With The Ongoing Debacle That Is Brexit….

[naomi24]

…has your attitude towards politics changed?

I’ve spoken to so many voters, both Labour and Conservative, who say that such is their disgust at the blatant disregard for the electorate and for the democratic process that they see no point in ever voting again.

What about you?

[agchristie]

Brexit aside if I may...

There have been many a report of scandalous behaviour involving MP's and their private lives.Personally,I couldn't care less what pursuits they get up to in their spare time but I draw the line at politics.

The expenses scandal was a major recent example of course.

I'm not sure of the lasting damage that recent events have caused but it has to have had an effect.

[Rockrose]

I will continue to vote as women fought too long for the right to vote

[pixie374]

RR, that pressure and guilt put onto women (only) is no fairer or more valid than refusing them the vote in the first place.

[ichkeria]

That’s an interesting way of looking at things lol

[Rockrose]

Ok Pixie

[New Judge]

//The European Union Referendum Act 2015 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for a pre-legislative advisory referendum to be held in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Gibraltar, on whether it should remain a member state of the European Union or leave it.//

//I'm saying there is no legal obligation for parliament to do so, and from the start, in 2015, it was known as an advisory vote.//

Indeed. But moving swiftly on (which you have failed to do), Parliament (a newly elected Parliament from the one that enacted the above) then passed the European Union Withdrawl Act in 2018. This set in law that the UK would leave the EU on 29th March. MPs are now devising ways to ignore or circumvent that law.

So no more arguments about the legality of leaving, please Spathi.

//…it's no good blaming MPs when it's the whole country that can't make up its mind.//

The country made up its mind 33 months ago.

//What has distressed me about politics is the fact that the two main parties are seemingly in hock to extreme elements.//

What, like those who support leaving the EU, you mean?

All this cobblers about "different versions of Brexit" and MPs being unable to decide is simply smoke and mirrors. There were no different versions of Brexit on the 2016 ballot paper, none in the manifestos that the main parties stood on on 2017 and none in the Withdrawal Act of 2018. It's only become too difficult since MPs realised when most people knew all along - that the EU would not allow "partial membership" without unacceptable conditions. The man on the Clapham Omnibus knew that right from the off.

//I will continue to vote as women fought too long for the right to vote//

They wasted their time (and some of them their lives). Vote again? I don’t think I’ll bother. I might be busy on those days and I don’t fancy the thought of wearing out a pennyworth of shoe leather to show support for any of the self-serving bar stewards that are likely to stand for election. Best to let the electorate simply accept “what’s good for them”, whether that comes from unelected foreign civil servants or unelected UK ones.

[ichkeria]

Laws can be changed: when that particular one was passed everyone assumed we’d have a deal and it would just go through.
But then we had Gina Miller and the ruling that Article 50 could be revoked.
Aside from the honest and serious conderns about where a no deal Brexit would leave us.
And having to face up to the question of the Irish border.

[Rockrose]

Creepy retrocop very creepy

[youngmafbog]

"when that particular one was passed everyone assumed we’d have a deal and it would just go through."

Please resist telling lies.

[Baldric]

We will still vote, would be churlish not to, however we will be taking a much closer online look at anyone before we vote for them.

[retrocop]

When is Mr Farage's new party emerging ? Will it be when Theresa May has finished trying to shuffle Brexit under the carpet. I will never vote for Labour and unlikely to vote Tory for the first time in my life. UKIP not under it's current leadership. Lib Dems .No Thanks. What to do?

[Ellipsis]

>Personally, I feel that, in good conscience, I can't vote again

A spoilt paper is a better option. Simply write across the entire ballot paper what you really think, and post it.

[New Judge]

"Laws can be changed: when that particular one was passed everyone assumed we’d have a deal and it would just go through."

I most certainly did not.

"A spoilt paper is a better option. Simply write across the entire ballot paper what you really think, and post it."

Why bother doing that? Nobody will see it apart from the erk who counts the papers. Then it will just be shoved in a pile of "spoilt papers". Even if the candidates themselves got to see it, they hold those who vote for them in utter contempt, so they're scarcely likely to worry about the views of anybody who doesn't. Best to simply ignore them and let them get on with their charade that they call democracy. Although it's expensive, it keeps them off the streets and, so long as we remain in the EU, stops them doing anything that might harm the nation.

[naomi24]

Re: spoilt ballot papers, I agree with NJ. Pointless.

[Ellipsis]

Don't do it then.

Personally, I find it very satisfying.

On a wider scale, there's a difference between a low turnout (apathy) and a high proportion of spoilt papers (protest).

[ichkeria]

I also don't think anyone is trying to "circumvent" any law, are they?

If it comes to it the law would need to be changed. It was, after all, a law passed by the same parliament you wanted to "take back control" but which when it suits you becomes a den of iniquity :-)
Who'd want a law passed by that lot anyway, eh :-)

[Old_Geezer]

"and a final deal had been nodded through by the government"

With the amount of split in the governing party I suspect the government wouldn't have dared push it through. Good not to have to contemplate leaving illegally afterwards though.

[retrocop]

It now sticks in my craw when I listen to Parliamentary debates or watch PMQ when MPs use the ancient address of,'My Right Honourable Gentleman/Lady/Friend' .With few exceptions the current load of *** could not spell honourable let alone behave honourably. Those really Honourable Members died some years ago.

[New Judge]

"On a wider scale, there's a difference between a low turnout (apathy) and a high proportion of spoilt papers (protest)."

No there isn't. The result is the same. Nobody (least of all the winning candidate) cares how high or low the turnout is. Now if there was an option on the paper entitled "None of the above" and they were counted (meaning that option could hold sway), I might be tempted.