Sunderland has no reason to care about non-voters
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565


We journalists occasionally get to say cool things like "Sorry I'm late, but someone went and called a general election and I had to sort it out".
Making yourself sound far more important than you really are is a pleasure. Sadly, it's one of the few pleasures a general election campaign, all six weeks of it, will bring.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdI suspect the main pleasure derived from the campaigns will be mainly confined to schadenfreude.
We don't glean pleasure from the success of the party we voted for, as much as from the failure of the one we voted against.
Hence, between now and July 4 our most cherished moments will be when a politician we don't like says something stupid, is pelted with an egg, thrown out of a pub, punches the bloke who pelted the egg...
Whichever form it takes, that part will be fun. Rather more wearying will be hearing the same arguments incessantly.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBut at least the protagonists have arguments. The same can't be said for those who imagine shouting "woke!" constitutes informed opinion. Opinion might be more informed if they took the trouble to find out what the word actually means.
In the same barrel, please be aware that no one qualifies as an "idiot" merely because they happen to disagree with you.
So little fun lies ahead and perhaps the most dispiriting element, in any election, is the volume of people who, lazily and entirely erroneously, assert that politicians are "all the same", even though that is manifestly untrue; then proudly announce that they never vote. They're just too cool.
Voting matters for many reasons, one being that politicians, people who can make things happen, have little reason to oblige non-voters.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdYou may feel that purported indifference to the economy, environment, education, migration and so on means you don't "do" politics. But you do.
If you have an opinion on parking, dog fouling, pub opening hours, football club ownership, health and safety... anything really, then you do "do" politics.
There is no cogent or survivable argument against voting, even if it's only for the candidate you least detest.
There are zero advantages of not voting.
Comment Guidelines
National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.