On 29 Apr 2013 at 9:11am Brand new start wrote:
Having reached the conclusion in the last few years that all parties are the same, I am not going to encourage them anymore by placing my X next to one or other of the candidates.
Vote NOTA, none of the above. Lets try it in this election and see what happens.
On 29 Apr 2013 at 11:58am standup wrote:
That's not what Emmeline Pankhurst chained herself to the railings for!! If you want to change things (or at least try to) then stand up and be counted. If you want no-one to take the initiative in anything then ok don't vote and then see things really deteriorate. The battle for democracy in this country was fought in Lewes. If you want things to be different then stand up for it. Put yourself forward or tell the candidates what you want in order to vote for them.
On 29 Apr 2013 at 12:25pm jrsussex wrote:
I believe that all people should vote bearing in mind the many countries the people are denied that basic human right but in particular women should ensure they use their vote. You only have to read of the suffragettes fight to get the vote for women to understand that, their campaign took many years to succeed and for women to fail to recognise that is a great shame.
On 29 Apr 2013 at 5:13pm Sussex Jim wrote:
You have the vote; and also the moral obligation to use it. If you do not wish to live in a democracy, then do not attend the polling station-and do not whinge about future decisions you do not agree with.
Please remember that we are voting for the COUNTY COUNCIL on Thursday.
It is NOT a General Election, in which you might vote for a different party.
On 29 Apr 2013 at 7:02pm belladonna wrote:
Just don't vote Tory or Lib Dem. I hear constant complaints on this forum about all three councils and as they are the dominant parties on all three it's obviously time for a change.
UKIP should not really be standing in local elections as their policies are national ones and bear little relationship to local government powers. So don't vote for them either.
So it's Labour, Green or Indie.
On 29 Apr 2013 at 7:23pm In the woods wrote:
I'm a little bear confused by local government powers - what should I do?
On 29 Apr 2013 at 7:38pm The Super K wrote:
Or just vote for who ever you want and ignore the morons on here. *Cough Belladonna*
On 30 Apr 2013 at 2:07am Expat Two wrote:
I agree with the OP. Voting for any of these selfish careerists is a vote of support for their career progression. You have maybe 4 strands to choose from,they're all right of center and none of them will represent you or even UK, theyâ??ll represent whoever lobbies them the most generously. In some cases theyâ??ll be representing their own business interests first â?? thatâ??s a given.
If you vote for them you are giving your explicit backing to that form of government.
I donâ??t see how thatâ??s any more â??democraticâ?? than communist era Russians being allowed to vote for their party leaders from a pool of candidates â?? they â??democraticallyâ?? chose who they wanted to run their communist state.
And I donâ??t agree with the â??if you donâ??t vote, you have no right to complainâ?? line either, thatâ??s like saying vegetarians have no right to comment on animal welfare because they donâ??t eat meat. Just stupid. Its not apathy, its anger.
jrsussex - you're compounding the problem by describing democracy as 'a basic human right' there's really no such thing if you think about it, that's just flowery rhetoric, democracy is an entirely modern construct, we got to where we are today perfectly well without it.
On 30 Apr 2013 at 7:39am Vic wrote:
So whats your alternative Expat Two? Are you going to stand in the next local elections?
On 30 Apr 2013 at 9:47pm Expat Two wrote:
Not really Vic, itâ??s a lost cause. For any party or person to stand up to the Champagne Socialists, youâ??d need the backing of the media and some substantial funding to have a realistic crack at the hearts & minds of the nation, which is never going to happen. Thereâ??s too many voters who canâ??t think rationally, they only have their right wing press to tell them what to think and believe; the rich need and deserve us to pay them more to let us have jobs, widespread poverty is good for the economy â?? you know, Opposite Day stuff. I canâ??t really see any end to falling conditions and income rates for the working and middle classes, certainly not in my own lifetime - itâ??s only a matter of time before serfdom and indentured slavery are back.
On a philosophical level though, life was never a bed of roses for the overwhelming majority over the centuries anyway and was never meant to be. Our current ideas of democracy, â??human rightsâ??, leisure etc., are only aspects of a unusually golden age of social conscience that the future will record as a blip in the history of civilisation. On the bright side, no empire lasts forever (although the Champagne Socialist one seems to have some legs).