State of UK Politics

[abigsmurf]

Should probably use this as the thread for the election.

The tories have basically announced their financial plans. Mostly 'efficiency savings'. Interestingly they're lowering the national insurance (taking off Labour's increase) which is a bit unexpected (will be interesting to see how Labour respond).

Still not sure how I'll vote but I definitely won't be voting labour.

[KIT786]

I think I'd be voting for these guys if they got anyone standing in my area

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/

The Manifesto

['Press Start']

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/memi589.htm

Just thought I would post this, what our house of commons will be discussing in the near future.

[Geoff D]

The expenses watchdog has been forced to relax the rules for the poor, starving MPs - Telegraph

Woo woo! Everyone back aboard the gravy train!

[abigsmurf]

MPs don't earn that much considering the responsibilities of their job, the rules as they were forced them to spend a lot of their own money in order to do work related stuff.

You don't want MPs struggling for cash (for the same reason lots of banks won't hire people with debt problems) nor do you want a system where only the rich can run for parliment.

[Geoff D]

MPs don't earn that much considering the responsibilities of their job, the rules as they were forced them to spend a lot of their own money in order to do work related stuff.

And I thought public service was its own reward...

I can't imagine anybody complaining about reasonable expenses claims, that's just the nature of business. It's only fair that the new system stems the abuse of the daft claims we witnessed before - I will concede that any system probably needs quite a bit of jiggling to get right though.

[abigsmurf]

It's probably pretty hard to work out what's a valid expense or not and set blanket rules for them.

Things like expensive dinner suits may seem like a luxury item for example but having an MP address ambassadors from other countries in a cheap £50 Asda suit could do far more harm to the country than the £500 for a nice dinner suit.

The expenses situation was bad before but if you've a situation (apparently) when MPs have to borrow money to perform their duties, something has gone wrong. The first time they may get money from family, next time the money could come from somewhere more sinister.

['Press Start']

The National Census form is process by Lockheed Martin, one of the worlds biggest arms company.

Interesting hey?

[vanpeebles]

Not to mention that US law means that the US Govt. can access the data.

[Finsbury Girl]

I exercised my democratic right to vote today in the NSW state election (yes we are over governed - NSW parliament still has 2 houses!!).

As usual polling booths have lots of volunteers running the show, there are barbies, cake stalls, coffee/tea stands for fund raising, everyone is friendly and the atmosphere positive.

We are an extremely apathetic people down here which is why we are threatened with a fine if we don't vote. I generally feel it is a pain in the arse to go down and vote as I pretty much despise politicians & politics.

However, today, I thought of the brave people in the middle east who are giving their lives for their fellow countrymen to one day, be in the same position as myself.

Makes you realise how lucky you are to live in such a free society and how precious this is - and how much we take this right for granted.

[dataDave]

That purely depends on your perception of a true free society.

You're not even free NOT to vote.

[Adrock]

You're free to register your distaste in the political system by spoiling your ballot though. That basically ensures the turnout is much higher and gives the winner a much greater mandate than systems like ours.

I'd much rather a system where everyone HAS to give their opinion whether it be writing bollocks on the ballot sheet or voting for an extremist candidate. That would still give a far greater indication of society than what we have now.

[egparadigm]

I quite liked the idea of a system where if you voted for 'None of the Above' it would lessen the power of the eventual winner. Maybe if it went to electing a 'None of the Above' candidate who would be required to oppose absolutely everything the government proposed, no matter how reasonable or sacrosanct.

A reminder to anyone reading this thread that there's a referendum on changing the electoral system in May. This is a step towards making your vote count so it's worth making the effort at future elections.

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?t=108597

[abigsmurf]

No MP will willingly bring in a none of the above option over here.

There is however nothing to stop you starting a "None of the above" party so long as you don't mind potentially losing your deposit.

Anyhow, a spoilt ballot does have an effect, too many and it invalidates the election.

[averybluemonkey]

Makes you realise how lucky you are to live in such a free society and how precious this is - and how much we take this right for granted.

That's if you agree with how democracy works, personally I think it's a bad idea.

You have someone in charge of the health service who has never worked a day in the life of a nurse or a doctor. You have the head of education who hasn't been a teacher. The same for all the cabinet positions. These people are expert politicians not experts in their field and therefore fundamentally worthless. They are divorced from the reality of the fields they are administrating and time and again bring in policies or changes that they perceive to be making improvements but are resisted by the bodies they govern because they simply don't work.

Too many people think they have the right to an opinion. For example I don't understand the internal workings of the NHS, therefore any vote I make regarding health reforms is uninformed and ignorant. I should have no say over the workings of the NHS. The couple of areas I do have some knowledge of I've seen a catalogue of times where ministers ignore the opinion of experts in the field, or investigations they've commisioned because the information didn't agree with their already formed, poorly researched ideas.

Democracy as it stands at the moment leads to a bunch of predominantly uninformed people electing a group of uninformed charisma hounds to govern long term policies with short term elections. I think it's completely broken. And the Middle East has jack all to do with bringing them democracy, we seem very selective in which countries we like to intercede in . Personally I'm never going to vote again in my life, I prefer to accept I am powerless and that at the end of the day life is a coin toss rather than live under the pretence that my opinion matters.