Title: No vote, no voice: EU migrants and the general election
Headings: 
24 April 2015
No vote, no voice: EU migrants and the general election

Content: Some might choose Russell Brand’s decision not to vote to raise their voice. And some people who are bothered will be left with no choice - and no voice. By Laura Varriale
Migrants not welcome. Photo: Getty
“None of us likes to be told we can’t do something,” says the voice-over in the Register-to-Vote TV ad in the commercial break during the Leaders’ Debate on ITV before the Easter weekend. In the 30-second-long ad, people are prevented from taking a staircase, putting ketchup on their fry-up or entering a park. “Some people can come in, some people can’t,” explains the man on the telly with a flipchart in his hands at a gate. The ad wants people to register for the upcoming general election. But some people can and some people can’t. “They want us here to spend money on houses or food and want us to pay taxes but they don’t want us to vote, to get involved,” says Aleksandra Maciejewski, 32, originally from Poland.