UK General Election 2015: Who will you vote for?

[Apech]

Yikes.  I was joking.  Sent apology by PM.

[Marblehead]

Hang on ... you helped us kick the French out first.  I think Washington was a general in the Seven Years War ... not sure what you guys call that war.

Well, so we were a little fickle in our early years.  Help was accepted from anyone.

 

And really, the French gave us Miss Liberty but we had to take the Island from the Brits in order to have a place to put her.

 

 

P.S. we don't just have the Queen we have an endless stream of Royal Babies ....

Hehehe.  That was funny.  That news gets plastered all over the newspapers as well as American internet news.  IMO, just more "godly" people for the taxpaying Brits to support with a lavish lifestyle.

[Marblehead]

Also while I am on the subject we had this in 1215:

 

" NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right."

 

That's 561 years before the Declaration on Independence.

What went wrong?

[Marblehead]

We usually call it The French and Indian War when talking about the North American theater but the Seven Years War when speaking of the European or global conflict. To be honest, though, most Americans couldn't tell you ANYTHING about it. Most don't even know it happened.

I did study that but I rarely speak or think of it so that my memory of details has all left my brain.

[Marblehead]

Well, anyhow, the elections are over, the people voted, and we will see if they like what they got.

[Apech]

What went wrong?

 

 

the Magna Carta is quoted on the doors of the US Supreme Court ... so nothing went wrong.  Individual liberty under the rule of law - easily forgotten but still there somehow.

[Perceiver]

Russell brand seems like a nice guy, but his political ideas are not very complex. There are other people on the left wing that i'd rather listen to than him. He gets points for going against the career nature of politics though.

[Rara]

Well, anyhow, the elections are over, the people voted, and we will see if they like what they got.

Well, the protests kicked off straight away after.

 

I missed the part in "democracy" where if you don't get your way then you can protest to get it, despite losing fair and square and outright.

 

Oh hang on, wait...what's that. Ah, no, that's not a thing. Thought so.

 

...

 

People are so funny XD

[Marblehead]

Yeah.  Freedom of speech is involved there too.

[Apech]

Well, the protests kicked off straight away after.

 

I missed the part in "democracy" where if you don't get your way then you can protest to get it, despite losing fair and square and outright.

 

Oh hang on, wait...what's that. Ah, no, that's not a thing. Thought so.

 

...

 

People are so funny XD

 

 

It amazed me that everybody who lost resigned ... not later ... immediately ... shows in my opinion that they are not real leadership material in the first place.  Hint:  You can learn from getting it wrong - what doesn't kill makes you stronger.

[Rara]

It amazed me that everybody who lost resigned ... not later ... immediately ... shows in my opinion that they are not real leadership material in the first place. Hint: You can learn from getting it wrong - what doesn't kill makes you stronger.

I know! Remember when William Hague did this and everybody thought "woah, he could have been running our country".

 

There is a line in TTC about this, I'm pretty sure. Will have to check, but something about the best ruler being the one not gunning for the job? Because for most, it's about winning a populatity contest, not to actually do what is best for the people.

[Rara]

Yeah. Freedom of speech is involved there too.

Sure. People can gas away until they run out of oxygen and then it all dies away...

[dust]

Well, the protests kicked off straight away after.

 

I missed the part in "democracy" where if you don't get your way then you can protest to get it, despite losing fair and square and outright.

 

Well..

 

Firstly, this isn't what I would call a 'real' democracy. The system is rigged -- in practice only the same 2 parties can ever come into power. That's 2 groups of people in (partial) control of the education and health care and many other aspects of the lives of 80 million people. So there is that.

 

Secondly, I'd say that protest, and being allowed to hurl abuse at those in power, lie near the core of a 'real' democracy. Not everyone can 'win', perhaps, but everyone can/should have a voice.

 

If one believes in having and participating in a political system at all, and the idea of the contemporary political system is that the whole population are allowed to have a say, and then because of a faulty system a party that only represents and benefits a relatively small proportion of the people is able to gain power...well, the other people are at the very least entitled to walk down the street and point out their disappointment, no?

