The Voice for All Committee recently organised a special ‘Election’ evening for all their members.
Lots of members came along to find out more about Voting and the General Election. For the past few weeks the Voice for All committee have been working hard preparing for the evening. They shared lots of information by using an easy read PowerPoint presentation and group games and exercises. The presentation told us lots of things including;
· What is a General Election
· Who and what are MP’s
· All about the Government, Parliament and the Prime Minister
· The different ways we can get involved in Politics
· The 5 main Political Parties
· What Politicians do
· The things that are important to us
· The Party Manifesto’s
· Different ways of voting
· How to vote at a Polling Station
During the evening we all took part in 2 group games and exercises. The 1st game was about spending the Government budget. We all had to agree on what we would spend the money on if we were in Government.
We were given some money and we had to decide how much we would spend on; Money and Benefits, Transport, Health and Social Care, Housing, Crime and Justice, Defence and the Armed Forces, College and Education, Work and Employment, and the Environment. Once we had finally agreed we then had to remove some money due to cutbacks and decide on where we would make some savings.
This was really hard. Although the game was fun, we all found it difficult to make decisions and to agree. It helped us to realise and understand just how difficult a job the Government and Local Authorities have when they have to make cuts and savings.
The 2nd game was all about voting for the Purple and Orange Party. These were made up parties but we pretended they were real. Becky Gammon was the candidate for the Purple Party and Chris Wren was the candidate for the Orange Party.
Both Becky and Chris had a manifesto and after looking at the manifesto’s we had to choose who to vote for. We had to put an X on a ballot paper and put it in the ballot box. All the votes were counted and Becky was the winner with the most votes. Or was she? We were told that there had to be a recount! Some of the ballot papers were marked to represent people who had not registered or bothered to vote. These votes were not counted and included in the recount. Fortunately Becky was still the winner but it could have been a very different result. It showed us just how important it is to vote and that every vote does count and matter.
The ‘Election’ evening was a great success and enjoyed by everybody who came.
We are now looking forward to Thursday 7th May when we can all vote for real in the 2015 General Election.
Good luck everyone and thank you to Voice for All for a very interesting and informative evening.
We didn’t know Politics could be so much fun!
Voice for All have also been eagerly waiting for the 5 main Political Parties to fulfil their promise of producing an easy read manifesto. The Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP have been working with Mencap to produce these, with the Greens also producing an accessible version of their manifesto.
All five manifestos are now live on Mencap’s website. On election day, Mencap is running a helpline where people with a learning disability, their families, carers and polling centre staff can call with any questions or concerns: 020 7696 5588.
Thanks again to everyone who came and helped out on the evening especially the Voice for All committee, their support staff, facilitators and volunteers.
Ps – We have put up a big display in Reception telling you all about Voting and the General Election. Please call in and have a look. You too can also vote for Becky’s Purple Party or Chris’ Orange Party. Simply put an X on one of the ballot papers and put it in the ballot box. Happy Voting!
