In short: f** ‘em.

We want Internet for Demcocracy!
Shut down the euro parliament. Now!
Check it out @ http://www.internetfordemocracy.net

Over 71,000 people have already signed!

I think grandparents, suffragettes etc fought for the freedom to vote (which it seems to me includes the freedom not to vote) not the obligation to vote.

An easy solution around that would be to abolish the monarchy and have an elected President, like most civilised countries. I’ve oft’ wondered if the Head of State does not fall foul of equal opps leglisation, seeing as to get the position you need to be a)born of royal blood or b)marry into it.

Oh and @21: wouldn’t some form of proportional representation help balance the voters intentions with the make-up of the HoC? I’d add an elected Lords for good measure too…

It struck me t’other day when I heard of Labour’s ‘leaked’ proposal for Lords reform that there will be a debate about which House has more of a mandate and therefore which is superior.

Oh and finally, a bit more education that people are not voting for a leader! Too many times I hear people say “oh but I don’t like Brown [etc]” even if their PCC of whatever hue is a perfectly reasonable person.

But the effect of voting for the PPC, should he become MP, is that his leader will become ours. In 1997 and 2001 we knew that Tony Blair would be PM if Labour got into power. If you really didn’t want Tony Blair to be PM, outweighing all other considerations, then you shouldn’t have voted for your Labour PPC.

Sorry, I was being too harsh. Of course everyone should know what they are voting for and it should be easier to find out stuff about political parties/candidates (at this juncture may I recommend http://theyworkforyou.com and http://ukpollingreport.co.uk as two brilliant resources to publicise)
I’d never claim to be a political genius, much as I’d like to be, just that I’ve always had firm views. You were a late starter, I was a (boring) young starter much to the chagrin of my schoolfriends back then…

Oh and @21: wouldn’t some form of proportional representation help balance the voters intentions with the make-up of the HoC? I’d add an elected Lords for good measure too…

Thanks for that – I was starting to feel I was being labled as a fool, but i’m glad to know i’m not the only one to have been unsure of where to cast my vote for reasons other than apathy or laziness

I’m sorry that you felt I was attacking you. The idea I was trying to get across is that everyone is different – hence, you are obviously fairly sure of your ideologies/politically aware, good, we need more like you.

As for patronising, as I said – I was only refering to myself and not presuming that those younger than me were less politically aware; I was a late starter, I was just annoyed by the idea that as a result I was being labled lazy and apathetic (I was actually involved in a lot of activism from a very young age)

It took ME 12 years to work out which party I supported, and considering the events around the iraq war throwing labour into disrepute and the fact that the tories are… well, tories, I’m sure that i’m not alone.

At the end of the day you are telling me off for generalising (which I wasn’t) when that’s what I was critisising the article for.

We can’t all be political geniuses… please don’t attack me for recognising my own personal weaknesses/my lack of political confidence

I would do the followig:

a) Go back to printing names only on ballot papers (30 years ago, having party names, let alone logos, was regarded as shocking and condescending).
b) Remove “easy access” such as postal votes, unless there’s a serious, genuine reason.
c) Stop all attempts to increase voter participation – that’s the job of political parties, and their problem.

The above would reduce numbers further, but that’s too bad. To an extent, parties are “all alike”, at least there’s a much greater level of consensus than there was in prior to the 80s. Participation will only increase once people are interested in the issues at stake. More positively, people are now less likely to vote as per their parents, and this makes them harder to convince.

Finally, any party winning power on a very low turnout should feel at least slightly humbled and/or restricted. A popular mandate would require 5 years of proper engagement with the electorate, including 5 years of good behaviour.

You got a source for that? I reckon a trial of maybe one or two local coucil elections might be a good idea, I sorta hope that we have more faith in our democratic servants than the Russians, understandably, did… although “hope” is the key word!

Oh and finally, a bit more education that people are not voting for a leader! Too many times I hear people say “oh but I don’t like Brown [etc]” even if their PCC of whatever hue is a perfectly reasonable person.

Wish list over.

“Kofi just spoke to local chiefs in Atidze, Tanyigbe in the Volta region of Ghana.

They’re really excited about the project and want to use a vote in the UK election to raise their issues – which include, among other things, expropriation of their land by private water companies.”

(http://themakingof.giveyourvote.org/2010/02/22/message-from-ghana-will-you-get-enough-votes/)

Legitmate issue, but surely not for a UK parlimentary election?

May appeal to some, but I’d personally suggest it was a strange principal letting people from a different country vote in our elections. If you think the principal that we affect these people so they should have a say is so important, campaign for proper representation for them, not some sort of gimmick.

There is also one little point that seriously oncerns me here. I doubt this is politically neutral, in that someone has to select the Ghanian etc who gets to choose the destination of the vote. Therefore, there is an inbuilt bias in the system, as those selected will have presumably been selected according to certain criteria, which is not in accord with the ideal here.