Politics - What to do next?

[libby1980]

I am so disheartened by the politicians in this country. The most depressing thing is that the opposition and all other parties do not inspire me either, or are too small to have an impact. I am thinking of setting up a website for the next general election where people can 'cast' their vote to register that they want to vote but the official options are not what they want. Does this exist already? Any comments on your view of parties going forward?

[sp1814]

A kind of...'None Of The Above' petition?

That rang a bell...have a look at the following link:

http://www.noneoftheabove.ie/

Personally, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that The Labour Party go with Dr Johnny Reid. If he can do for Labour what he's already doing with the Home Office, he'd get my vote.

[jake-the-peg]

For many if not most of us how we vote makes no difference whatsoever.

Politicians know this and focus themselves on marginal seats.

General elections in this country are completely in the gift of relatively small communities in places like Basildon.

We have 2 sorts of heads of state ( PM & King/Queen ) and we don't get to vote for either!

It's a pretty poor kind of democracy we have!

[tell-me-more]

I completely agree. Only 21% of the population voted for our current government at the last election.

I'm glad you asked what to do next Libby. What do you think? Just a none of the above option? Proportional Representation? Decentralisation? I'm disheartened by the current so-called democracy too, but I do think it's important that people like us are not just standing on the sidelines moaning, but proposing - or at least debating - possible alternatives.

[Catso]

I agree.

They are all selfish, self-serving b*****ds.

There should be a 'none of the above' option on the voting papers, and if that wins, they have to rerun the election. Unfortunately, I think it would always win, so we'd never get anywhere!

I agree with t-m-m, as well. I think democracy in its current form has come to the end of its time. It's been good for 100s years, I think it needs to move on. Though to what, I don't know.

I'd vote for the Clarkson Party, though.

[jgs]

I think if each home nation had it's own parliament for domestic policies but we retained the UK parliament for foreign policy and defence it could work well. We are almost there anyway, just give England a parliament and beef up the Welsh Assembly so we are all on a level playing field. We could call it the 'Federal United Kingdom.' Are there any parties out there advocating a F.U.K system of government?!

[joko]

i think its about time we gave the lib dems a chance - can't do any worse than the other two have done so far....

[nelson pique]

Benevolent Dictatorship is the way forward, vote for Nelson, give me ultimate control and I promise to be really nice to everybody.
On a serious note tho I think its disgusting that voters can't abstain (which is what you all mean by 'none of the above' I think). Successive gov'ts have alienataed the populace and then when people don't turn out to vote they call it appathy. Only in our twisted form of democracy can the MPs who want us to vote for them abstain left right and center in the House of Commons but won't let us do the same in general elections.
Obviously they don't want the people to tell them what we really think of them: "YOU ALL SUCK"

[steve @ home]

It is about time we moved on from the adversarial two party system (minor parties have minimal influence under this system) and towards proportional representation. The composition of the Parliament would be very different if the Lib Dems received a 'fair' share of seats. Of course, this would also leave the door open to characters like the BNP and SWP ( are they still around?) but, if there are enough people to vote for them, surely they deserve the voice. (cross fingers there aren't). Politics then becomes based more on compromise between a majority of MPs, with results tending more to the centre. Sounds quite reasonable really,

[tell-me-more]

If we're to solve Libby's problem of feeling disheartened that her views are not represented because of the first past the post system, how do we move "towards" PR?

Do we need some decentralisation of power? The more local government gets, surely the more your views as an individual count?

Would we end up with sensible, reasonable, moderate decisions or would we end up pleasing nobody?

I have no problem with the BNP being in parliament. It would only serve to highlight exactly who and what they are.