Wow, well, looky here, this is absolutely brilliant....
Because, as I write this, "General Election" is taking the vote by ONE vote... mine. And yet I may well have voted X-Factor had I not cheated and read the statistics SamanthaBoundx posted. What's interesting about this is that "General Election" wins on First Past The Post, when a Proportional Representative vote would say let's call it a draw - surely fairer, as X-Factor could just as easily be winning right about now.
I have to say
I don't understand the AV system but then, nobody has explained it to me. I voted for it on principle but I was one of the few who did. Thanks for trying, Mcsproot! I will need to read it again because it sounds like the fa fa fa French system where a man that the vast majority of country hate can sweep into power by a landslide in the final round of voting just because he's managed to get himself up against the one person everyone hates more. Clearly AV is better than this. I seem to remember the Conservatives' basic campaign against AV was "nobody will understand it". That's true, but by that token, I can't understand why we voted David Cameron into Number 10 Downing Street and we
still have him nonetheless
I personally cannot praise the Australians enough for their Compulsary Vote system. It sounds a bit harsh, but I agree with everything that has been said about the sanctity of the right to vote. People died for this and I can't drag my sorry a**e round the corner and put a cross in a box? I'm many things, but I'm not that low.
Then again, ironically, high voter turnout in the UK might be a bad thing. For one thing, we had a good turnout last time round (mostly because we had been led to believe our vote might actually count this time), yet turnouts hitting 70% in places was a disaster as the polling stations couldn't cope with the unexpected(!!!???!!!) numbers and had to turn people away. For another thing, Brits amongst us: look at the people around you on a day to day basis. Look at what you see on the news. Frankly, there are some of my countrymen that I wouldn't trust to vote when it is safe to cross the road, let alone choose who should be in charge of the country. You'll have chancers voting BNP "for a laugh", ques as the simpletons work out which way round to hold the ballot paper, turkeys voting for Christmas... you get the idea. Basically, we were all asked to vote, because the opinion polls were so close, so we voted, the record number of votes were counted, and then we ended up with a Government nobody voted for. But don't worry: the Conservatives have forced through a lot of crap policies and somehow managed to blame it all on the Lib Dems, so we should be back to a 2 horse race next time around.
xfactor of course! way better than a bunch of dick heads who are gonna make life even harder for the honest of grafters of this once great nation of ours.
Bookl0ver, this has worried me more than any of your sadistic posts I have seen on other threads. How does an 11 year old lose faith in our democracy and talk so reminiscently about the state of our country as it was?? Do you now believe we are no longer Great? I think the idea is (whisper it!) that
we're supposed to go and vote so the dick heads don't get into Government So, you'd rather watch X Factor where a bunch of dick heads press a buzzer and humiliate people in front of large audiences because they miss a note? All right then.
I've always been told by my parents that every time you don't vote, you essentially vote for the <insert undesirable extremist party here>. Don't know if anyone outside the UK has heard of the BNP (British National Party), but they're an extreme right wing party who's main policy is 'if you're not white british, GTFO'.
Mcsproot, you come from good stock. Very sensible advice from your parents. I think the BNP are actually a bit more complicated than that (they claim not to be a racist party but... they are politicians), but your point is still a good one. As Edmund Burke warned us: "All that is required for Evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing"
"Democracy is four wolves and a lamb deciding on what to eat for dinner."
Indeed. But does the analogy do Democracy justice? It IS what the majority want. After all, a Dictatorship is surely 1 wolf
deciding what he and 4 lambs will have for dinner. If you have seen the excellent TV show outnumbered, there's a scene in the recent series where Karen asks her parents why families fight, and her Dad Pete answers: "Families are like Democracy. Completely rubbish, but a lot better than the alternative".
Am I the only person who thinks Clegg is a walking suicide note? Or is that just wishful thinkning?
Walking scapegoat, more like. But yes, ultimately, the price for being the most successful Liberal Democrat leader ever will be to leave office with several knives embedded in his back.
And when the dust clears.... er, yeah, I guess more people voted in the General election.
This time.