The Political Thread

[Proudhuff]

The greens are one of the few parties that have a democratic struture, you know policy set by the membership etc, so it reflects their members views.
no other party does that any more, hence the huge blob of a blancmange wobbling along to the latest opinion polls that pass for Westmister politics now.

[Dog Deever]

I take back every thing I've ever said about Glasgow...and Dundee

Yup, well, apart from the Glasgow 25% that didn't bother their arse.
Spoiled ballots, I can respect.

[Proudhuff]

I take back every thing I've ever said about Glasgow...and Dundee

Yup, well, apart from the Glasgow 25% that didn't bother their arse.
Spoiled ballots, I can respect.

oh and this:



if that had been YES supporters it would have been top o ever news report.

[Richmond Clements]

Spoiled ballots, I can respect.

All they do is annoy the people counting and hold up the announcement of the actual result.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

The greens are one of the few parties that have a democratic struture, you know policy set by the membership etc, so it reflects their members views.
no other party does that any more, hence the huge blob of a blancmange wobbling along to the latest opinion polls that pass for Westmister politics now.

Yes, and I may well one day join so I can have my say, which would be along the lines of "let's drop all this crap that has nothing to do with being Green and go about trying to actually achieve something."

[Proudhuff]

and I'd defend your right to say it 

[Dog Deever]

All they do is annoy the people counting and hold up the announcement of the actual result.

Yeah, I bet it does, but- it is a vote of a sort- it's usually an active statement of rejection of all options, which is utterly different from just not voting- a tacit acceptance of whatever happens, not really caring about the result. So while I can see how it's a major hassle, I can respect it because they used the process to register their opinion.

[NapalmKev]

I'd like to see an extra 'Box' added to the Voting form that simply says 'Revolution'!

If enough people put their cross on that, then maybe 'the powers that be' would be more inclined to listen to People.

Cheers

[Dog Deever]

The greens are one of the few parties that have a democratic struture, you know policy set by the membership etc, so it reflects their members views.
no other party does that any more, hence the huge blob of a blancmange wobbling along to the latest opinion polls that pass for Westmister politics now.

Yes, and I may well one day join so I can have my say, which would be along the lines of "let's drop all this crap that has nothing to do with being Green and go about trying to actually achieve something."

On top of the whole left-right measure, there's also the Statist and Anti-Statist sliding scale- how much central control there is.
I suppose that policy shows they are pro-decentralisation of power. I'm guessing that those voters who want Social Democracy and more regional powers could look at them as an alternative to Farage and UKIP. I guess it depends on what people think of the Green candidates and policies really- but the alternative is there (if  it is a viable option).

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

This whole thing has been like a really dull and boring version of Game of Thrones, with Alex Salmond instead of Robb Stark.

[Frank]

This whole thing has been like a really dull and boring version of Game of Thrones, with Alex Salmond instead of Robb Stark.

There was much less sex.

[Frank]

I wrote this piece for The Observer under my Armando Iannucci alias, one of the many internet pseudonyms I employ. It's worth reading in full, but here are the parts which most chime with my own opinions, even though I wrote all of it:

My suspicion is that a lot of Scots voted no on Thursday with a wearied sense of disappointment that they weren't doing something far more exciting instead. The yes camp always looked cooler, younger, brighter; no doubt they had the better parties at night. It's hard to dress up a negative as anything other than the rejection of someone else's argument and those voting no must have felt like the grown-ups coming in to switch the lights on and whisper it's time to go to bed.

And the extension of the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds was a triumph ... (V)iew our political landscape through the eyes of a 16-year-old and see how cumbersome and frankly barking mad it now looks. It's not just the men and women in massive rosettes standing outside brick scout huts every couple of years collecting polling cards. It's the whole show.

In a world where we can now source anything online, download anything we want to see from any country in the world, and where we can pick and choose individual tracks, whatever programme, whichever individual item we need from whatever outlet, they must be asking why on earth they're being forced to pick one party and its entire list of policies, rather than their own playlist of ideas. It simply doesn't make any kind of sense.

Disengagement from the public has been a conscious tactic of the political parties. They have concentrated aggressively on a minority in the middle, the 100,000 or so who make all the difference in key marginal constituencies. Forgotten now are people at the edges, the non-voters, the marginalised, the claimants. They won't vote, so why bother canvassing them? In fact, why bother targeting any policies at them? Far better to demonise them in the eyes of those who will vote.

The truth is, conventional politics has simply fallen out of use in front of us, so slowly at times we may not have noticed it. For the past two general elections, more people stayed at home and didn't bother than voted for the parties that went on to form the government. Meantime, party membership has collapsed and party loyalty has gone forever.

The current system by which Westminster conducts itself is unsustainable. No surprise, then, that people look for alternatives. 84.6% tells us that people aren't disengaged from politics. It's just that it is now personal politics that captivates us. People go on marches, they volunteer for pressure groups, they organise petitions, they connect and mobilise online and come out and vote for their country's future.


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/21/scottish-referendum-massive-voter-turnout-means-politics-changed-for-ever

[Banners]

Brilliant. But what's the solution?

-Have regular weekly/monthly referendums?
-End party politics and so that every matter in the house of commons becomes a mini referendum?
-Or use the internet to avoid the high costs and allow voters to vote on all matters ourselves?

[Frank]

Brilliant. But what's the solution?

-Have regular weekly/monthly referendums?
-End party politics and so that every matter in the house of commons becomes a mini referendum?
-Or use the internet to avoid the high costs and allow voters to vote on all matters ourselves?

I might be wrong, but the way you've formulated that post suggests you consider one or all of those suggestions to be self-evidently preposterous. Item two on your agenda could be done right now, at no cost and with no change to the present infrastructure of government. No argument explaining why political parties are necessary to the function of representative democracy has ever rung true to me.

It only really makes sense as an acknowledgement that corruption is inevitable, and an attempt to channel that bribe money more efficiently. If powerful vested interest groups are going to be bribing anyone to see things their way, I'd like the object of their blandishments to be me, rather than the Tories or New Labour. With an electorate of 46 million to persuade, they'd better have deep fucking pockets

[Banners]

I might be wrong, but the way you've formulated that post suggests you consider one or all of those suggestions to be self-evidently preposterous.

Quite the opposite of my intention - genuine questions not sarcasm. The outlawing of party politics in particular is something I've wondered about for a while.