Get Rid Of Elections

Let's face it, all the main political parties are the same. They may have slightly different manifestos, but when push comes to shove none of them have any balls or long-term plans.

Isn't it about time to do away with elections? Right now the system works like this: a government gets elected and for three years makes cuts and increases taxes. Then for the final two years of government it makes less cuts and reduces taxes in the hope they will get voted in for another 5 years.

No government ever makes long-term plans because they don't expect to be in power in 5 years time. So what if we did away with elections every 5 years and did it every 25 years instead? That way a government would get to implement some long-term strategies.

Take fuel for instance. It's clear that oil is going to run out some time soon, or at the very least become so expensive that only the very rich can afford it. But where are the plans for when this day comes? Where are the wind farms we were promised, where are the new nuclear plants we need?

Would elections every 25 years have any negative effects, I'm not convinced.

My eyesight must be going, I thought you said erections!

I know you are joking but you are not far off what is happening in real life!

I know there are quite big changes proposed for how people register to vote.

Currently everyone who is 16 and over on a given date as to by law put their name on the register to vote (I know you can only vote from your 18th birthday onwards but the form does ask for 16 year olds details on the form - ie their name and date of birth).

Well the proposal now seems to be that in a couple of years time you will have to give your National Insurance number as well AND you will be given an option to opt out of the voting procedure altogether.

My initial thoughts are that a vast number of people would rather not give out their NI details and even more would opt not to vote in the first place.

It begs the question then as to how representative voting becomes if fewer people are electing a Government that governs all of us!

Can't wait for the Liberals to cotton on to this - well in fact I can!

I'm not joking, it's not rocket science to see that each government is only looking at the short-term because they don't know if they'll be in power after the next election.

You're right though, less and less people are voting - we have to come up with another way.

Like the Aussie system where you go to prison if you fail to vote for example?

wonderslut wrote:Like the Aussie system where you go to prison if you fail to vote for example?

It would be a start. But I don't think you can trust the UK public to vote properly.

The UK public are given their opinions and political tendencies by the UK media. The vast majority of people really don't have a mind of their own. If voting was compulsory they'd just vote for whatever the media told them to vote for. We just have to accept that people en masse are twats and that we all have to live with the consequences of mass ignorance - as we always have.
But you never know - if people had to vote, maybe they'd start to ask themselves what they're really voting for - but I don't hold out much hope for that.

The problem is that nobody has come up with a better system. Referenda could be used more but in this country that would just mean Daily Mail and Sun readers dictating policies based on the prejudices of the media owners.

I vote for getting rid of elections.

wonderslut wrote:Like the Aussie system where you go to prison if you fail to vote for example?

Is this true?

It's the law. You have to vote unless you have a doctor's note etc.

Australia and the US are the same - not voting is a criminal offence. Yes both countries have a lot of wastage votes, but it does get the people out there voting.

Up until Vince Cable's reign of commander I was a Liberal voter, but now, as you say not one of the major Parties are any different and not even any of the minority parties offer any really different (and yes that does inlcude UKIP and British Independance Party -as their sole aim with withdrawal from the EU but have nothing different when it comes to internal UK-only politics).



But moving elections from 5 to 25 years is too much of a long gap. If anything I would say move it to every 10 years, tehn basically they have 8 solid year to do whatever they want and 2 years to creep to the voters for another term - also whilst at it, I would actually fix the number of terms a party leader (not party) is allowed to be Prime Minister from inifite to 2.

They are the same (all centre/right) since the death of socialism. The formation of "New Labour" aka Tory left marginalised any remaining socialist groups and interestingly for a brief time the Lib Dems became the most left wing (policy wise) of the 3 major parties.
As a result, we're left with no choice unlike most Western countries. We're perhaps the capitalist equivalent of the totalitarian state.

I'd add that the political spectrum is circular inasmuch that when you get down to it, you couldn't slide a Rizla between extreme left and extreme right e.g. Stalinism and Fascism - they had exactly the same (bad) effect on ordinary people.

wonderslut wrote:It's the law. You have to vote unless you have a doctor's note etc.

Being pedantic, I believe that you compulsory have to attend the poll station in Australia - not that you have to vote - but if you're there you might as well cast your vote - which the vast majority do.

Voting should be done like this...

Everyone has to vote.
If you don't care who wins or would like to abstain then you still have to vote but you can choose abstain.
No shows would be fined.
Voters have to be 10 year residents.

Voters have to show their understanding of party policies though. As part of the voting form they have to do an hours test...

I've always Voted, been married nearly 38yrs and in all that time the Wife's never Voted.

Think i might not bother Voting anymore, there doesn't seem much difference between the Political Parties anyway.

When i first saw the topic, I thought it said get rid of erection's.

I would take the vote away from non-residents. They don't live here so why should they have a say in what happens here?

Mr Magoo wrote:When i first saw the topic, I thought it said get rid of erection's.

Your wife tells me you last had an erection in 1993.