The Political Thread

[Colin YNWA]

In Northern Ireland we have proportional voting, so we don't put crosses on our ballots - we draw cocks on them.

For what its worth my daughter really likes the politics of Northern Ireland.When we were discussing the electon and showing her the interactive BBC map thingie she said. 'Oh I like it there, can we live there' when looking at Northern Ireland. I asked her why and she replied.

"I like their politics, their politics are like Christmas colours."

Arh ain't the naivity of small children cute!

[CrazyFoxMachine]

That's interesting as that's what the marginal parties are baying for over here -

obviously the drawback to proportional would be the higher UKIP turnout in the current election but knowing that likely more than half of those THREE MILLION voters probably had no idea what exactly UKIP would really do if they had power (BURN ALL KITTENS etc) - I wonder if just KNOWING that your vote counted would lead to more than say... 66% of the voting population even bothering

[The Legendary Shark]

[Professor Bear]

I wonder if just KNOWING that your vote counted would lead to more than say... 66% of the voting population even bothering

Knowing it wasn't a binary choice would, I think, drastically improve turnout, as a lot of abstentionism can be laid at the feet of a belief that Tory and Labour are essentially the same thing.  It's also worth noting that under PR, the Greens (for example) would have more than the votes they got this time out, because a lot of people would give their secondary vote to the Greens after they'd voted Tory or Labour.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Knowing it wasn't a binary choice would, I think, drastically improve turnout, as a lot of abstentionism can be laid at the feet of a belief that Tory and Labour are essentially the same thing.  It's also worth noting that under PR, the Greens (for example) would have more than the votes they got this time out, because a lot of people would give their secondary vote to the Greens after they'd voted Tory or Labour.

I'm pretty sure you don't get a secondary vote under PR. Votes are counted in regions and then seats are distributed according to the proportions of the vote each party achieved. This is the system we already have for Euro elections. it's also how Nick Griffin got elected, so not by any means perfect.

However, I think the system you're describing is STV, used IIRC for mayoral elections, where you get to pick your first and second choices. Typically you would firstly choose the person you really want but has no real hope of getting elected (eg Jenny Jones) and then secondly the person you somewhat want whom has an actual chance of winning (eg. Ken Livingstone).

[Professor Bear]

I find it's best to just draw cocks.

[The Legendary Shark]

Anti Tory protests: Hundreds march against new Conservative government. And not a word on the BBC which, less than a week ago, thought that half a dozen protesters shouting at Jim Murphy and Eddie Izzard was news.
.

[Professor Bear]

Live coverage for those interested in seeing why it's not news just yet.  From what I can see, it's just some hippies laughing and joking, often with (admittedly a stupidly large amount of) coppers.

edit to add: I suspect the protest banner being "fuck the Tories" might be a contributing factor in the BBC not showing footage.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

It's on the radio, 5 arrests, some police injured and the War memorial defaced.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

It's on the radio, 5 arrests, some police injured and the War memorial defaced.

I saw the defaced war memorial. Astonishingly stupid.

[The Legendary Shark]

It's on RT - the poor reporter was trying desperately to get away from a woman waving a banner saying "Fucking Omni-Shambles," which was quite funny.

[Professor Bear]

The war memorial thing was just stupid - it's going to be what the Murdoch press and the BBC concentrate on reporting to undermine the protest - but on the protest itself, I'd say get used to this kind of thing.

[The Legendary Shark]

Ah, it just got a mention on BBC News 24 - a few seconds of video of police having smoke bombs and a traffic cone thrown at them and a bit of tut-tutting over that war memorial thing before going straight into how bad things are for the Labour Party.

[Jim_Campbell]

A small piece of easily cleanable graffiti. How does that really stack up against Harry Patch, a man who actually fought in WWII, standing up and denouncing government policy. I'd suggest that the people represented by that monument might be appalled by the wholescale destruction of our hard-won liberties that we defended in the face of a massive war but abandon when threatened by a tiny number of bearded men with explosives in their rucksacks.

Jim

[The Legendary Shark]

I agree, Jim. This trivial incident will be used to demonstrate how mindless and naughty the protesters are and justify the "government's" moral right to send the riot police in.