Education Did you know that there is an election looming?

Exactly.

It's the freedom to chose what you want to do, without fear of others condeming your choices for the world to see.........oh......wait

 

Personally, I think voting should be made compulsory, but only if a "none of the above" box was added to ballot papers. As it stands right now you don't have the option to declare that you don't want to vote for any candidate (other than to not vote or to spoil your paper).

 

If it was compulsory without the "none of the above" box, I'd be wiping my arse with a lot of ballot papers over the years..

As an aside, I find it downright ridiculous to say "If you don't vote you can't complain". What am I supposed to do? I've looked at everyone I could vote for, and I disagree with at least one major policy from all of them. Am I supposed to vote for something I don't want because they might be less useless/lie less than the other bunch of inept morons?

I refuse to vote until someone worth my vote is running.

 

You could run yourself

Serious suggestion- not flame bait

 

Then you will simply be ignored, only if everyone en masse decided not to vote would we see a change, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.

The best way to make any difference is to decide on the best candidate, from those standing, and make your choice.
No one single party will ever propose or deliver a manifesto which suits you perfectly, or anyone else for that matter, so you select the best match.
Decide what matters to you most, and find the party or candidate willing to deliver that.
Alternatively if there is something you feel very strongly against and a party is proposing to deliver of keep then select someone else.

Not voting will achieve nothing.

 

I've not got the stomach for politics. Too much talking without actually saying anything, and too much horseshit to get elected that they invariably go back on. My brand of honesty probably wouldn't get peoples votes. I very much doubt my ideal candidate is one anyone else would like!

I'm not expecting any one party/candidate to perfectly match what I want. I do, however, expect a party/candidate that expects my vote not to embody something I find so objectionable that I wouldn't compromise for it.

For what it's worth, the Green party are the closest to ever getting my vote, but they have some wild hairbrained policies that I just can't agree to or even begin to understand why they think it's a good idea.

I refuse to accept that I 'have' to vote for something I don't want.

 

Voter apathy simply leads to political apathy, why should politicians care if seats are safe and only the usual few vote in the usual way.

 

I'd agree with that.

You can see it in the recent news. The Opinion polls aren't budging and politicians are scratching their heads at what they can do to get them to shift.

Hence why every day we see some 'major announcement' from the parties.

I'm no politcal expert, but I could see how voter apathy could be behind the stagnant movement.

 

And we all merrily go further down the road through managed democracy to inverted totalitarianism. The latter a term I discovered recently on these forums but cannot remember who posted it (sorry to whoever it was)

 

I wouldn't say I'm apathetic towards politics and voting. I just like to be able to hold people running the country to reasonably high standards, and don't accept shitty policies for compromise.

Some policies are **** because they're unachievable while also being massive time and money pits, and others are **** because they contradict other policies in the same document. Some are just downright absurd.

If I had the finances and stomach to run for political office, I probably would.

If I ever win the lottery, look out for the "I won't lie to you" campaign

 

You know what, it would maybe even get some votes

 

On the other hand, it is the same voter apathy that, as you say, has politicians scratching their heads at what they can do to get the opponents' safe seats to shift.

Worse than political apathy is political cynicism. Local elections is where it's at --where you can visit your MP and explain what they would have to do to earn your vote. This inevitably trickles upwards to affect central government politics. But you can't establish a meaningful dialogue with the PM --and a vote is a lousy feedback mechanism.