General Election Explained (2010) Video Lecture - How does UK Parliament's

if you elected this year election like
2010 fantastic
look I've decided everybody else in the
car excited iron the news politics could
make me feel like this how did I a
comedian who normally doesn't trust
anyone wearing a suit suddenly gets so
interested in politics basically they
rang me up and said do you know much
about politicians and I said not really
and they said perfect you're the man for
the job so I'm on a mission to find out
all about politicians first of all what
is a politician and second of all how do
you get to be one this is reading West
one of the 650 constituencies that make
up the political map of the UK each
constituency is represented by one
member of parliament thousands of people
in each constituency have registered to
vote and in a few weeks time they'll get
the chance to do just that because
fanfare please it's a general election
on May the 6th the voters of Reading
West will I got distracted by a beam on
May the 6th the voters of Reading West
will be choosing the person they want to
represent them in Parliament their MP
but that's not all they'll be doing most
MPs belong to a political party each
with a different view on how to run the
country in a general election it's
usually the party with the most MPs that
gets to form the next government
so by voting you not only choose your MP
you also have your say about which party
you want in power for the next few years
in Reading West there are six people who
want to be the next MP each from a
different political party
and the candidates in alphabetical order
are Daisy Benson from the Liberal
Democrats Bruce Hey from the UK
Independence Party or a you kit for
short
now Sarka from the Labour Party Alec
Sharma from the Conservative Party
sometimes also known as the Tories
Howard Thomas from the common sense
party and Adrian Windish from the Green
Party
it's a pretty exciting election for
reading West because none of these
candidates has ever been an MP before so
if they want to get their message across
to the people it's going to be an uphill
struggle
but enough from me let's hear what the
candidates have to say for themselves
microphone please thank you
does one vote really make a difference
well sadly it's not even the case that
people vote once most people don't vote
so yes that's a huge issue and if
everyone did both particular young
people that they voice would be listened
to
it's important to have your say and if
you don't have your say then you can't
complain about the outcome it's
statistically proved that high
percentage of older people votes lower
percentage of younger people vote so
they'll go for the older vote with their
policies if more younger people vote
they'll go for the younger vote are you
taking the vote in this year's general
election no really any excuse me why do
you think it's important to be
interested in politics get to make a
choice of what your country is going to
be like if you want to make a change and
you want what you want to happen then
you have to vote
I'm back in reading and the long wait is
finally over today is election day now
this is a polling station it might look
like an ordinary public library but for
today it's been transformed into a
palace of democracy almost anywhere can
be a polling station okay not that last
one but the point is on the inside they
all do the same thing this is where
people come to cast their vote so how
does it actually work with just a few
exceptions all you need to be able to
vote is number one
you need to have celebrated your 18th
birthday number two you need to have
registered to vote which you can do
anytime after your sixty once you've
registered you'll know when an election
is coming up because there'll be nothing
on the telly except election specials
you'll also be able to tell because a
few weeks before the election a polling
card will come through your letterbox
the polling card tells you where your
local polling station is this is where
you go to on Election Day or if you
think you're going to be on holiday when
the election comes you can send in your
vote by post to vote at your polling
station all you have to do is turn up
you go inside give your name and address
to a member of staff or if you're not
the chatty type just hand them your poll
card they check your details against the
voting register and then give you your
ballot paper
the ballot paper is important because it
has the names of all the candidates in
your constituency and the party they
belong to so there's no need to write it
on your hand the night before the
polling stations have been open from 7
o'clock this morning and were closed
till 10 o'clock at night to give
everyone a chance to cast their vote
it's now midnight all the polling
stations closed two hours ago and every
ballot box from every polling station in
the constituency has been brought here
to the G the furthest I'm allowed to go
is just behind this metal fence because
I'm not one of the official counting
people but the official County people
over there are doing what this all came
down to all the weeks of campaigning and
issues comes down basically to people
doing this one vote two votes three
votes four votes five votes all night
long
the atmosphere is really starting to get
a little bit excited and tense around
here now I think that means there's
going to be a result coming any minute
now Sharma Alok Kumar the Conservative
Party candidate
20500 the results are in the new MP for
reading rest is the Conservative Party
candidate mr. alex zhang just like mr.
Sharma winning here the same thing is
happening all over the country votes are
being counted results are being declared
twenty nine thousand four and the
winners and losers are making their
speeches thank you so much putting the
politics of hope above the politics of
fear they have placed incredible trust
in me the count will take all night and
we won't know which party has won until
tomorrow everyone's going home now and
I'm going to go home - I haven't had
sleep in 32 hours this general election
more than 16 million people out there
somewhere had the chance to vote and
didn't bother in one constituency the MP
won by just 42 votes so think what a
difference those 16 million voters might
have made to the results so when the
time comes for you to vote just think
about the difference you could make
right I think that's pretty much
everything I could possibly tell you
about voting my work here is done
I'm going home
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