The Prime Minister has called a General Election. It has been set for Thursday 8th June 2017.
The way the Electoral Register is compiled changed a few years ago. Now you must individually resister to vote.
Please type ‘Register to Vote’ into a search engine and go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. You may need your passport or National Insurance Number.
If you are not registered you will not be able to be part of the decision of who represents you in Parliament. This is important because many big decisions are going to be made over the coming few years, decisions which will affect you and your community.
The Government is planning to bring in a new way of paying for education, which will punish Southwark Schools. Despite every disadvantage London Primary and Secondary Schools have confounded expectations and are among the best in the country. All without selection, which only serves to give preference to middle class children over everyone else.
Decisions will be taken over the future of the NHS. It is no secret that our health care sector is in crisis, ambulance waiting times are going up, waits for GPs are getting longer and so are the waiting lists for operations. The situation is so bad the Government has chosen to abandon their own targets.
This Government has already made its position clear around self-employed people – the skilled and talented entrepreneurs grafting day in day out to earn a living through their creativity and ingenuity – the Government wanted to raise your tax.
Decisions will be made over further cuts to Local Authority funding – choking our hard working councillors who are desperately trying to provide social care services, child care services, housing and good public spaces.
This election is important because the Government has few plans for the housing crisis in Southwark –they happily subsidise well off couples while our children cannot afford to get on the ladder and make it harder for the council to provide good housing for all.
Central to this argument will be our future as a nation in the modern world. This government wants a hard Brexit without regard for the friends and family in our diverse and vibrant community, their jobs or their livelihoods. Even if you voted for Brexit – you didn’t vote for economic turmoil- which is all a hard Brexit will deliver.
Your vote does count. Your voice should be heard alongside the rest of your community. This is how we change the direction of the country and this is how we resist the small minded and divisive politics of this Government.
Every election is important. In Southwark we are blessed with some of the hardest working Members of Parliament in Harriet Harman, Neil Coyle and Helen Hayes. They work tirelessly for you, as do Councillors and my fellow Members of the London Assembly. Let’s support their efforts. Let’s send our MPs back to Westminster to fight for us all.
So I encourage you all to register and vote- because above all else, it has never been more important for your voice to be heard.