alienjesus wrote:P.S I dont know how much you Americans have had our electoral system explained to you, If theres something you'd like me to clarify just ask. Im not sure i understood it myself until just recently :S
I kind of got lost around the part where you don't know who's going to get elected from your party if they win.
All politicians are in it for their own personal gains and goals anyway, so it doesn't really matter who you vote for, you will get a douche in power whatever.
It had to be Conservatives and Liberals anyway; the public would have revolted if Labour had joined with the Liberals as neither were the popular vote; and the Conservatives had enough seats to dismiss any votes in the House as they had enough to stop most votes in most circumstances, just not enough to legistlate by themselves - hence the coalition.
The problem is that it isn't the two main parties that have the power, it's the third party, the unpopular voted for party, that hold the balance of power - which is why they are wanting "proportional representation" as under that, the 3rd strongest party will ALWAYS be the decision party in power as no party will ever get a majority without them - and guess who the 3rd party is - the Liberals! For example, party 1 gets 40% of the votes, party 2 gets 35% of the votes, party 3 gets 20% of the votes and the other 5% to "other". Party 1 and party 2 will never vote any other way, so therefore party 3 gets to decide all vote outcomes even though they are the unpopular choice by the electorate. What a lovely system!
I voted Liberal Democrat due to their policies on education. I'm in education, if the education system gets fucked I'm out of a job. Likewise, I want to do my masters at some point, the Tories are going to remove the cap on tuition fees. It will price me out of my education.
The tories are going to remove the EMA system which is quite a big incentive for students. As tutor you have the power to remove their EMA if a student is under performing, watch how fast they buckle down when you taunt them with the thought of no EMA. Without the EMA the amount of school leavers coming to college will diminish. Again, risking my job.
If the tories close the unions down again, I won't have a leg to stand as far as my rights. Again, risking my job. The tories are going to shit on the working class just like they did 20 years ago. Plus David Cameron is a massive cunt.
I think having proportional representation would be a good thing, almost all the countries in the EU use it. It will make sure that your vote isn't wasted. The current system means that any vote for a party other than Labour or Conservatives is a wasted vote. The fact that a lot of labour supporters were fed up and voted Lib Dem worked in Tory favour, since the toffs that always vote tory, always vote tory so their seats/votes are a pretty constant thing. The fewer people voting labour meant that Tory would have an advantage. They won the most seats because people voted for Lib Dem instead of Labour. Not because the majority chose them. The majority chose a Left wing government but some how a right wing government got instated.
I just hope for a vote of no confidence. It's the the only thing I can hope for.
I'm actually quite hopeful. I've really not enjoyed the Labour government of the last 13 years so hopefully things will be different now. I'm too young to really remember the last Conservative government we had (which hasn't stopped a lot of my friends from being up in arms), but I'm sure they can't do any worse than Blair/ Brown and their cronies have done.
Don't worry, I have. Everyone seems to hate them, but a lot of people don't actually know why (not saying this about you guys, but certainly among my friends this is the case).
I know about the Poll Tax, but apart from that, what did the Tories actually do to piss everyone off so much?
Labour destroyed the country - sent us to war for no legitimate reason, made out pensions worthless, gave power to the banks and caused us to go into trillions of pounds in debt. No other government has fucked up our country like they did in the last years. They also forced us into Europe with a referendum they promised and didn't give us because they knew we would vote against it.
The Liberals want to make all our illegal immigrants legal and open our borders entirely to anyone, make our small country even less able to house people and break our NHS system. Great.
Conservatives - they were unpopular, yes, but at least they didn't bring the country to its knees, and you mention Thatcher - hey, she got the Argentinians to get the fuck out of the Falklands when they invaded our land - I doubt any modern government would have the balls to do that. Like her or hate her, she had balls; not a faceless waste of space we get these days.
bacteria wrote:Labour destroyed the country - sent us to war for no legitimate reason, made out pensions worthless, gave power to the banks and caused us to go into trillions of pounds in debt.
