We’ve learned this week that thousands of British servicemen and servicewomen have left the electoral roll following changes introduced by the Labour Government. The Government is considering new measures to make it easier for serving troops to participate in the democratic process but – surprise surprise – these measures won’t come in until after the election.
It’s a real shock that the number of servicemen and women registered to vote has fallen from 139,000 in 2001 to just 21,000 in 2005. As we’ve seen with the recent controversy over the use of a site in Swinton, the Iraqi Government has gone to every effort to make sure that their citizens who reside in the UK are able to vote. It is truly scandalous that it is easier for Iraqi citizens in the UK to vote in Iraqi elections, than it is for British troops in Iraq and Afghanisation to vote in our General Election.
Our brave soldiers serve across the globe, and do so because of the decisions made – rightly and wrongly – by politicians in Westminster. The very least we owe them is the opportunity to vote those politicians in and out. I spoke to an ex-serviceman yesterday who is rightly livid at this – there will be many more like him.
My grandfather was serving in the Fourteenth Army in Burma on polling day in 1945. Naturally, he cast his vote in that election – I think it must have been his first vote in a General Election, as he would only have been 19 in 1935. If the British Government that was still fighting a total war could manage that 65 years ago, it’s disgusting that they can’t do so now. Grandad would have been furious.