On Wednesday 19th June as part of Learning Disability Week 2019, Dudley Voices for Choice had a workshop for people who have learning disabilities and people who have autism.
It was all about what parliament is and how to vote to get your voice heard.
Clare from Your UK Parliament came to Dudley to tell us all about it.
Self advocates from DVC learned about what democracy is, how parliament works, who runs the country, who makes the laws and who puts the Member’s of Parliament (or MP’s for short) in charge. Us! We do
We found out about what MP’s do and voted for what we think is the most important thing they should be doing. We think they should speak to us to find out what problems we have and really listen to our ideas.
We now know some ways to contact our MP’s and the three main things to tell them or ask if you contact them:
- What the problem is
- Why the problem is important
- What you want them to do about it
Although some people think politics is not for them, Clare made the day really interesting with fun activities and we learned a lot.
We had our own mini general election and thought about what laws we would to make and voted for our favourite one.
Before today most of us didn’t know what the House of Commons or the House of Lords are or the difference between them. We also said that we didn’t know how votes are counted at an election, but we do now!
It was a surprise to some of us that there are so many political parties because you only hear about a few main ones on the news.
The most important thing we learned today was that it is us, the public, who choose who runs our country and what this means for us. If you are over 18, everyone has the right to vote. Everyone has the right to contact their MP’s to get their voices heard. That includes people who have learning disabilities and autism!
