Make Your Vote Count Campaign

Tony Church, Branch Vice-Chair, is our Make Your Vote Count (MYVC) co-ordinator. Here he explains about MYVC and suggests what you can do to assist the campaign.

MYVC has been an important part of PCS campaigning work for a number of years. It is about holding candidates in local and national elections to account and asking them where they stand on important PCS policy issues. With a General Election only weeks away, it is important that members make the most of the opportunity MYVC gives them to put the parliamentary hopefuls under pressure.

MYVC is also about stopping the far-right gaining seats both in local and parliamentary elections. We are an inclusive union that values diversity to ensure the maximum unity amongst our membership. We are implacably opposed to those who use the policies of hate to create divisions in society. Members can stop the far-right gaining a foothold by using their vote in this and other elections.

It is important that all members Register to vote and encourage their family, friends and colleagues to do the same.

Members also need to visit the Make Your Vote Count pages on the PCS website on a regular basis. We will be publishing statements from the candidates to hopefully help you to decide how to cast your vote and provide you with template letters that you can send to candidates in your constituency on various matters of concern to PCS members. Any replies you receive should be sent to italia690-myvc@yahoo.co.uk. We will try to publish as many as we can.

In addition, keep an eye on the Blog and the PCS website for details of ‘candidates’ question times’. We want to arrange as many of these as possible in the run-up to the General Election to give members the opportunity to put candidates on the spot, publically exploring where they stand on issues like the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, pay, jobs, privatisation and pensions.

General Elections empower working people for a short period and whilst they are not the ‘be all and end all’, they give us an important opportunity to put those who say they want to represent us on the spot.

It’s your vote. Use it. Make it count.