As the daughter of a Labour MP I have always voted, ever since my dad took me to the polling station for the first time at age 18, gripped my shoulder, and told me to: “Do the right thing, kid.”
Luckily my teenage rebellion was over by then, so I did, and continue to.
I will tomorrow, in the local and mayoral elections (and am voting via my front room window too, which has a Sadiq Khan poster proudly displayed in it).
I’m also well aware that women died for my right to put an X in a box so the idea of wasting the opportunity to do just that is unthinkable. And it’s not like we’re not in the voting habit, as a nation.
We may only get to do it every couple of years locally and nationally, but every website you visit seems to have an online poll on it, and more TV shows than not seem to give us the chance to make our opinions known.
As a reality TV fan, I dread to think how much I’ve spent on this over the years – but if you don’t get involved, you can’t complain if the result doesn’t go your way.
I kept calling into the phone line for Anna Nolan in Big Brother One even after Craig Phillips had been announced as the winner, because I thought maybe there was still a chance I could somehow change it. Clearly on the wrong side of history, I also genuinely got myself into debt backing Gareth Gates in the nail-biting Pop Idol final of 2002. Anyone hoping I grew up, and am now older and wiser will be disappointed but probably not that surprised to hear I spent a fortune on Bobby Brazier in the last Strictly final. Yes, I know you get three free votes. Nowhere near enough to make a difference.
Plus, I was also voting on behalf of my son, who dramatically announced that he could only lead a meaningful life going forward if Bobby lifted the glitterball trophy.
Hopefully it’s character building to be massively disappointed so young.
The irony is we can regularly vote who eats kangaroo anus on I’m A Celebrity, or who couples up on Love Island, but not - when we really need to - about something slightly more important. Who runs our country.
Britain is on its knees – the NHS is falling apart, it’s impossible to find a dentist, there’s sewage in the water, and potholes in the potholes. We’ve endured Partygate, Liz Truss and are now lumbered with an out-of-touch billionaire concentrating on performative planes to Rwanda rather than fixing any of the messes his party has created.
Rishi Sunak regularly uses the phrase “the will of the people”. PUT IT TO THE TEST THEN.
We’re good at voting. We prove it all the time, via Britain’s Got Talent, and Eurovision, and Dancing On Ice. We’ll do it on Thursday (don’t forget your ID!).
Give us a chance to do it where it matters.
Call a general election. NOW.
