How often do you vote or how much do you vote? Every time and here's why

Voting has become less important to many individuals, especially in the western world. You can argue that all politicians are a bunch of money grabbers only seeking to push themselves forward. However, you know deep down that it not true. Amongst them there will be the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

There will hopefully be one whose political ideals compliment your own.

Once you have found that person or political party why would you not vote for them?. The alternative it to let a person or party whose ideals conflict with yours run your country and make the laws. Now that would be insane, wouldn't it?.

However, why some of us to vote all the time, others sometimes and others never, is down to personal choice. Here is why I choose to exercise my right to vote every time there is an election.

You can't complain if you don't vote

How can you ever say that you do not like the course a government is taking, unless you have voted?. Your preferred choice of candidate may not have been elected but at least you will have tried to elect an alternative.

You may let unsafe politician's into office

In the UK political fringe parties, such as the BNP, rarely gain any seats in Parliament. If people do not bother to vote though they could so easily be elected.

Are you one of those who says " I don't know anything about politics" or "It does not concern me"?.

I have never quite figured this one out. You live in the actual country. You use the country's shops, services, health care and more, so how can which political party is in government not concern you?

As for not knowing anything about politics, that is nonsense. The media will be full of information in the run up to an election. Each party will have a manifesto which you can read if you want to. It does not take much research to get a broad view of the current state of local or countrywide politics.

People in other countries are fighting for the democratic right to vote

Currently there is a revolutiuon of sorts underway in the Middle East. Some have called it the Arab Spring. Although it is complicated, with so many countries involved, one thing the revolutionaries desire is the right to a free and fair vote.

Troops, perhaps from your own country, are attempting to help these people get just that. This would make me feel as if I squandered my vote, and our democracy, if I chose not to vote.

If no suitable candidate presented themself I would rather make the effort to the voting booth and "spoil" the ballot slip with my thoughts and concerns.

Women fought for my vote

Right ladies and gentlemen, so now we get to what for me is the most important reason why I always vote. The Suffragette movement in the UK fought long and hard for women to get the vote. Some women died, many were jailed and subsequently force fed, and others protested, marched and demonstrated. Many a suffragette in the UK chained themselves to the railings of Downing Street and the like, in order to get the necessary publicity.

Sure in the UK, not all men had the vote once upon a time. That was rectified long before women got the vote though. The suffragettes faced violent reactions to their demands and became increasingly violent in turn. In true terrorist style they even blew up part of a leading politician's house.

All of this aggressive behaviour by the suffragettes just confirmed to some men that we women were not of sound mind and should never be allowed to vote. The arrogance.

UK suffragettes patriotically stopped their protests during the 1914-1918 Great War. They helped the war effort in any way they could. Perhaps this was what made the ruling men see sense.

In 1918, as the war ended, some women over the age of 30 in the UK, were allowed to vote. It took 10 more years for women in the UK to have the same voting rights as men though. Now men and women in the UK were allowed to vote at the age of 21. These days men and women can vote, in UK elections, once they are 18 years old.

So there you have it

There are many reasons to vote and these are my main reasons for always doing so. Voting seems a small price to pay for the debt I owe the suffragette movement in the UK. Think also about fanatical despots who have come to power by the apathy of some voters. If truth be know the reason some voters do not vote is because they:

• Can't be bothered
• Never make time
• Don't care
• Are too lazy to.

Harsh words? Maybe but probably true in many cases.

Next time you have the option to vote, and do not bother, consider those who have had to fight for the right to do so, and those still fighting that battle.