This year is going to be a big one for our country with a general election looming in just over four months’ time. Without putting too fine a point on it, the result of that election could well shape the future of the British people for generations to come with both our membership of the European Union and our existence as the United Kingdom at stake.

When deciding how and for whom to vote there is a natural and obvious tendency to vote for the political party that not only corresponds with our own beliefs and values but one that we think will benefit us the most individually.

This next election is more important than that and we need to put selfish desires to one side if we can and instead look at the bigger picture. The future welfare of the nation is surely far more important than, for example, immediate considerations of who can save us a few pounds here and there by cuts in taxation or an increase in state benefits.

Never have the words of the late President J.F. Kennedy been more apposite, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” If we vote with those words in mind perhaps we will then end up with the government that we, as a nation, deserve.