Don't forget to vote today ;)

bigben

Master Poster
I do however think that it should be more encouraged in school and college and students should be made aware. Perhaps even a politics class in school? I had some pretty pointless lessons in school such as 'Learning 2 Learn' and would have much preferred to learn more about politics. But now I've just involved myself in politics anyway

As if school wasn't tedious enough...
When I joined 6th form (which I think is compulsory now) I had the option of doing politics if I wanted. Is this not the case where you were?
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
As if school wasn't tedious enough...
When I joined 6th form (which I think is compulsory now) I had the option of doing politics if I wanted. Is this not the case where you were?

Yes but when I joined college (same as 6th form) I had no interest in politics and I also had to choose specific subjects because of what I wanted to do after college. Politics A level shouldn't be compulsory just a few lessons about it for all students just before any election. Even just playing each of the party's broadcast and letting them decide for themselves would be a start. I used to have 30 minute tutor/form every Tuesday, that would have been perfect opportunity.
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
Australians do have to vote by law or face a stiff penalty, that is true. However they also have a wonderful option on their ballots, basically "None of the above". If that wins, all parties have to adjust their manifestos and hold another campaign followed by another election. That's the kind of thing that would be wonderful over here. Alas, I'm very worried this year about who might gain a majority of seats for the UK in the European Parliament. I'm guessing how this will end, and my guess is a sad one. I suspect that the aforementioned "none of you" option would change the outcome of that.

ah that would be awesome if we had that option over here. So many people would vote if that was an option. Would probably end up coming out with 60% of the population saying "none of the above".
 

mdwh

Enthusiast
I'd argue that spoiling your vote is better than not voting, as it's clear that it was intentional rather than laziness/apathy. It's a shame that there isn't an explicit none of the above entry though.

"Party people may be outside who will want to know your address"

Also note that there is no obligation to give them your details.

Both the House of Commons and House of Lords have less power in the UK than the European Commission who can reject any law created by either in most areas of policy

And I certainly care about it, after all the EU does create at least 70% of our laws.
References? And what cases have UK laws been rejected out of interest?
 

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Yeah I voted, I have no excuses though as the polling station is as close to my house as you could get. Only takes me 8-10 seconds from door to door. Whole job done in less than 2 minutes.

One thing I noticed on the new this morning though, quite scary really, well to me at least. The ballot for the European elections asked for an 'x' to be placed in one of the boxes,when I went the staff told me this, it said this on the ballot paper and on the voting card you get through the post. Which that in mind, why did I see in the background of the news this morning a guy sorting the papers and loads had a 'tick' and I saw a couple with what looked like numbers.

Also do you know they could in theory look up who you voted for? Each ballot has a number and its noted down beside your name when you 'sign in' Noticed this the past couple of times, apparently they can only do it with a court order blah blah blah but it does make me a little uneasy they could do it at all.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Yeah I voted, I have no excuses though as the polling station is as close to my house as you could get. Only takes me 8-10 seconds from door to door. Whole job done in less than 2 minutes.

One thing I noticed on the new this morning though, quite scary really, well to me at least. The ballot for the European elections asked for an 'x' to be placed in one of the boxes,when I went the staff told me this, it said this on the ballot paper and on the voting card you get through the post. Which that in mind, why did I see in the background of the news this morning a guy sorting the papers and loads had a 'tick' and I saw a couple with what looked like numbers.

Also do you know they could in theory look up who you voted for? Each ballot has a number and its noted down beside your name when you 'sign in' Noticed this the past couple of times, apparently they can only do it with a court order blah blah blah but it does make me a little uneasy they could do it at all.

Some of the local elections ballot slips had numbers on them. This is due to multiple councillors being elected for a single area so people must select their 2nd and sometimes 3rd choice. Not sure about the ticks instead of crosses though.
 

bonalste

Bronze Level Poster
If someone puts a tick instead of a cross, but their intention is unambiguous, it'll still count. People aren't going to throw away a polling card because they put a tick instead of a cross. This isn't the year 2000 US presidential election.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
If someone puts a tick instead of a cross, but their intention is unambiguous, it'll still count. People aren't going to throw away a polling card because they put a tick instead of a cross. This isn't the year 2000 US presidential election.

