Print published by Richard Carlile, depicting the Peterloo Massacre, 1819. This copy of the print is held by Manchester Library Services, and published online by Wikimedia.
Why do I vote?
Because I can. Because people have died to win me that right.
Because the woman in white (with the white flag) depicted in the print above was one of hundreds injured that day in Manchester in 1819. They were there to listen to people talking about the need for change, for all men to be enfranchised.
The woman in white was also arguing for men to get the vote. She wanted a fairer society.
She named most, possibly all, of her five sons after revolutionary or radical thinkers. The son born after the Peterloo massacre was named after Henry Hunt (and therein lies another story I will tell another time). Her eldest seems to have been given George Washington as first and middle names. Another was named after Thomas Paine. Unfortunately, I have not come across any middle name for James, my great-great-great grandfather – yet.
The woman in white appears on prints by different artists in 1819. The figure is supposed to represent my great-great-great-great grandmother, Mrs Mary Fildes. She was President of the Manchester Female Reform Society, and was definitely up on the hustings with Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt and the other men.
She is reputed to have become a Chartist in the 1840s. I have not yet discovered what she got up to in the late 1820s and the 1830s, but I doubt she was less active in politics, or any less a Radical. I will tell you in more detail some other time about what women risked and sacrificed by speaking up in those times.
I might have felt obliged to go into politics had I known about her in my early teens. I already thought that we needed a fairer society by my early teens, even without knowing about my inspiring ancestor.
I have little patience with those who moan that they don’t agree with all the policies of the parties or candidates standing in their constituency. The likelihood of finding a group of other people agree exactly with everything one individual thinks about every detail of policy and strategy for the country is very remote. One always has to be pragmatic, or be very loyal.
I think that those who have the right to vote but choose not to exercise that right have no right to moan about taxes, legislation passed, the cost of train fares, or even MPs expenses. I worry that indifference may let the extremists into power. I worry that lack of knowledge or understanding will lead us towards bad decisions. Ironically, I think that people were more knowledgeable and better educated about politics in the early 19th century when most did not have the vote.
One of the most interesting topics we covered in history at school (much of it was so dull, lists of wars and treaties) was the struggle to achieve universal suffrage in the United Kingdom. We covered in some detail the horrors of force feeding of suffragettes. It is less than a century since all women had the same voting rights as men in the UK. I hope some day that women will have equality; that we will have equal numbers of women and men making decisions in public and commercial organisations.
Today, we have the opportunity to vote in both local and national elections. I will remember my great-great-great-great grandmother as I enter make my marks on the ballot papers. I will remember my grandmothers who were the first generation of British women to vote. I will think about what future I want for others besides myself before I make those marks.
I vote today for a future which will be more equal for all members of our society than the past was; and I hope for a future that contains more people as altruistic and as passionate about equality as Mary Fildes was.
A few related links:
http://www.pollsapart.org.uk/ It is helpful if people take their survey. They promote equality by promoting access to voting for disabled people.
‘Women at the Peterloo Massacre’ by Sarah Irving, Manchester’s Radical History web site.
Janet's Jottings 