Who will speak for those who lack any meaningful political voice?

Voiceless person  (gagged) One of the most disturbing aspects of the election a few weeks ago was the large and rising number of voters who felt disenfranchised and voiceless. Not only those who felt abandoned by Labour in Scotland, nor even the 9% who deserted the main parties to vote for UKIP, but the untold hundreds of thousands who felt alienated by current politics and refused to vote, yet were burdened by grievances they couldn’t offload. They include:

  • those who are the victims of a tax exile who wants to bulldoze their homes to make way for luxury property;
  • a single mother who finds herself penniless on the back of a non-performing zero hours contract;
  • a young jobless man sanctioned because he didn’t attend a job interview even though he had informed the DWP beforehand that he would be having an operation in hospital that day;
  • countless persons who once again didn’t vote because they never have because it’s pointless and ‘they’ always win.

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