Bolitics The New Condem Government

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Fair enough, but maybe the majority of people simply don't want radical change?

 

Well, I think if the choice is there, people will vote for it. Currently the choice isn't there, which is both a good and bad thing, I suppose. Good, in that people, as we seen in East/South Eastern Europe, tend to move to the far-right in search of easy answers. Bad, in that no party is offering an interesting point of view, and politics has become dominated by the neo-liberals. Whether or not you agree with that world view is irrelevant, because lack of choice in a democracy makes a mockery of democracy imo.

[useless]

 

I don't know anything about politics. If voting is mandatory would that not mean that uneducated people like me would spoil the vote?

You have all the information at your fingertips, do some research and educate yourself

 

 

I still might not have the intelligence to deduct anything meaningful from it and that may not be my fault owing to learning diasabilites or something else.

 

What if three people like me vote for someone not really knowing what we are doing and then two more informed people like you vote for someone but you lose out is that really fair?

 

I'm not sure about this Democracy.

[bickster]

Parties or party-like structures are inevitable though. It's natural for people to group together because they share like-minded views or to advance a common cause.

Yes I agree but more likely on single issues and representatives would be in different caucuses on different issues. No whipping system also makes that inevitable, it means the representatives are held accountable by their electorate alone and not some party of self interest.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I wouldn't worry too much or feel somehow less intelligent than anyone else. That is undoubtedly easy for someone to say if they don't have learning difficulties or the like, but I do mean it. We may think we know a great deal but when it comes down to it, we know nuffink*.

 

 

*I once had this screamed at me by a very drunk professor.

[Risso]

We don't have a party system as such over here, it's just a random bunch of individuals standing in their constituencies.  They're mostly all thick as pigshit, but it sort of seems to work, just.  24 MHKs for 85,000 people though, massive overkill. 

[villaajax]

Wow, really?... there are that many people living there?

[mockingbird_franklin]

  They're mostly all thick as pigshit,

 

So in this respect very similar to the mainland MP's

Edited March 25, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin

[chrisp65]

One thing I am looking forward to is local party members knocking on my door asking for my vote. I hope I'm in when they come knocking because I'm going to give each of them a going over and make them wish they never knocked on my door.

 

or

 

tell them you think you probably agree with them, if you were to vote at all

as the election gets closer you'll get more and more of their time, everytime, incrementally, you say that you are probably even more sure you won't be voting for the other lot

election day, when they phone, you say you would vote for them but you've twisted your knee

 

then

 

when the free lift from their grass roots activists turns up THEN you give them what the **** **** for

[mockingbird_franklin]

I missed this from a few days ago, but it seems like another government policy supposedly saving money is in fact likely doing nothing of the sort,

 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/21/student-fees-policy-costing-more

Edited March 25, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin

[snowychap]

Mandatory voting...

You can stick that idea (in a nice way, of course ).

 

 

[snowychap]

I'm all for NOTA, I'm not in favour of mandatory voting

I agree.

[snowychap]

when the free lift from their grass roots activists turns up THEN you give them what the **** **** for

Do they give you a lift back?

In which case wait until they drop you off and then reveal to them that you voted for the other lot.

[chrisp65]

This is a constituency that was won a few years ago (1992) by exactly the same margin as the number of tory ex pat postal votes that were received from Spain (19). So it's not some 'x' party stronghold where a few dozen or a few hundred votes is academic. In 2010, it was won by 4,000 votes - over 12,000 people voted for 'minority' parties other than the usual 2.

 

Traditionally we vote for the opposition here, with red and blue often getting 10,000 majorities, only to be booted out next time.

 

So, None Of The Above as an option here would be really revealing and could most definitely impact as a change of result. Which could only be a good thing if it made them all up their game or prompted a local figure to stand as a working independent.

[villaajax]

 

Do you get the feeling he's never actually drunk a pint of beer before?

 

Is he going to play some Bingo next?

 

 

 

Appears he is.

[bickster]

With no party to hide behind, can you imagine a representative of any persuasion voting for fracking, in an area to be fracked?

Just an example of an issue that would hold the representative accountable to his people not some party that forces him to vote in a way he doesn't want to nor do his constituents want him to

[Kingfisher]

An excellent piece by Zoe Williams in the guardian on the unbalanced portrayal of public services.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/25/nhs-fraud-story-terrible-if-true?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_campaign=hootsuite

[peterms]

 

From D. Skinner MP.

[colhint]

whether it is balanced or not, I don't know. But she appears to be putting her head in the sand. She quotes the £229m. But that is what they have evidence for. So does she believe that they have caught everyone? She then said that the NHS is free at point of use, so there aren't as many transactions. What a complete load of cobblers. £100bn and few transaction. Then she goes on to the report. First mocking, asking if people really do hope they get cancer, so they can max out their benefit. Well no they don't, but she could have just as easily used the quote from guys hospital, where they call the maternity ward the Lagos shuttle. Then, its a quick this is insignificant we should be taxing the rich. Well yes we should but we should also be looking at fraud in the NHS. So then she mocks the report because it was by accountants, but failed to mention it was commissioned by Portsmouth University, and co authored by accountants. Finally she has a go, at the size of the data. Well it came from UK US France Belgium, Holland and NZ. and they reported actual evidence Fraud, what they have caught. 

 

Now I don't know what the level of fraud is. but I would be amazed if it was the reported figure. But I hope the government would seriously look into it, not just don't knock our NHS. No doubt Its been going on some time so all parties will be at fault

[Kingfisher]

We have evidence of £229m worth of fraud. The £5bn figure is flimsy to say the least. Another NHS isn't working story by panorama, part of the drip drip attack in people's consciousness.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Kingfisher

[colhint]

but surely it's worth investigating