The boy Clegg wants us to ignore the mudslinging that will be inevitable in the lead-up to the general election. Au contraire, I shall be enjoying every minute of it. The popinjays, jackanapes, mountebanks and troughers will be scrapping over a diminishing feast and the spectacle will be a joy to watch. Those small parties that they are so derisive of are becoming players now – and the sheer delight of observing the Scottish Labour vote collapse under the weight of the nationalist swing combined with Ukip taking votes from both Red and Blue Labour will be sublime. Then we will have the horse-trading following the farce that is supposed to be about us choosing who will represent us.
Of course, as is usual, we have no say in the matter whatsoever. We do not have a democracy where our voices are heard, we have a representative tyranny, an elected dictatorship, so excuse me if once every five years, I take time out to enjoy the spectacle of these charlatans all trying to convince me to vote for them. Waste of time, of course, I don’t vote for politicians.
So, I’ll be getting in a big bag of popcorn and enjoy the show as our elected representatives roll around in the mud, for that is where they belong.
I have to disagree with you. If you don’t vote, then you have no right to complain about what you get. This is why I have always advocated compulsory voting (like Australia) with a ‘No suitable candidate’ box on the ballot paper.
Enough ‘No suitables’ might make them take notice. Simply not voting is too easily written off as apathy and that’s how they get away with it…
I have every right to complain. None of the charlatans represents my beliefs, so none of them gets a vote. Voting for the least worst still gives us precisely the same outcome. If there was compulsory voting, I would abstain as a matter of principle.
That said, I would select none of the above if it was an option.
Turnout for the 2012 Police Commissioners election was 14.9%. How much ‘apathy’ or complete disengagement from the current political process do we need to show before ‘they’ listen?
They never will. It’s always because we haven’t understood the message.
Of course you have a right to complain if none of the candidates are worth voting for. If your choice is being bullied by red or bullied by blue, there’s no choice at all. Abstain and by all means complain that there is no-one to vote for who won’t bully you.
And anything ‘compulsory’ is bullying in itself.
Voting is merely choosing the colour of the stick you want to be beaten with. I choose none.
I have a lot of sympathy with the idea of not voting, but, to have any effect, the apathy would have to be very wide-spread. It’s a case of imagining such a low turnout (say, less than 20%) that no government would have a mandate from the people. But things would have to become really, really bad for such an event to happen.
Compulsory voting? Is not that, in itself, a form of tyranny?
Yes, it is.
LR, I first heard of the “none of the above” option in a Fabulous Furry Freaks comic, back in the day. Ever since then the answer has been simple; compulsory voting, offer none of the above, and a space for written in names. The latter option giving the people the opportunity to press the right person into serving. After all, those who want to be politicians ought not to be politicians, those who demur ought to be considered. Does that make any sense? Thanks for your blogging in 2014, I look forward to further good blogging in the next year.
Apart from the compulsory bit and co-opting reluctant people to serve.