>> Jay Foreman: An election like 2010, fantastic!
Look how excited everybody is, look how excited I am.
Who knew that politics could make me feel like this?
How did I, a comedian, who normally doesn't trust anyone wearing a suit, suddenly get
so interested in politics?
Basically, they rang me up and said 'do you know much about politicians?'
and I said 'not really' and they said 'perfect, you're the man for the job.'
So I am on a mission to find out all about politicians.
First of all, what is a politician?
And second of all, how do you get to be one?
This is Reading West, one of the 650 constituencies that make up the political map of the UK.
Each constituency is represented by one Member of Parliament.
Thousands of people in each constituency have registered to vote and in a few weeks time
they will get the chance to do just that.
Because, fanfare please, it's a general election!
On May 6th the voters of Reading West- I got distracted by a bee.
On May 6th the voters of Reading West will be choosing the person they want to represent
them in Parliament, their MP.
But that's not all they will be doing.
Most MPs belong to a political party, each with a different view on how to run the country.
In a general election it's usually the party with the most MPs that gets to form the next
government.
So by voting, you not only choose your MP, you also have your say about which party you
want in power for the next few years.
In Reading West there are six people who want to be the next MP, each from a different political
party.
>> Narrator: And the candidates in alphabetical order are: Daisy Benson from the Liberal Democrats.
Bruce Hay from the UK Independence Party, or UKIP for short.
Naz Sarkar from the Labour Party.
Alok Sharma from the Conservative Party, sometimes also known as the Tories.
Howard Thomas, from the Common Sense Party.
And Adrian Windisch, from the Green Party.
>> Jay Foreman: It's a pretty exciting election for Reading West, because none of these candidates
has ever been an MP before.So if they want to get their message across to the people
it's going to be an uphill struggle.
But enough from me, let's hear what the candidates have to say for themselves.
Microphone please.
Thank you.
>> Jay Foreman: Does one vote really make a difference?
>> Daisy Benson: Well sadly it's not even the case that people vote once, most people
don't vote.
So yes that's a huge issue.
And if everyone did vote, particularly young people, their voice would be listened to.
>> Naz Sarkar: It's important to have your say and if you don't have your say then you
can't complain about the outcome.
>> Adrian Windisch: It's statistically proved that higher percentage of older people vote,
lower percentage of younger people vote, so they'll go for the older votes with their
policies.
If more younger people vote they'll go for the younger vote.
>> Jay Foreman: Are you two going to vote in this year's general election?
>> Girl: No we're eleven.
>> Jay Foreman: Any excuse.
>> Jay Foreman: Why do you think it's important to be interested in politics?
>> Boy: You get to make a choice about what your country is going to be like.
>> Boy 2: If you want to make a change and you want what you want to happen, then you
have to vote.
>> Jay Foreman: I'm back in Reading and the long wait is finally over.
Today is election day.
Now this is a polling station.
It might look like an ordinary public library, but for today it's been transformed into a
palace of democracy.
Almost anywhere can be a polling station.
Okay, not that last one.
But the point is on the inside they all do the same thing.
This is where people come to cast their vote.
So how does it actually work?
With just a few exceptions all you need to be able to vote is: number one, you need to
have celebrated your 18th birthday.
Number two, you need to have registered to vote, which you can do any time after you're
sixteen.
Once you have registered you will know when an election is coming up because there will
be nothing on the tele except election specials.
You'll also be able to tell because a few weeks before the election a polling card will
come through your letter box.
The polling card tells you where your local polling station is.
This is where you go to on election day.
Or, if you think you're going to be on holiday when the election comes you can send in your
vote by post.
To vote at your polling station all you have to do is turn up.
You go inside, you give your name and address to a member of staff, or if you're not the
chatty type just hand them your poll card.
They check your details against the voting register and then give you your ballot paper.
The ballot paper is important, because it has the names of all the candidates in your
constituency and the party they belong to.
So there's no need to write it on your hand the night before.
The polling stations have been open from seven o'clock this morning and won't close until
ten o'clock at night to give everyone a chance to cast their vote.
It's now midnight - all the polling stations closed two hours ago and every ballot box
from every polling station in the constituency has been brought here to the gym.
The furthest I'm allowed to go is just behind this metal fence because I'm not one of the
official counting people, but the official counting people over there are doing what
this all came down to, all the weeks of campaigning and issues comes down basically to people
doing this 'one vote, two votes, three votes, four votes, five votes' all night long.
The atmosphere is really starting to get a little bit excited and tense around here now.
I think that means there's going to be a result coming any minute now.
>> Spokesman: Sharma Alok Kumar, the Conservative Party candidate, 20,523.
>> Jay Foreman: The results are in.
The new MP for Reading West is the Conservative Party candidate Mr Alok Sharma.
Just like Mr Sharma winning here, the same thing is happening all over the country.
Votes are being counted, results are being declared...
>> Spokeswoman: 29,461
>> Jay Foreman: ... and the winners and losers are making their speeches.
>> Caroline Lucas: Thank you so much for putting the politics of hope above the politics of
fear.
>> Stephen Metcalfe: They have placed incredible trust in me.
>> Jay Foreman: The count will take all night and we won't know which party has won until
tomorrow.
Everyone is going home now and I'm going to go home too, I haven't had sleep in thirty
two hours.
This general election more than sixteen million people out there somewhere had the chance
to vote and didn't bother.
In one constituency the MP won by just forty two votes.
So think what a difference those sixteen million voters might have made to the result.
So, when the time comes for you to vote, just think about the difference you could make.
Right, I think that's pretty much everything I could possibly tell you about voting.
My work here is done.
I'm going home.
It's over there.