Make Votes Matter Plymouth

Spring is here, just about, elections are coming up, a good time to venture out for some leafleting.

We decided to try the pavement outside the university, which often has a lot of foot traffic. Also a good place to encourage younger people to get voting, and Make their Votes Matter. We had MVM leaflets, and some voter registration cards.

The street looked awfully quiet at first, but we were kept busy. With just four of us, there were enough passers by to keep us on the go most of the time.

People seem to be mainly two types, the too busy, got to catch the bus, "I'm alright mate", "no thanks" people striding past. And the ones who smile and thank us. Some people are really pleased to be offered a leaflet. There were a few young people who aren't registered to vote. They seemed happy to be reminded they can, and get a card. The card has links and a QR code.

Just a few people stopped to talk. We met a TUSC lady, worried that we might be a rival party, but happy to talk about PR.

In the end, we were pleased to have handed out a lot of leaflets, met some friendly people, and didn't even get rained on.

Looking back to the Lord Mayor's show in Plymouth, which took place in a huge marquee on the Plaza. Lots of stalls for local organizations, charities and so on. We were next to the volunteer litter pickers, and just across from the gardeners. The marquee sides were open, so although it was an enclosed space, and sheltered, it was very well ventilated. Our stall was quietly busy, quite a few people stopped for some interesting conversation, whilst some just took away leaflets etc. Local MP Luke Pollard came by and stopped to talk for a while. Besides advertising PR in it's various forms, we also encourage people to register to vote. Sometimes young people reaching voting age are pleased to be reminded thay can, and some are embarassed to admit they are old enough but haven't yet. We give them a how to card with a QR code.

Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested before landing in Plymouth in 1913. A crowd of 5,000 had gathered to welcome her. This is the blue plaque outside PCAD, now the Arts University Plymouth

Long read by Linda Gilroy on the suffragists and Plymouth. MVM have been having a day of action, inspired by the suffragist marches of the last century.

A 2020 Plymouth perspective on 100 years of women’s suffrage and parliamentary representation by Linda Gilroy - Astor 100 For our latest LONG READ, we are delighted to welcome Linda Gilroy, MP for Plymouth Sutton 1997-2010. Here Linda details Plymouth’s proud history of supporting women’s politics from suffrage to...Read More >

Councils for PR is a new campaign by Make Votes Matter and GET PR DONE! We aim to encourage our councils to declare their support for proportional representation (PR) voting for Parliamentary elections.

Join us on Zoom at 19:00 on Monday, May 23rd to hear from our speakers as to how you can contribute:

https://actionnetwork.org/events/councils-for-pr-launch-event-with-clive-lewis?fbclid=IwAR2Lwnx5uLVZq4YzkIz_XQDQY9WfVwLbSAZTd2LeLHBex-qhf66x63NSGLg

Councils for PR - Launch Event (with Clive Lewis) Councils for PR Launch Event with Clive Lewis (on Zoom) Councils for PR is a new campaign by Make Votes Matter and GET PR DONE! We aim to encourage our councils to declare their support for proportional representation (PR) voting for Parliamentary elections. Join us on Zoom at 19:00 on Monday, May 2...

Thursday's results. Likely tactical voting to get a Green councillor in Chaddlewood. There's no straightforward way.

2022 Plymouth City Council election - Wikipedia The 2022 Plymouth City Council election took place on 5 May 2022 to elect members of Plymouth City Council in England. It will coincide with local elections across the United Kingdom.

In Plymouth, no change in councillors, except 1 Green has deposed 1 Conservative, and that really by tactical voting, and not for Labour.

Plymouth MVM have a virtual meeting on Monday. If you would like to join, please PM us.