Sunday, November 24, 2019
UK voters: please take note
Turnout in the forthcoming General Election looks like it can be low. A combination of factors - poor weather, dark wintery nights, disillusionment with the political class, uninspiring leaders - in my view will cause many people to stay at home.
Contrast that with Hong Kong, where the democratic process is effectively a sham, and whose citizens are currently involved in elections for powerless district councils. According to the Independent, record numbers of people have voted, with the total surpassing the 2015 turnout by lunchtime.
The lesson here is obvious. In the UK we take our democracy for granted and abuse it. Where people's rights are under threat, then they cherish them and use them as a weapon against the establishment.
The same was true in the first elections in South Africa after apartheid, when thousands of people queued in punishing conditions to exercise freedoms they had been denied for over a century.
Our democracy is one of the oldest in the World. It is far from perfect, and needs reform. But if we don't use it, we could lose it. Isn't it about time we all woke up to that fact.
Contrast that with Hong Kong, where the democratic process is effectively a sham, and whose citizens are currently involved in elections for powerless district councils. According to the Independent, record numbers of people have voted, with the total surpassing the 2015 turnout by lunchtime.
The lesson here is obvious. In the UK we take our democracy for granted and abuse it. Where people's rights are under threat, then they cherish them and use them as a weapon against the establishment.
The same was true in the first elections in South Africa after apartheid, when thousands of people queued in punishing conditions to exercise freedoms they had been denied for over a century.
Our democracy is one of the oldest in the World. It is far from perfect, and needs reform. But if we don't use it, we could lose it. Isn't it about time we all woke up to that fact.
