As the General Election approaches it’s becoming impossible to scroll through any social media app without encountering numerous news headlines and articles tearing apart each political party and leader as claims and promises are made, and statements issued. And whilst it’s all very tempting to keep scrolling past, I am here raising my weary head from my revision-related blog silence (apologies) to urge you to pay attention – even if only briefly.

Now, I will hands-up admit that I know very little about politics – I don’t actively follow the happenings and wouldn’t be able to tell you what each party stands for (even roughly). Instead, I happily plod along, only paying attention when necessary. This is one of those times.

I have one main thing to say, which is: please use your vote. It is so important that you contribute your opinion. Don’t stand idly by, wait for the result to come out and then complain as decisions get made and things change.

If you’re unsure which way to vote, there’s a plethora of information online, although be careful with heavily-biased news articles and Facebook posts. Accessing parties’ manifestos directly may be a more effective way to go. I found the following webpage really useful as it compares parties’ manifesto points across topics of interest (Economy, Education, Healthcare etc): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2017/may/19/who-should-i-vote-for-the-uk-election-manifestos-compared . Alternatively, there are various quizzes online you can take which give you an indication as to which way you should vote, based on your views of different issues.

That’s all I have to say: VOTE. It doesn’t matter massively which way, as long as you use your vote whichever way you see best.

Oh and one last thing: be wary of huge, last minute promises: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

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P.s. I realise this was more of a persuasion piece than my normal post, but I felt that it was a topic worth promoting. My last exam is later this week, so posts will become more frequent again as I’ll have free time in which to write! Watch this space for another post dreckly.