BBC 6分钟英语 强制投票

From BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm Rob and I'm Neil. Hello, hello, neil.

Today we're talking about voting. Now, I'm sure it's something you've done, neil, of course.

And earlier this year, we had a general election in the UK where I voted, and I'd feel

guilty if I didn't exercise my right to vote.

Now, a right, in this case means somebody's legal claim to vote in a general election.

We vote for a government that runs the whole country.

But we also have local and European elections too.

Sometimes, yes, but voting in the UK is optional, so you don't have to do it, Whereas in some countries, voting is compulsory, and compulsory means something that you have to do.

So if you were in Australia, where the government passed a law that made voting compulsory, you would have to pay a fine of $20 for not voting.

And that's because the Australian government believes that voting is a duty and not just a right, and duty means something you have a responsibility to do, and it's your duty, rob to ask me today's quiz question.

Yes, sir. Okay, so can you tell me what is a constituency?

Is it A, the people who live in and vote in a particular area?

B the politicians who may can change the laws of a country, or see a town or district that has its own government.

Well, I'm no expert on politics, but I'm going to go for sea that's a town or district that has its own government.

OK? Well, we'll find that later on in the show.

Whether you're right or wrong. Now it's time to hear what a truly young person has to say about compulsory voting.

Oh, right, unlike me, you mean?

Well, his Michael Yip, who is a student at Warwick University, and therefore much younger than me.

A lot of the people that I speak to to say, oh, I don't care, or I don't really know what's going on.

And, and in this way, another reason why I'm quite cautious about this is because it could sort of engender the sort of slap dash attitude towards politics, where, you know, it's sort of seen as, you know, being conscripted for national service, or, you know, you just want to get it over and done with.

So Michael says he is cautious about the idea of introducing compulsory voting.

So why is that ill? He thinks forcing young people to vote will engender or give rise to a slap dash attitude.

Now, what does slap dash mean?

Robins good word, isn't it? But it means doing something quickly and carelessly.

Oh, you'd never do that. Now, michael compares compulsory voting to national service.

National service is compulsory government service.

That usually means military service, and is also known as conscription.

So when it's something you haven't chosen to do, or which you actively don't want to do, it's a case of getting it over and done with.

And that means finishing something difficult or unpleasant as quickly as possible.

Um, young people might just pick a political party out of a hat, which means to choose randomly, rather than making an informed choice.

So some people think that politicians need to improve political education.

Now, let's listen to broadcaster and writer Rick Edwards talking about this.

If you said to politicians, right, million 1st time voters are definitely gonna vote, then they will have to speak to them, and they will have to make an effort to go to where they are.

And I think that's the change it would create, so that the compulsory voting would mean a responsibility for the politicians too.

That's right. They need to engage and educate young people.

Otherwise reluctant voters may deliberately spoil or waste their vote.

Hmmm. The government could also include a none of the above option on the ballot paper.

Can you explain a bit more about that?

Well, it means you tick this option if you don't want to vote for any of the listed political parties.

An interesting idea. Well, my option for now is to get the answer to the quiz question.

OK? Well, I asked, what is a constituency?

Is it a the people who live in and vote in a particular area be the politicians who may can change the laws of a country?

Or see a town or district that has its own government, and I said, see a town or district that has its own government?

Ah, well, you tick the wrong box, neel.

The answer is a the people who live in and voting in a particular area.

Now, did you know the UK is currently divided into 650 areas called parliamentary constituencies, each of which is represented by one MP in the House of Commons.

And each constituency can have a different area.

The largest is Ross

Sky and Lockarba in Scotland, measuring approximately 12000 km².

The smallest constituency is Isling to North in London, measuring a little over 7 km².

Now, come we here today's words again, please.

Neal Okay, we heard right. General election.

Compulsory duty

and gender slapdash. National service conscription.

Over and done with. Pick a political party out of a hat, spoil splendid.

Well, that's the end of today's six minute English.

I hope it got your vote.

You can hear more programs at bbc learning english dot com.

Please join it again. Soon. Bye.

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