Did you know that a third of the UK population did not vote in the last general election?

Given that sobering statistic, it might be better to first ask, "why do people NOT vote?"...


1) They're all the same.

Many of us would like to see tougher regulations around the behaviour of our politicians from all parties. Indeed, some parties are canvassing on promises to fix our broken politics - including a review of the fairness of our voting system - with alternatives such as proportional representation as well as commitments to tackle ethics in politics as well as some commitments to explicitly place the interests of the nation as a whole before those of the party.

But even despite the issues we have seen in recent turbulent times, it is simply not true to say that all politicians are the same. The policies of those parties that sit to the left and right of politics are fundamentally different. Not only do individual parties publish very different manifestos (see our useful links page), but you can also see who keeps their promises - and even view individual parliamentary voting records to help you distinguish betwen promises and actual delivery.

Many politicians even canvas on the promise that they shall review the democratic process itself to make it more equitable. It is a sad fact tht some politicians lie. But to say that they are all the same is absurd. And if it's the system itself that is not serving you - then consider voting for those who promise to address that very issue

2) I live in a "safe seat". My vote is meaningless.

Are you sure? This statement may be responsibile for keeping seats safe. Read our introduction to tactical voting. And whatevcer you think of this legitimate tatic for increasing your chances of impacting your local vote, you might like to consider whether your local seat is as safe as some people would have you believe.

In general, the turnout in so-called safe seat areas is less than the average. That means that more than a third of eligible voters stayed at home and id not exercise their democratic rights. In many cases, that is enough to remove the safe seat status!

3) I'm not interested in politics.
We refer you to the excellent quote by the American novelist, writer and journalist, Martha Gelhorn below.

4) I don't know who's who / what they stand for. And I don't have time to find out!

Despite the promises of many technologies over centuries, our working lives are as busy as ever. A healthy democracy requires that we understand what we are voting for - which is why this site exists - to save you precious time whilst empowering you to make choices that are best for you.

Lack of time to consider policies and ideas that benefit all of society is a very real issue for many of us. Perhaps then, we should be working towards a 3 or 4 day working week or universal basic income? At 'rate the state', we neither adovcate for or against those ideas. We simply wish to highlight that solutions have been proposed for the problems we all face together - and that the problems that may prevent our democracy from working as well as it should are in themselves solveable through democracy! And that means - each of us doing our bit.

5) The system itself is broken

Did you know that there was a UK referendum in 2011 on proportional representation? We voted to keep the current first past the post system. Perhaps it would be different now? If you think so, you could even join a campaign group pursuing this change. You will find numerous references to proposed changes to our democracy in the manifestos.

We hope you will agree that the apathy felt by much of our population is misplaced, that achieving higer engagement with the democratic process can give us a sense of civic pride in the U.K. and that each of us doing our bit will not only help us to achieve greater unity as a nation - but also better services for all of us!


"People often say with pride, I'm not interested in politics. They might as well say, I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future".

Martha Gelhorn.
More reasons to exercise your right to vote



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