A dare with good intentions!

[Rudi_87]

I dare people in the UK and Northern Ireland to vote today (why not abuse getdare to make sure we have a working democracy :P)

[Powerstrip]

Originally Posted by Rudi_87

I dare people in the UK and Northern Ireland to vote today (why not abuse getdare to make sure we have a working democracy :P)

I shall be voting later today. Whoever doesn't vote is wasting a vote. You need to have your say in this country, otherwise stop complaining about how this country is going down the pan when you didn't voice your opinion when given the opurtunity.

TL;DR, OK I will

[----]

Im voting liberal democrates going at quater past 6 whos everyone else voting for?

[Powerstrip]

Probably Conservatives.

[Rune]

I hate voting. Everyone says almost the same thing and then never do anything they say when they win.

[pranadevil]

I never understood that line of thought... who else has ever been in a position to actually do anything other than "push" for changes other than the main 3 parties?

Sure, Labour have screwed people over, and yeah Conservatives have done the same, and I'd perhaps say the Lib Dems may have done too.

But the other small parties like UKIP, Green Party etc. and the independants... well when do they really get a chance to do anything other than "voice a concern" for a small area?

While we may be voting for a specific person, it's not a case of that one person dictates everything for the area, they have to push for it from the government as a whole, so when it's only really the main 2 or 3 parties in there then not a lot will get done. It's only if a full on shake up happens and one of the non-big 3 get in some solid positions that there can really be any change.

[BettyBoop]

It sounds bad but I know nothing about politics or anything, and sound worse, but I don't care.
Either way I can't vote, I'm fifteen.

[pranadevil]

Nah, at 15 I didn't care, but when I was old enough to vote I figured I should at least look into things enough so that I had some knowledge so I could make my vote count for what I feel is right.

After all, pretty much everything you do in life is controlled in some form by the government. If they wanted to ban the internet (extremely unlikely) then they could, they can raise taxes on things, thus pushing the price higher. Legalize certain things, make utterly moronic things illegal as well. So without voting you essentially let them do what they want without making a stand against it.

That wasn't outright directed at you Betty, more just a point about why it's worth voting when old enough to do so .

[Powerstrip]

There's always the option of spoiling your ballot. IE. you incorrectly do it. That shows that you've taken the effort to have your say, but don't have trust in any of the candidates.

It's better than not doing anything at all.

[pranadevil]

Good point Powerstrip, if the candidates up all have policies you don't agree with, or none have made any kind of effort (such as not actively trying to let people know that they're campaigning, which is pretty much what the UKIP member has done for our council... nothing whatsoever in regards to campaigning), then obviously it's not worth giving them an actual vote.

However a spoilet ballot is still counted in the final total, and thus the percentage needed for any to get in is increased somewhat, which could prevent a lesser party (like say, oh I dunno... BNP) getting in, which is worth it in every sense of the word.

[Powerstrip]

BNP getting in is a good thing? They are a racist party that would see a heck of a lot of people unfairly deported.

I agree with sorting out immigration and illegal immigrants, but to make people that are rightly settled here to go home (wherever it may be) is plain wrong. They are a group of white supremesists who ought to be in prison.

Spoiling your ballot is counted and gives a message that you are not comfortable with any of the candidates (and if there are enough of them could radically shake up government).

[pranadevil]

No, you misread, I said they are a "lesser party" which needs to be prevented getting in. I have absolutely no faith that the BNP are anything other than a group of racist gits who shouldn't get in anywhere. However I know way too many people who seem to think that they'll "help" the country and have no intention of deporting people who are currently legally allowed to stay here... yet they will do just that. Even people who were born in this country, if their grandparents weren't... goodbye!

No, personally I favour UKIP. They want to restrict the immigration laws, but have no intention of getting rid of those here legally, and they also have paid attention to funding for the elderly (something we need more of in this country, along with getting better NHS care for them), and also funding for schools (which I am hoping isn't a "throw money at the issue and it will go away" view, as opposed to "let's look into where things need improving at individual schools and give them money to improve those areas")

Basically I was agreeing with you, and stating that BNP is a poor excuse for the party.

[Powerstrip]

Yes, I see how I misread it. We're on the same page then yes

I have to admit I haven't read up on policies from all the campaigners, but I believe that UKIP wants to withdraw from the EU. Which is good in some respects, but a total withdraw is not good. There are lots of things that I don't want the EU messing with, but there are things we do need the EU for like trading.

[pranadevil]

Oh I agree that we need the trade links kept open, but perhaps not to the extent they're at where we're ignoring our home grown stuff for that overseas. That's the one problem with politics, you wind up having to weight the options because there's not a single party that will hit everything square for every person. It will always be a case of which party you view that has the best major policies, with the few you don't agree with on being ones you can either overlook, or can accept being traded out for the rest.

Speaking of parties, thanks to helping my landlord with his flyering as he goes for the local council elections, I began wondering how the green party actually get noticed, because surely most ways of publicity just damage the planet, at least as far as their campaign would go.

If they flyer, they're wasting paper and thus trees.
If they put up signs, that's wood and cardboard/plastic being wasted
If they use the media then it's paper being wasted along with gas and electricity being wasted.

So really, short of standing in the street and doing nothing but talk to people, they can't do much promoting without essentially failing in their mission statements right from the off.

Just something I wound up thinking about after a good 4 hours of walking the other day.

[Powerstrip]

They do pamper pamphleteering. It's all recycled paper and they beg you to recycle the pamphlet after you've used it to.

Their views are to help the planet, but your views are a bit extreme :P

That's the problem though, we have no real manufacturing in this country anymore. Our economy ran on retail nothing more. The little manufacturing we still have is dieing out which is a real shame.

The problem with a lot of voting though is that the only people that have a shot are the major parties, Conservative, Labour and Lib Dems. Smaller candidates really need a big thing behind them to get anywhere big. And even then, how much notice are they going to get in Parliment etc?

What we do need to first and formost though is to sort this country out and stop worrying about others for a little bit. We "invest" a lot of money in the EU and we're not sure if we're getting an equal amount back! Of course we could have a nice big report into it that costs us taxpayers yet more money, but I think that the time has come that Labour just needs to be outed and the country brought back out of debt as much as we can.

It's now 12 years of Labours High-tax high-spend policies and now we are in huge amounts of debt with an incompitant Chancellor of the exchequer who's predictions and spending even got the IMF to give a warning!

Cutting red tape is another thing. NHS needs to stop being totally free too. Binge drinkers should be charged a fee for it as should other people that are wasting it's resources for no reason.

I love a good political chinwag