LSESU & Voter Registration #GE2015
The next General Election is the most important and unpredictable for a generation. If David Cameron is Prime Minister after the 7th May we will have a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, and may leave the EU. If Ed Miliband is Prime Minister he may have to rely on the SNP, Greens and/or the Liberal Democrats for a majority, meaning we could end up with any number of policies. If a right wing government is formed it is likely the welfare state will be cut back hugely and if the left wing gains power deficit reduction will be slowed and the highest earners will be taxed at the highest level since the 1980s. The two party system of Conservative/Labour which has reigned supreme since the 1920s, cracked at 2010 election, may be destroyed forever at the next, with UKIP, the Greens, the SNP and/or the Lib Dems possibly in the next UK government.
Young people are on course to have less of a voice in the General Election than the old. The over 65s had a far greater turnout in the last general election (76%) than 18-24 year olds (only 44%!) and therefore political parties pitch their policies far more to the elderly than the young, or us students. That, combined with the fact that it is estimated that one in four young people may be missing from the electoral register, means that young people are in danger of having less of a voice in this election than any other in recent times. In total 100,000 fewer people are expected to be registered to vote in London alone, following changes to the registration process, meaning that universities can no longer automatically register students living in halls.
You don’t have to be British to vote in the General Election! In the General Election British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens can vote. LSE is a massively international university but not many Malaysians, Irish, Canadians, Australians, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Jamaicans, Kenyans, South Africans, Ugandans, Botswanans and Cypriots at LSE, know that they are entitled to a vote. And they will only be able to do so if they register to vote before the 20th of April.
LSE students can have an impact in their constituency elections. The most obvious example of this is those students living is Bermondsey and Old Southwark (including all students in Bankside, Sidney Webb House and Butler’s Wharf halls) where the latest polling have the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates neck and neck. Obviously then if all LSE students eligible to vote in these halls get out and vote it is not impossible that their votes could decide who wins this seat. In the Holborn and St Pancras constituency (home to the main LSE campus, Carr-Saunders halls, Passfield halls and High Holborn hall) the race is on between Labour’s Keir Starmer (the ex-director of public prosecutions) and Natalie Bennett (the leader of the Green party). This should be a safe Labour seat but could under 25s (22% of whom say they will vote Green in the general election) make the difference here?
This week is National Voter Registration Week and I think it’s really important that we don’t let changes to the way students register to vote silence our voice. So please do register to vote and encourage your friends to do so too. Us Sabbs will visit halls (Rosebery on Tuesday and Bankside on Wednesday), set up stalls around campus and try and get as many students to register to vote as possible, and we’d love your help in making LSE students’ voices heard!