‘ALL politicians are the same; all of the parties are peddling the same message; my vote doesn’t count’.

All of the above is complete nonsense.

The right to vote them out keeps politicians on their toes otherwise you end up with a leader who doesn’t even pretend to care what people think. As the philosopher Edmund Burke said: “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

The deadline to register to vote is midnight on Monday, May 22, and there are signs that younger voters in particular may be losing the opportunity to take part. More than a million applications to register to vote have been made since Theresa May called the election but analysis shows that the numbers of 16-17-year-olds registering as what are known as attainers has plummeted.

Voting on June 8 is going to massively affect our lives for the next five years and beyond.

Every vote will directly affect what happens to our health service, immigration, schools, public services, jobs, our economy and the relationship we have with the rest of the world.

There really is no good reason to register and then use your right to vote but this election in particular offers stark choices between parties with hugely differing agendas.

There are battleground seats across our region where every vote matters. Parts of Labour’s northern heartlands are up for grabs, the Lib Dems, Ukip and Greens expect to make inroads, and the Conservatives are predicted to make historic gains.

All the people who didn’t vote in the last General Election outnumbered any votes for any individual party.

To avoid being part of the silent majority register to vote at www.gov.uk/registertovote.