European Parliament Elections

The UK MP's expenses saga rumbles on - I think we're into the 900th day of revelations (or so it feels) - and this Thursday, 4th June we get the chance to vote in the European Parliament elections and have our say. But I wonder how many people will actually exercise their one opportunity to send a message. Frankly the turnout at European elections is lamentable. According to the EU Parliament the best turnout was in 2004 at 38% and the chances are that many young people will simply not bother to go to the immense trouble of dropping into the polling station and putting an X in the box. But that is not universally true and the picture below illustrates the point.

This fully model released image of a young, first time voter outside a polling station proudly holding her voting card has been sold a number of times and used on the cover of the AQA Government and Politics AS level textbook and is available for licensing through Alamy (click on photo or here to license).