Whether you are in your first year, or your last, it is important that you help contribute to the political scene in Newcastle because voting shapes the future. You might be in your first year, hoping that regardless of whether you live in Jesmond or Heaton next year, it will be a nice, clean, friendly place to live as your navigate living far from home with your friends. So surely it is our responsibility to ensure that every incoming student has a welcoming place to live.
Local elections are the place where things like public transport, housing, waste collection, and much more are decided. So whether you are still in student accommodation or have moved into the surrounding communities, these are key issues that will impact your life as a student in Newcastle. Is your landlord being unreasonable? Is the bus into town too irregular? Days where the bin isn't collected like it is supposed to be? Any other issues you want sorted? The local elections are the place for that, they are the place for you to make a change to the spaces you occupy daily.
The local elections [...] are the place for you to make a change to the spaces you occupy daily.
It isn't just about the students either, as you live further out of the city, your neighbours are less likely to be students but people who may have spent their entire lives in Newcastle, or perhaps people who have settled down here. Surely it is our responsibility, as good neighbours, to vote for a neighbourhood in which they can still feel welcome even after we have moved on and some other nervous students are sleeping in our rooms and laughing in our kitchen with a whole new set of friends.
We come into these communities as students, as people from all over the country, and try to carve a space for ourselves. Whether that is in student accommodation, Jesmond, Heaton, or Shieldfield. I believe that it is vital we help give back to these communities, that we have a say in how they are run so that future students may also enjoy the same environment that we have benefited from by being welcomed into the area.
These local elections are also used to come to conclusions about the political mindset of the country, so your vote to your preferred party could have an impact on how politics changes in the run-up to the next general election. This becomes the most widespread, most accurate poll that the country could take before the election in 2029. Voting here as a student is the best way to make sure that your voice is heard across the country.
Voting here as a student is the best way to make sure that your voice is heard across the country.
I believe that it is the civic duty of every person over eighteen to vote, whether you have particularly strong allegiances or not, because it is a right that many across the world do not have. It is a right that until 1918, women in this country did not have. You have this right, it is important to use it, because voting in politics is not just about you, but it is also about everyone you leave behind. Whether that is your neighbours, professors, or friends from the North-East.
It is simple, at the end of the day, because when students vote as a group the council will listen to their needs and take the student population seriously. They will prioritise renters rights, they will prioritise public transport and they will ensure that the community reflects a safe space for students to happily live.
So, for the sake of ten minutes out of your day, why would you not exercise your right and vote?