Banners ......

.... have gone up on the face of the Civic Centre.

They celebrate tomorrows 100th Anniversary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act. Women got the vote for the first time - so long as they were over 30 years of age and met a property qualification. That is what tomorrow's celebrations will be about. All women over 21 got the vote when the 1928 Act was passed

But the Act also brought in votes for all males over 21. Many of those returning from the horrors of the trenches would otherwise not have been entitled to vote,  and in a world threatened with revolution that was deemed dangerous. 

The Act institutionalised the first past the post system, and rejected proportional representation. And it required the votes to all be on one day, not spread over several days in different places as previously.

We should all use our right to vote, it has been hard won.