Are you going to vote or spoil your paper?

[Green Web]

Try living in a country absent of any government or with several factions competing for power with none of them holding a majority. Take a trip to Somalia and get an education

 

We do need politicians and governments and all politicians do spout the BS now and again.

Your local MP might just say he'll create a zillion jobs for Sheffielders but when it comes down to getting them he'll find that he'll have competition from Nottingham and Leeds who want the XYZ Mega Company to locate to their cities instead. Politicians are humans not magicians with magic wands. They have to live with the hard realities and do the best they can with the tools at hand.

 

We don't need most of parliment, there is far too mnay MP's who do FA for the general public, most are in cushy jobs just claiming expenses whilst figuring out how to scam us all for even more money.

 

Most of the public sector is target driven, and MP's are supposed to be there to serve the public, we are not here to serve them, they should be paid on results, and if they don't fulfil what they promised then their pay should be docked or sacked from their job.

[Harleyman]

We don't need most of parliment, there is far too mnay MP's who do FA for the general public, most are in cushy jobs just claiming expenses whilst figuring out how to scam us all for even more money. Most of the public sector is target driven, and MP's are supposed to be there to serve the public, we are not here to serve them, they should be paid on results, and if they don't fulfil what they promised then their pay should be docked or sacked from their job.

 

Wow awesome! I didnt know you had headed a special commission to investigate the workings at Westminster, recommend possible downsizing, carry out time and efficiency studies, eliminate wastage and root out corruption.

 

I take my hat off to someone truly in the know :hihi:

[anywebsite]

I'm sure that most are not corrupt. To say they're all corrupt only indicates an anarchisitic frame of mind along with delusional/ paranoidal tendencies

 

And who is someone "half decent" anyway? How would you go about finding someone "half decent" and on what basis.

 

That someone "half decent" might just turn into the biggest grafter of all once he or she gets elected. You really are a naive soul.

 

You've obviously missed the news for the last few years.

 

There is strong evidence that a clear majority of our MPs are corrupt. I wouldn't expect local government to be any less corrupt. It's not just naive to suggest that most politicians aren't corrupt, it's being ignorant to the point that makes me think you must live on the other side of the world & pay no attention to UK politics. If you're right then you should be able to name a good few UK MPs that aren't corrupt, I'd struggle to name 3.

 

Sir Thomas Legg recommended that 389 MPs, more than half the current and past MPs reviewed, should repay £1.3m.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8496729.stm

 

And that's just one corruption scandal.

 

Politics attracts corrupt people. If you're a completely corrupt individual with no morals at all, then politics is your ideal job, it's a bit like paedophiles wanting to be scout masters. The most corrupt have the biggest incentive to be successful too, so they try harder. There's also another problem, even if you go in to politics with good intentions, once you get into power there is a lot of temptation to become corrupt.

 

I still think our politicians are less corrupt than in most other countries (USA included), but corruption is the biggest problem in politics, there is always room for improvement & we need to try to remove the incentives.

 

I think we also have more elected politicians than most other countries, it's roughly 1 MP per 100,000 population. We could easily cut that in half & give them less time for "outside interests". We have more MPs in the UK than there are members of congress in the USA & the USA is much bigger.

[barleycorn]

I would like a 'vote of no confidence' option. In the event the majority of people opted for this then each party would have to change its manifesto, get rid of some of the slimier toads from its party and maybe devise some way in which to instil some trust in the electorate that they will do what they say they are gig to do prior to a re-election.

 

jb

[rickiethecat]

A "Don't Care" option would be better.

[anywebsite]

Would be brilliant for the poll clerks and presiding officers, especially council employees who get special leave for elections!

 

Some places already have a 'None of the above' option on the ballot paper (Nevada, Greece, Ukraine), it rarely wins (I'm not sure if it's won yet in any major election), but just the fact that it's there helps to keep the politicians on their toes a bit.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_of_the_above

[Hairyloon]

I would like a 'vote of no confidence' option.

I don't think we want that as an option on the ballot, but as I have said before, I think it is a vote that we should call for...

Think I even started a thread on the subject somewhere, it did not get a lot of interest.

 

A "Don't Care" option would be better.

 

The "don't care" option is covered by not voting.

[Anna B]

I think people need a protest vote to let off steam. It's so infuriating to hear of a low turnout as 'voter apathy' when it's often nothing of the sort.

 

As for what happens if the nota vote wins (or gets a high % of votes,) I think Parliament should be suspended and any candidates with less than a certain % of votes be made to resign their candidacy.

[Darth Vader]

I stuck a bogie next to Labour. What will that count as?

 

That will be counted as a vote for the Greens I think.

[onewheeldave]

I think the official mark is the franking done by the poll clerk, not the cross put by the voter.

I wonder how many blank/spoiled papers it needs to get any reaction.

 

I think 30% of all slips going in blank would lead to a useful reaction.

 

But, whatever the percentage, bear in mind that it doesn't actually need a reaction from politicians. The number of people now feeling totally disconnected from what goes on in politics, to the point they feel that voting for any of the available candidates is pointeless; is at an all time high.

 

That's evident just reading through this thread alone, it was also a major inspiration for the Occupy movement, which, whether you agreed with it or not, did show the level of disenchantment with politics.

 

Up to now, low voter turn out has been fobbed off by politicians as 'voter apathy', by which they mean 'laziness'; and, spoiled papers they often imply are down to idiocy/inability to fill in a slip/read etc.

 

If all those non-voters who aren't apaphetic and, who don't vote because they genuinely feel it's pointless, put in blank votes, those excuses can no longer be trundled out by the political apologists.