The UK Election!!!!

Oh SG I am sure that is (sweet soft romantic) music to the ears of the Labour party propoganda machine.But do you guys even get to vote in our election?If not your affections are wasted......

Yeah me too. The boy done good for himself.

This election (like most others) won't matter a single bit. The so-called 'choice' consists of three main parties which advocate almost identical policies on the things that matter like public spending, crime, globalisation, the economy and the war in Afghanistan.What the British public thinks about the issues has become pretty irrelevant. The majority of the British public wants to have the railways re-nationalised. None of the three parties offers such an option. The majority of the British public wants the introduction of capital punishement for certain crimes. None of the three parties will even discuss this. The majority of the British public wants a scheduled troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. None of the three parties is prepared to set such a date.In a country that prides itself in its democratic traditions and has recently taken (along with the US) to enforcing 'democracy' upon other countries, the separation of the 'demos' from the state speaks volumes about the self-serving bunch of authoritarian hypocrites who have been running this country for ages . The massive percentage of people who abstain from voting is but a sad indictment of the failure of the republic as a system of governance for a 21st century western country. It's about time we had a change, true democracy is desperately needed otherwise we're heading for our own 1789 with a few hundred Marie-Antoinettes governing us without knowing nor caring about what this country wants and needs.

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

I would wholeheartedly agree with you but for the fact that I fear the alternative is people like you implementing gut instinct popularist policies of extremsism based on the Tyranny of the Majority. We might as well put the nutjob who dribbles in the corner of my local Wetherspoon pub in charge of the countries affairs.A rock and a hard place.....Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

I have just been watching a recording of the TV debate that took place yesterday. I was too knackered and up to my eyeballs in nappies etc. to take much notice yesterday.But a Friday night in front of a recording of the prime-ministerial debates.... How fuckin sad am I.......?

Instead you seem quite content to be under the tyranny of the minority.
At least majority rule is a much fairer system than the current minority rule. It's time for a change. Decisions taken by majority public vote aren't extreme, by definition. It seems you are the one advocating minority policies, which are therefore radical and extreme. Shame on you. Guess what? The nutjob who dribbles in the corner of the pub is already in charge of the country. He's called the 'prime minister'. Only in your blinkered head my friend. There is a real choice!
Edited by Legend, : No reason given.

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

Source?

I thought that would be common knowledge to anyone keeping up with public opinion, but here you are anyway: The majority of the British public wants to have the railways re-nationalised The majority of the British public wants the introduction of capital punishement for certain crimes The majority of the British public wants a scheduled troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

No surprise that each party's ideological cousins in print have their man as the winner in the first debate. The spin doctors get the first say. Now that the dust has settled the reality consensus is that Mr. Clegg scored a major victory over his opponents.I still do not see the Torys or Labour shooting darts at the LibDems. Apparently they have no American media handlers on payroll. Maybe the Brits are still too politically cultured to go negative given this was the first such debate in their history.From the American experience, however, going negative can be very effective. People are people and pols are pols so here is a further prognostication.Expect to see some hard balls thrown in Clegg's direction this next debate from both the majors. Maybe some challenges to how he can cut taxes and the deficit at the same time, get him to gore some other spending areas that have a political constituency, get him into the details where the politics really plays. This could, as often happens, backfire if the challenger is not prepared to answer the same questions.If Mr. Clegg manages to even just hold his own in this next showing he will still be seen as the winner given his stellar performance in round 1. If that turns out to be the case then the Brits are in for a rude political awakening in round 3. The grenades will fly.

It's not clear whether that is true in the land of the Beeb. It's also not clear whether that is true when the election period (campaigning period) is relatively short.

Hi legend. Good points here. In the US of A, we're now under the authority of a highly organized tyrannical minority which weasled into power via a stealth community organizer who's efficient political machine stealthfully organized an army of voters from among the minority element, many who were not previously in the habit of voting.The majority of us do not ascribe to what's being imlemented by this regime. Unfortunately, the majority became complacent, careless and compromising, both the elected and the electorate.

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

Only if that minority is me. Are you running for parliament? Now that is an interesting question. Is a majority capable of "extremism"? "Extreme" is obvioulsy a relative term but I think you have to take into account many things. Not just the present local consensus in determining what is extreme. If Britain were to adopt a Nazi style agenda with popular support (I am glad to say I think this unlikely) would that be "extreme"? I doubt any senior politician aside from Ken Clarke would been seen anywhere near my local Wetherspoons pub. You are taking a facetious swipe in your general direction far too seriously. Huh! I thought the entire point of your first post in this thread was that there wasn't?Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

Public opinion is common knowledge amongst those who keep up with public opinion. The question is, are the opinion polls you linked to representative of actual public opinion?But I think it definitely worth pointing out something. I don't think you are attempting to be dishonest or 'spin' things in a certain way. But when you mention the nationalisation of rail using the word majority in the some context as the majority of opinion re: Afghanistan some people might think them on the same level.It might have been more accurate to say:About a half (when weighted) of 1200 people that said they were adults emailed said they wanted the railways nationalised.A little over a half of 1100 16-64 year olds asked back the death penalty for certain crimes, dropping from about 3/4 of however many asked 15 years ago.It doesn't necessarily hamper the point you were raising - but I thought I'd shed light on some specifics. I appreciate that being nuanced this way would have interrupted the flow of your argument unnecessarily - but it's good to have a link available for those who wish to consider your ideas fully, no?To the point you were raising though, there is something that might be of interest.People don't always vote on a single issue. It is unlikely that someone that agrees with Labour on all points would swing to Conservative if they promised to bring in the death penalty, if that person backed the death penalty. However, for something like the death penalty, it can be expected that a much larger proportion of supporters will swing their vote or abstain in protest if they disagree with that position.Pushing that position does seem when I look at it, to be a poor political strategy.Politicians are forced to appeal to as many people as possible, without adopting a position that turns off large swathes of people while balancing their own personal political views and making appropriate (or inappropriate) compromises.So even if a group of elected people were perfectly representative of the public (within reasonable limits) - they might have to not champion some ideas so that they stand a better chance of getting 'more important' ideas adopted.And naturally - a tyranny of the majority has its problems, so it's a good idea to have certain principles within which to operate, so as to constrain the power of the people and those that represent them.So, do you have any opinions on what the party's are saying they will do with regards to creating a system that might improve the level of representation and influence the people do have? That seems to be a key issue for you...is it one that could swing you to one party or another?

We are? That's news to me, and I keep a close eye out for this sort of thing. I thought the democrats were in office now, it seems like business as usual. Shitty I agree but typical of the same government we've always had. Huge military budget, war mongering, placating to the demands of the lobbyist... what's different now?What "minority" is in control now, the filthy rich? I agree again. But then again, they've always been in control. Every other actual minority is kept down.Whatchu talkin' bout, Buzz?- Oni

A minority Buz? President Obama won the majority of the votes, the Democratic party holds the majority of the seats in the house of representatives and the majority of the seats in the senate. You're not being governed by a minority, but by an elected majority.

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It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds
soon I discovered that this rock thing was true
Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil
Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet
All of a sudden i found myself in love with the world
And so there was only one thing I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang along ling long - Jesus Built my Hotrod Ministry
Live every week like it's Shark Week! - Tracey Jordan
Just a monkey in a long line of kings. - Matthew Good
If "elitist" just means "not the dumbest motherfucker in the room", I'll be an elitist! - Get Your War On
*not an actual doctor