Sat watching the Coronation of King Charles 111, this is an interesting question to answer for the blogging day… The history of England, invisible constitutional democracy in action. The formation of Parliament and the progression to voting from just landowners to populous of the country.
Growing up the constitutional situation of women was changing, rights to equality in pay, rights to bank without a husband. I was aware that just a few generations before, there was a movement of women who protested for the right to vote in Parliamentary elections. This suffragge movement saw women detained, attacked and some martyrig themselves to raise the profile of their cause.
Why was the vote so important ? At this point in my life I consider that its importance was about a gender being consitutionally accepted in equity and equality. This sense of belonging and acceptance is both a spiritual acceptance, as well as the physical process of choosing a candidate and party with cross. Taking part in a collective experience of expressing a wish and choice of policies that align with the persons views and values.
Sat tapping away on the keyboard watvching the coronation on TV rain pattering on the window. I am aware that the there were elections two days ago. It is the first time in my life I have not voted. This was not by design, just an omission through food poisoning of all things !! However this right to do so, by birth and the sacrifice those woman made in suffrage. So without breaking the rule I was told, that was often broken on one side of my family !… yet those lively discussions all those years ago, prepared me for taking my first vote at the age of eighteen years of age…