Take Note, Go Vote

A lot of people are understandably very sceptical about politics and elections right now, but I think this time around its more important than ever to vote, not just to ensure the parties that represent us are held to account for their actions, but because this time there is a very real danger of the BNP winning their first seat in the European Parliament and gaining a great deal of extra funding as a result. The party has never been stronger and they won their first seat on the London Assembley last year.

Because these elections operate under proportional representation, it makes it much more likely that the BNP - even with a vote share as low as 10% - can win a seat, and if turnout is low, as it increasingly has been in recent elections, they need much fewer votes to win a seat. Also, due to the electoral system, the final seat in any region will almost always go to a minor party. In a region with 8 seats, for example, the Conservatives will likely take 3, Labour 2, Lib Dems 1, UKIP 1 and the final seat will go to the minor party with the most votes. This time around, the only party other than the BNP that these seats can go to, are the Greens.

That's not the only reason I'm going to be voting Green in the coming elections - I'm very much in favour of their social and environmental policy - but it is a compelling reason, I think, for anyone who might in past elections have taken a principled stand against electoral politics by spoiling their ballot papers to vote Green instead. Because this time, with the BNP so close to winning seats, drawing a cock on your ballot paper may mean cocks going to the European Parliament.

So make sure you go out and vote tomorrow, June 4th!

 

:cheers2: Well said. Ill be doing the same

Unbelievably someone told me they were voting BNP yesterday, only because their grandfather said she should and "hes a wise man"
There are bound to be more of these complete idiots out there, all over the country. Its sad but its true
Ill be voting green too

 

i wish you guys lots of fun ^_^

 

i've already voted. good old postal voting.

i voted for the greens.

 

:hurray:

 

Did you ask her if she thought racism, sexism, homophobia, capital and corporal punishment are wise?

 

I won't be.. only just moved, haven't had time to register in the new place.

 

You're worse than Hitler....

 

I know, I'm what's wrong with the country

 

just a few days short of being able to vote, i dunno who i'd go for though...probs green

 

God Sal, you're so f*cking REASONABLE

 

Voting is a waste of time, it makes no difference. when they even start to represent what I want they'll get my support, but until they do they I'll vote with my ass placed firmly on my armchair tomorrow.

If you really believe that voting can make a difference then you are deluding yourself, this bullshit system is far from being remotely close to what a democracy is supposed to be.

 

That's a completely understandable view and I know why people feel like that, especially now. I disagree entirely and would always vote, but that's not the point I'm making here. The point is to keep the fascists out. You don't have much to worry about in Scotland, it's one of the few places in the UK where the BNP have never really had any support at all and I love the Scots for it, but everywhere else in Britain, especially the north west, voting will be vital to stop Nazis getting elected.

 

Hahaha, are you trying to say I convinced you :tongue:

 

That's how I saw it in 1997, and look what happened- the party I voted for turned out to be a bunch of nazis.

 

I tend to protest vote in general elections, I think they are indeed wasted votes, but if you look into how the votes are counted under porportional representation for the EU parliament, small numbers of votes for minority parties can make a very big difference. For this reason I shall be tactically voting against the BNP which here, like most places, means Green...

 

In this modern day and age, with the internet and that, it would be entirely possible to introduce a form of democracy where there are a handful of civil servants and any bills that are introduced would be voted on by EVERYONE on a case by case basis.

Now why the fuck do we need to pay all these cunts down in westminster and brussels to decide how things should be run, when they rarely ever represent what WE want?

Give me a say in how my country is run, have things decided more locally as well, and then I might think about voting.

Otherwise, the whole system can go and fuck itself.

 

Good lord, the self serving moral majority in control of everything, what a nightmare! The system we have may indeed be fatally flawed in many ways, but it's a hell of a lot better than any such system of direct democracy would be. People are generally ultra conservative, short sighted and entirely self-interested when asked about complex issues which don't directly involve them. We would probably have the return of capital punishment, perhaps no NHS or welfare system... these kinds of far reaching social policies require vision and leadership which, while perhaps rare in current politics, is a hell of lot more likely with representative democracy than we would ever get with a system of direct democracy...

 

Direct democracy?

Signing a cross on a box and having a bunch of spoilt bastards decide how things are run.

If it was up to the people, weed would be legal, there would have been no war in Iraq or Afghanistan, no GM crop trials, national rail would still be national rail.... I don't really think people would vote away the NHS, no idea where you get that idea.

Yes, most people are stupid and don't understand the consequences of most things, but that is largely because people have become disenfranchised by years of dictatorship under the guise of democracy, been constantly let down.

Like I say, more things should be decided locally. If that was the case, I believe it would work better that the system we have in place now.

 

People would consistently vote for lower taxes because this is what is of immediate concern to us all; the first things to go would be funding for welfare systems like the NHS and benefits. Yes we may end up with a less belligerent foreign policy, though I suspect a majority view would be a somewhat nationalistic belief in defence of the realm, so we'd spend far more on defence than on social programmes. Yes we would have knee-jerk "no" responses to things like GM and other scientific issues where people don't really understand what the debate is really about.

What we need are fairly high levels of taxation on the exorbitantly wealthy and some form of redistribution in the sense of support for the less successful, the less powerful, the ill and the weak. These are not popular policies. People are not naturally socialistic animals (this is where Marx was wrong, as if workers somehow have more in common with bees than humans), it goes against fundamental elements of human nature, socialistic policies come about not through the will of the many but the vision and leadership of a few.

What direct push-button democracy would mean is that we would end up with an authoritarian right-wing society where the powerful get stronger and the weak are left to fend for themselves, where the conservative moral majority would always have their way, where difference is not tolerated, and where radical reform simply cannot happen...