who to vote for

In the letter pages of the sunday papers this morning
a reader writes about who would you like to vote for
and should we change the system of political party's
i think he has a very good point here is the the letter
what are your opinions on this subject


At the last UK general election, 47% of those eligible to vote chose not to. That's a lot of lost votes.
One has to ask, why? A small proportion may have just been too idle to get up, switch off the TV and venture out to a polling station but I fancy that the vast majority didn't vote because they could not identify with anyone on the ballot paper. There was no-one who, they felt, could truly represent them at Westminster.
I would submit that the problem lies with "political parties" and that it's time to do away with them altogether.
Next time, identify the best INDEPENDENT candidate for your constituency - someone who is really going to look after the needs of ALL the constituents and not just those who voted for them.
A parliament made up of a majority of independent MP's - sidelining once and for all the established political parties will stand Britain on her head and for the better.

Re: who to vote for

I like the idea Fran - yep I'd go for that....

Re: who to vote for

Not sure how that would work in a general election - wouldn't there be too many independent parties all with differing political views ?

Re: who to vote for

yes pats i think we will have to go down this root at some point in the future

Re: who to vote for

yes Aerolor but surely we have to find a different way to vote and your dead right on how will we do it the way things are going though the voting turn out has got to rise or it will not be a true reflection on democracy in our society in m/o if we do or don't go into EU and our country's next generation will want a new way of electing people to govern them i just think this way of voting is dying

Re: who to vote for

It would be nice to have a fresh approach and hopefully more people 'would' vote, I think and hope - next election time - there 'will' be a good turn out - there bloomin should be

Re: who to vote for

I agree with you 100% Fran, I've been on about that for years and I don't blame people for not voting considering the bunch they have to pick from, all tarred with the same 'Party' brush, maybe if everybody refused to vote they would have to rethink the whole thing, give me a candidate who puts the people and the country before the party, is proven to be honest and not greedy and they will have my vote, but I might as well dream here as in bed, it will never happen.

Re: who to vote for

There are a few things Australia does very well and it's electoral system is one of them.

Voting is compulsory so you get nearly 100% turnout, No one can quibble with the result and you don't get the unseemly sight of old ladies being dragged kicking and screaming to polling stations by party members in fleets of cars. Even if people just number down the paper (the donkey vote) it is still a vote and deserves to be counted.

Elections are always held on a Saturday.

Voting is preferential or in the case of most state elections optional preferential. This means that no matter who you vote for your vote is not wasted as in the stupid first past the post system. Basically you put numbers in sequence starting from 1 next to each candidate's name. The winner is the candidate who gets 50% of the vote plus 1.

How it works is explained here

Each jurisdiction has an upper and lower house (except Queensland) all elected. Some state governments have fixed four year terms, the federal government lower house has a three year term (again I think much better that Britain's 5 year term) while the senate is a 6 year term but half are up for election every 3 years. It is possible for a government to call a double dissolution (ie all senate seats are up for election) if bills are blocked in the senate BUT few are brave enough because the lower quota required allows small parties more chance of winning a seat. - It has only happened half a dozen times since the demise of the dinosaurs and again it stops extreme legislation getting through since these days rarely does a major party have control of the upper house. It leads to much better government.

Britain could do well to imitate it if it ever becomes a democracy.

Re: who to vote for

We are a democracy, problem is getting the lazy B's off their backsides to vote.
I think the only thing that should not be democratic, is the right to vote, make it compulsory with a very large fine if you don't go.
You don't have to vote for anybody you don't want to, you just scrap your vote, but I believe people will be more thoughtful to whom they give their vote to.

Re: who to vote for

Great idea Arfa - could you ensure it happens please......
If only -eh.....