un-keen society.