Elections 6th May...

[taff]

...at the end of the day, if we don't make a stand against the radical nutters...the alternative isn't worth contemplating .

does that include the U.S.A.?

had a conversation with someone about the BNP gaining seats left right and center...their opinion was that if people who don't vote out of either protest or apathy are going to be outnumbered by a party who can whip up fervent support, in this instance the BNP, they'll end up with the seats because not voting lessens the amount of seats the other parties can win.Pretty obvious, but not something that people who don't vote think of much. [Anyway, the BNP willprobably be on it's way out due to the ruling that they have to let anyone join, ha! and a campaign of freepost etc letters]

And as much as I can't stand politics,I'll have to get off my arse and vote this time [actually,I don't even have to get off my arse doI, if I can do it online ]

[HeyWayne]

Pick a colour, any colour.

[bobleponge]

had a conversation with someone about the BNP gaining seats left right and center...their opinion was that if people who don't vote out of either protest or apathy are going to be outnumbered by a party who can whip up fervent support, in this instance the BNP, they'll end up with the seats because not voting lessens the amount of seats the other parties can win.Pretty obvious, but not something that people who don't vote think of much. [Anyway, the BNP willprobably be on it's way out due to the ruling that they have to let anyone join, ha! and a campaign of freepost etc letters]

]

Someone very clever and eloquent once used a phrase to describe the above phenomenon. I cant remember and am neither clever nor eloquent but it was along the lines of:

If good people do nothing, evil prospers.

Sums it up rather nicely I think. 2 elections ago over here, Jean Marie Le Pen (Front Nationale)got through to the second round of the French elections for President, (to the shame of the vast majority of the French population) due predominantly to voter apathy. (He got properly stuffed in the second round btw).
The following election saw the largest turn out in many a year as the French realised their error.
Turn out in the recent ministerial elections has again been low, and Le Front Nationale has again made big gains, from memory it was the 3rd largest party.
I will guarantee though that come the next presidential elections they wont get a look in, as the shame still burns here.

[ginger ninger]

does that include the U.S.A.?

I try not to get involved with US politics, I leave that to those who understand it, having said that, they are and have been one of our greatest allies...but I do think the "You scratch my back and I'll scratch your back" is getting boring now.

With regard to the BMP, in a democratic society that we all live in everyone is allowed there view...even the BMP, it don't mean to say you or I agree with them. There's good and bad in all parties, that's why we have a voting system, so that if we don't agree with the views of any of the politicle party's we can vote to try and change them.
But I also believe in freedom of speech, I'm sorry if that offends some people, but that's why I like living in a democratic society/country where I'm still allowed a point of view, and as a woman...a vote.

[sarraceniac]

Does'nt matter who you vote for. The Government always wins.

[organic]

Does it matter? Do YOU care?

It matters, as this current party really MUST be booted out before they screw us into the ground with another 5 years of building massive debts we won't get paid off for generations.
However...
"You could not get an anorexic fag paper between the three main parties." - Will Self

Remember- 'if you don't vote - you shouldn't complain'!

...discuss.......

What's the solution when there's nobody to vote for who even comes close to representing your views?
I want a party who will dismantle government to an extent not a single established party will ever do. I want a party who will end the complete farce of direct taxation (like income tax) that's still a "temporary measure" that was put in place to fight NAPOLEON or some such nonsense.

I can't vote for someone who will represent me the way I want to be represented. None of the main parties will pull us out of Europe like we so desperately need.

If I vote, do I not just lend legitimacy to a system and to representatives I can not stand and who do nothing but abuse the people they are meant to serve?

Do I really have to vote for one of these no good, spineless, scrounging hind-leg-walking pigs (with a hat tip to Mr Orwell) in order to detest what they do to us and to this country?

I'm inclined to vote just to add one more X to the scores of people trying to get Labour out of power - but I can't put an X next to someone I want in office. I resent that the only way I can play a part in getting one scumbag out of office is to replace them with another equally useless and expensive one.

Any suggestions?

[Jeanied]

I can't wait to see if the candidates come round canvassing here. I will be having a bit of a discussion if they do.

[Alison]

Whatever some of you think, we're very fortunate in this country that we can say pretty much what we want (and to be honest the things we can't say, for the most are things that it is a shame that anybody WANTS to say!) and do pretty much what we want. It's by no means perfect here but I'd still much rather live hear than the many hell holes around the world. The fact that so many people have risked life and limb to be here is to be something we should be proud of but I know some disagree. People not voting but moaning annoys me, especially when many of the things they're are moaning about don't really matter.

[Bigmallly]

Well I don't know if I am in the minority but I have never been as well off. Ok, the interest rates for savings may be pants but the morgage rate is brilliant.........far better that 16% back in the 80's which almost ripped the guts out of me.

[organic]

Ginger Ninger
Pic 1 is for you.

Sarraceniac
Pic 2 is for you.

For those who are talking about the military...
Pic 3.
Yes they are (for the most part) consumate professionals, but sending them away to fight extremists who, when asked, cite our interference and military presence in that part of the world as their reason for fighting us is an exercise in both futility and in making things even worse. That's not the troops fault, but the idiots pulling the strings... the idiots this thread is about voting for.

For my general views on the entire system and how much of a difference we can make until such a time as either a significantly different party comes to the fore (and the only one I've seen to date is the non-parliamentary libertarian party) or the people march on parliament and don't stop outside...
Pic 4.

[Nicos]

Any suggestions?

Stand yourself in local elections- and make your mark then!...and take it from there!

[ginger ninger]

Whatever some of you think, we're very fortunate in this country that we can say pretty much what we want (and to be honest the things we can't say, for the most are things that it is a shame that anybody WANTS to say!) and do pretty much what we want. It's by no means perfect here but I'd still much rather live hear than the many hell holes around the world. The fact that so many people have risked life and limb to be here is to be something we should be proud of but I know some disagree. People not voting but moaning annoys me, especially when many of the things there are moaning about don't really matter.

Here, here, I still have the horrendous vision of the woman in Iraq being beheaded, at half time, in the goal mouth at a football match for wearing "Nail varnish", it spook volumes of a dictatorship and not democracy.

[taff]

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | How to start your own party

[jacob marley]

It's gone quiet over here for now!!


Remember- 'if you don't vote - you shouldn't complain'!

...discuss.......

I always vote then i do not lose the right to moan .
The reason i asked for a election free zone is people fall out over politics when there is no need to.Politics and religion should be kept of the Vine.., jacob

[organic]

Ginger Ninger... might have been Afghanistan.
That or they were doing that in Iraq too.


I saw it, and as stoic as I can be I felt ill.
The time I accidentally saw a video of a stoning brought me closer to being physically sick than I care to discuss.


Alison... It's true that there are far worse places (in reality this is among the best) to live and far more opressive regimes... but that's no reason to accept the mess we have here.

The example I like to use is this:
*I poke you in the eye*
You complain.
I say "Hey it could be worse - in some parts of Africa and the Middle East they poke you in both eyes... in North Korea they cut your eyes out and in Myanmar they cut out the eyes of your entire family while making you watch if you so much as think that the eye poking should stop."
Do you then accept that it could be worse and accept repeated pokes in the eye or stand up for yourself and insist on no eye poking at all?




As for standing as an independent - for the most part that's a pretty good way to waste £500 plus whatever needs spending on election propaganda.