Apathy is a danger to our democracy

WHY bother to vote? It’s a question doing the rounds with more vigour than usual as one of the most predictable General Election outcomes in a generation is apparently about to transpire.

The Conservatives are miles ahead so why drag yourself off the sofa and down to the polling booth?

Regardless of those too lazy to vote, figures released today reveal there are vast numbers of people not even registered to vote who could influence the outcome one way or another.

Across Wales there are 350,000 people who are disenfranchised because they don’t care, can’t be bothered or simply don’t know and haven’t found out how to register.

All too often people say they aren’t voting because they believe it won’t make a difference; that it’s a done deal anyway and politicians are all the same.

This “one drop in the ocean” line of reasoning is as illogical as it is inert. Waves are created by many drops, each one of which has its part to play.

It is depressing to hear torpid arguments against voting and to see the numbers not registered at a time when Wales and the rest of the UK face change that will affect us all as EU and global alliances shift.

A century after women gave their lives for the vote in Britain and with universal suffrage still denied in some countries such as Brunei and the United Arab Emirates, we should realise what a privilege we have and what people have sacrificed for us to be able to vote for our leaders.

In a world where we can publicly let our feelings be known at the click of a button, people are quick to complain about local services but slow to find out what could influence how these often vital services are delivered.

In the 21st century, armed with a plethora of methods to communicate, it is staggering that we are not all voting.

It is all the more depressing given that social media has proved we are not a nation prone to silence.

Every day people take time to click likes and dislikes or go online to vent their fury at this or that perceived annoyance.

It is easy to moan, harder to influence or make change.

Those who complain most are often those least willing to effect change for a better life for themselves or others.

Young people, some of whom can vote for the first time, are a significant proportion of those not registered to do so.

Yet they will have to live with the consequences of decisions for far longer than the older population, who are statistically more likely to vote and therefore more likely to have their voices and concerns heard by those in power.

It takes seconds to read what the parties stand for in brief, or you can spend hours getting to grips with it in detail.

There is just a week to go until the deadline to register to vote in June 8’s election. Please take the time to register and vote, as apathy is the enemy of democracy. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2014 was 78.5%