The general election and the Magna Carta

Magna Carta-ers, long time no MC!

Apologies for the lack of a blog post for a while, we’ve been super busy sorting out next month’s symposium and exhibition. You know, those Magna Carta themed events that there’s still time for you to get involved in? Check out this previous post for more information: www.oxfordbrookesmagnacarta.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/activities-you-can-get-involved-in.html

Anyway, while you’ve not had these blog posts to read you might have noticed that there’s a general election going on. That’s right, today in the UK we’re voting to decide on who’s going to govern us for the next five years.

We know that a lot of you won’t be old enough to vote yet (unless we’ve completely misjudged the average age of our readers and you’re actually all pensioners) but before long you will be able to. And that’s good, because voting is a BIG DEAL.

Ed Miliband and David Cameron
(www.ibtimes.co.uk)

Sometimes we can take it for granted in the UK, especially as British politics isn’t always that exciting. I mean, Ed Miliband and David Cameron are hardly the kind of guys you’d want to go on holiday with, are they? But all over the world there are people who can’t vote. And what’s more, people in Britain have fought very hard to have the vote today. For example, did you know that women in Britain only got the vote in 1918? And that was still only women over 30 and only came about after years and years of campaigning.

Now, what’s this got to do with the Magna Carta we hear you asking?* Well, if you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning you’ll know by now that in 1215 the Magna Carta took some power from the king and set out for the first time the rights of some of the people in Britain. And as a result this process of transferring power from the elites to the people has been continuing ever since, with the right to vote being a very important part of this.

So ask yourselves - would your parents and grandparents be able to vote without the Magna Carta? Would you able to in the future?

A general election polling station
(www.theguardian.com)

If you’d like some more information on today’s election and its relationship with the Magna Carta and peoples’ rights in general then you should totally check out the following:

A really impassioned and empowering video about the election and our rights by The Guardian journalist Owen Jones:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/may/05/no-normal-election-dont-let-your-voice-be-taken-away-owen-jones

The UK Parliament’s web pages for schools and young people, which feature information on both the general election and the 800^th anniversary of the Magna Carta:
www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/2015-parliament-in-the-making/2015-resources-for-schools-and-young-people

Enjoy!

The Oxford Brookes Magna Carta Team

*We can't actually hear you, that would be weird.