Opening up the democratic process
The key to enabling people with learning difficulties to vote is having access to easily understood information. Diane Lightfoot, Director of Communications and Fundraising at United Response, says that the charity’s Every Vote Counts campaign aims to get as many as possible of the1.5 million adults with learning disabilities in the UK to get this information.
A lack of accessible information has been identified as a major barrier preventing people with learning disabilities from taking part in the democratic process. Several organisations working with people with learning disabilities are running targeted campaigns in a bid to increase the number of people with learning disabilities who use their vote in the 2015 general election.
The key to improving the number of people with learning disabilities voting is ensuring that accessible information, about how politics affects their lives, how politics works and how to get involved, is shared as widely as possible.
Our Every Vote Counts resources have been created from experience gained in the 2010 general election, which saw one in three people supported by United Response cast their vote. The set of three Every Vote Counts easy read resources and our new website (www.everyvotecounts.org.uk) are designed as tools to encourage conversations, either on a one-to-one basis or in a group setting, about the impact politics has on our everyday lives.
Real need for accessible information
We carried out research around the 2010 general election which identified a real need to provide easy to understand information about politics, not just in the run-up to elections, but all the time. That was why we launched Easy News, our award winning news magazine that has been reporting on significant news events, human interest stories and complex political debates – and making them accessible – since January 2013. In the first year of publication of Easy News the number of readers with a learning disability who felt that politics was relevant to their lives rocketed from 31 to 78 per cent.
Supporting the supporters
As more and more people with learning disabilities increase their interest in the democratic process, it is vital that, as part of the Every Vote Counts campaign, we support the supporters.
Our fourth Every Vote Counts booklet is designed to answer supporters’ questions and concerns. It explains what mental capacity means in relation to voting, how to avoid bias and influence and how to advocate within a supportive role. The basic rule when it comes to mental capacity is simple – people with learning disabilities have the same right to vote as everyone else. Like all other voters, however, they must be registered to vote and this can now be done online at: www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.
Our aim, and that of many others, is to see the largest turnout ever of people with learning disabilities at the election. There are a number of excellent campaigns to help with this. People First England and Inclusion North have helpfully compiled all the main campaigns and various voting resources in a download called “Everything you need to know about voting” (https://www.scribd.com/doc/232250224/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Voting).
Alongside our own campaign, the download covers a variety of others, including Dimensions’s Love Your Vote, being run in partnership with the Parliamentary Outreach Service (http://www.dimensions-uk.org/get-involved/love-your-vote-get-involved/).
Mencap’s campaign Hear My Voice (https://www.mencap.org.uk/hearmyvoice) allows anyone to create a soundbite online about what is important to them and aim it at their MP. The charity is also delivering workshops about the process of voting, including opportunities to meet MPs.
With just months to go to the 2015 General Election, autumn conferences proved key platforms for all the political parties to lay out their election agendas, with the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats covering similar themes.
All three agreed that the NHS will be a primary focus, with the Conservatives describing themselves as ‘NHS Champions’ who will not cut the health budget. Meanwhile, Labour said they were ‘Protectors of the NHS’ and would add a further £2.5 billion to the health budget. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats announced plans to add £1 billion to the health budget year-on-year by removing tax breaks from the wealthy.
Income generation
As always, income generation formed a key part of the plans, with the Conservatives promising to raise the lower threshold and reduce the higher threshold for income tax once the deficit had been repaid in 2020. Labour pledges to introduce a mansion tax on properties over £2 million, as well as reinstating its promise to reintroduce a 50p rate of income tax for earnings over £150,000. The Liberal Democrats promised a range of taxes that were similar in combination to both the Conservatives and Labour.
The question of how to fund the welfare system saw different approaches from each party. The Conservatives announced they would make further cuts of around £25 billion to public spending to fully eliminate the deficit. They said this will mean a benefit ‘freeze’, saving about £3 billion in addition to £100 billion of cuts they have already made. Labour acknowledged that welfare spending would remain tight, but promised to abolish the bedroom tax and ban zero hours contracts. Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats also acknowledged that spending on welfare would need to be controlled but said they would only accept Conservatives’ plans to freeze working-age benefits if high earners were also taxed more.
Find out more
You can find more about the autumn conferences in the latest issue of Easy News (http://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/easy-news).
As we all spread the word about voting by using accessible information, the next hurdle will be to ensure that politicians and their parties talk in a way that people with learning disabilities can understand by making their manifestos accessible. United Response officially launched the Every Vote Counts campaign at the House of Commons at a reception hosted by Dame Ann Begg in November. The aim was to encourage politicians from all parties to make their information accessible.