Well I watched a few of the announcements in my area and they mentioned votes that were void. Each time there was a handful of blank papers, multiple votes on one, or marked outside of the box nothing mentioning ticks. So I assume it is accepted.
 

DeadEyeDuk

Superhero Level Poster
What was that about not bringing actual politics into the thread tom? :)

That said...no, not getting into it! :D
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
What was that about not bringing actual politics into the thread tom? :)

That said...no, not getting into it! :D

lol, the whole thread is about politics (to a degree)

I could give special mod dispensation... as long as everyone plays nice :)
 

D1craig

Enthusiast
I voted. Don't see the point though as they never do the things they say that make you want to vote for them.

UKIP would have been a good way to protest but I didn't lol.
 

Spuff

Expert
I think we should chin off the EU and stop all these silly laws being made. Like the law that says in a few years ALL cars are required to have a black box tracking device fitted.

I don't think it's any more silly than requiring everyone to wear a seatbelt. It's not silly to want to save lives.
The eCall system is supposed to only trigger in the event of a serious accident.
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
lol, just looking into ukip, see if they have listed any of their policies.

Found this.

Manifesto 2014
Culture and Heritage:
Preserve our public libraries and develop a local
buildings listing programme to allow communities to protect buildings of local
importance.
Safer Communities:
Keep real police officers on the beat and stop the
scrapping of front-line police jobs. Adopt a zero tolerance approach to anti-social
behaviour and crack down on nuisance neighbours.
Energise the voluntary sector:
UKIP believes that the best decisions are
decisions that are made locally. Community groups and volunteers are often
better placed to run facilities and services than the State. By ensuring that these
groups are supported, empowered and energised much more can be achieved.
Here are just some of the ways we will save your money:
Cut councillors’ excessive allowances and expenses
Slash excessive pay deals for senior council staff
Limit the number of highly-paid council employees
Cut the councils’ advertising and self-promotion budgets
Build partnerships to reduce costs
Abolish non-essential and politically-correct jobs and red tape
Leave the EU and save £55 million every day
Drop the EU Landfill Directive to cut refuse disposal costs
Control immigration to ease the burden on local services
Close unnecessary central government departments and quangos
End wasteful EU and UK subsidies to ‘renewable energy scams’,
such as wind turbines and solar farms
Require all visitors to show adequate health insurance at the point
of entry into the UK
Make it easier for schools to sack bad teachers
Reduce bureaucracy in the education system
Sell unused state-owned property and assets - Wave bye bye to the NHS and the rest of our state owned assets, probably end up sold on the cheap
Oppose EU directives adding artificial and detrimental costs
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Despite what the media will have you believe, Ukip do not want to sell off/privatise the NHS. They will keep it public run but also bring in people to help it run more efficiently than it currently is. For example more money is going to executives in the NHS than all of the nurses in the country. Unused state-property would be things like that European culture building that cost us around £50m and was forced to close down as it was unused.

Personally I don't see how anyone can disagree with the majority of what is on that list, but idk

Also the general election manifesto isn't released for another few months, so before making any real judgements on the smaller issues I would wait until all parties have released their GE2015 manifesto because what I've seen at the moment is a lot of stuff being completely made up
 

bigben

Master Poster
I have a feeling we may end up with a torrie and ukip coalition next year :surrender:

What was that about not bringing actual politics into the thread tom? :)

I was under the impression that the "no politics" rule was just to avoid the x vs y arguments based on peoples opinions, whereas Toms comment was based on observation from the votes - no opinions stated.

I've got a question though, I saw one article which said
paradoxically it said 42 percent of those polled would vote to stay in the EU if given the chance and 37 percent to leave.
. What about the other 21% ?
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
I was under the impression that the "no politics" rule was just to avoid the x vs y arguments based on peoples opinions, whereas Toms comment was based on observation from the votes - no opinions stated.

I've got a question though, I saw one article which said . What about the other 21% ?

The polls for leaving the EU vary, mostly depending on timing. For example I saw one a few weeks ago that was 41% for staying in the EU and 47% for leaving. Although that still leaves 12% in the 'dont know' section. But a lot of people don't seem to know very much about the EU and the effect (big or small) that it has on their lives so they have no idea if it is good or bad.
 
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