AS the dust settles after the General Election, with a countrywide Labour landslide and a huge swing to Labour in Skipton and Ripon, there will be many standout moments for all of us. What hit me, and continues to trouble me, is the large number of non-voters, for which various reasons are offered, including lack of ID which is worrying and needs to be addressed.

One of the reasons which I find particularly depressing, however, is apathy, expressed in comments such as ‘They’re all the same’ and ‘It doesn’t make any difference.’ They are not all the same and I believe that our votes do make a difference. Would those who are apathetic be happy to live in a one-party state?

Universal franchise is barely a century old in the UK and there are still countries in the world where the people have little or no say in how they are governed. At election time, responding to those who say to me that their intention is not to vote, I do my best to encourage them to use their vote, saying, ‘It’s what we have.’

Politics is important. It is about how we order society, consider priorities and make decisions that affect all our lives. And, when we cast our vote, we are signalling that it matters to us how we care for those who are vulnerable and needy, how we view the stranger and, on a practical level, which party we trust to exercise both compassion and fiscal competence.

Keir Starmer has said that he will govern for all of us, regardless of whether we voted for his party. That is as it should be. I feel sure that he means to include also the 40 percent who didn’t vote at all. At the next General Election, I hope that those who have previously withheld their vote will feel confident to place their cross on the ballot paper.

Celia Midgley

Skipton