You can’t unsee the message the BBC sent to young people on the last night they could register to vote

BBC sign
Avatar


After seeing these images, it’s difficult to maintain any kind of rosy view of the BBC.

Voter suppression?

Through its Facebook story, the BBC reportedly sent the following messages to young people on the last night they could register to vote:

 

Start your day with The Canary News Digest

Fresh and fearless; get excellent independent journalism from The Canary, delivered straight to your inbox every morning.




The images appear to encourage young people not to care about politics just as the deadline to register to vote approached. And this one could be even worse:

“Grotesque”

On social media, people were horrified:

It’s not just the BBC, though. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also pointed out that Boris Johnson hadn’t tweeted that people should register to vote once during the election campaign:

And he noted that, as of 22 November, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson hadn’t either:

Tonnes of people have registered

But the anti-voter drive seems to have failed. Because in the final 48 hours, around a million people registered to vote in the 12 December election. 40% of those people were under 25.

And from the perspective of our democracy, it gets better. In total, over a million more people have registered for this election than they did in 2017. And in that election, Corbyn’s Labour increased its voteshare by more than at any point since 1945 and wiped out Theresa May’s majority. After calling that 2017 result way off, pollsters have faced criticism for allegedly systematically underrepresenting Labour’s performance this election:

It seems the establishment is using every trick in the book to stop Corbyn. But the only thing that counts is the number of people who stand up on 12 December and say ‘enough is enough’.

Featured image via Tim Loudon/ Flickr

Since you're here ...

We know you don't need a lecture. You wouldn't be here if you didn't care.
Now, more than ever, we need your help to challenge the rightwing press and hold power to account. Please help us survive and thrive.

The Canary Support

Related articles