 

I've never participated in a protest, and don't plan to, but... I respect their energy..

Edited May 12, 2015 by dustybeijing

[Rara]

Well..

 

Firstly, this isn't what I would call a 'real' democracy. The system is rigged -- in practice only the same 2 parties can ever come into power. That's 2 groups of people in (partial) control of the education and health care and many other aspects of the lives of 80 million people. So there is that.

 

Secondly, I'd say that protest, and being allowed to hurl abuse at those in power, lie near the core of a 'real' democracy. Not everyone can 'win', perhaps, but everyone can/should have a voice.

 

If one believes in having and participating in a political system at all, and the idea of the contemporary political system is that the whole population are allowed to have a say, and then because of a faulty system a party that only represents and benefits a relatively small proportion of the people is able to gain power...well, the other people are at the very least entitled to walk down the street and point out their disappointment, no?

 

I've never participated in a protest, and don't plan to, but... I respect their energy..

Indeed! My choice of quotation marks on "democracy" was an attempt to make that point

 

My latter point was yes, because of the fact that we do have less of a democracy than the people think, it does make protests difficult to achieve results. No disrespect to protesters, just there is need for a change in how we are governed in general.

[idiot_stimpy]

Democracy or elected dictatorship? 

 

Do those in power really listen to the people or do they just do what they want?

 

The system is rigged. Behind closed doors these political parties are all from the same club.

[Basher]

A lot of them are even from the same (small) group of Schools   

 

The "First Past The Post" System isn't perfect, far from it. Because all of the "Losers" get far fewer seats & it's therefore a lot more difficult to stop the Party in Power from just doing whatever they want.

 

There are NO SEATS at all, for all those people who didn't actually vote in the first place.

 

But how on earth would the "Proportional Representation" idea work in practice ?

As you can obviously have 1 x MP for every 300,000 votes, or whatever number.

But MP's are also meant to represent their constituances.

So do we scrap that part & just have local Government Elections ?

 

Don't know the answer, but I remember seeing a photo of a Billboard on FB.

On which was a picture of Kermit & the text was "Vote Muppet.     You're going to get one anyway !"

      

[Apech]

A lot of them are even from the same (small) group of Schools   

 

The "First Past The Post" System isn't perfect, far from it. Because all of the "Losers" get far fewer seats & it's therefore a lot more difficult to stop the Party in Power from just doing whatever they want.

 

There are NO SEATS at all, for all those people who didn't actually vote in the first place.

 

But how on earth would the "Proportional Representation" idea work in practice ?

As you can obviously have 1 x MP for every 300,000 votes, or whatever number.

But MP's are also meant to represent their constituances.

So do we scrap that part & just have local Government Elections ?

 

Don't know the answer, but I remember seeing a photo of a Billboard on FB.

On which was a picture of Kermit & the text was "Vote Muppet.     You're going to get one anyway !"

      

 

In Portugal we have proportional representation which means they take the votes and do a weird calculation called D'Hont to allocate the seats to the candidates.  I think its the French system or similar.  The link between the constituency and the MP is completely missing ... which is the main strength of English system ... in theory anyway the MP once elected represents everyone in his area not just those who voted for him. The other point which is often confused is that non-one unless you happen to live in the area they represent in Parliament actually votes for a Prime Minister.  You vote for your local representative and that's it.  So sometimes a very good local MP is worth more no matter if they are Labour, Tory or anything else.  If you see what I mean.

[Basher]

I (more or less) agree with Jeremy Clarkson (ex Top Gear Presenter) on Politicians...

 

Anybody that actually wishes to run for Public Office should be automatically disqualied from doing so, for life.

 

We need politicians who put their constituants first & themselves last !!

Who'd ensure that everyones lives were improved, rather than lining their own pockets by fiddling their expenses (by taking money funded by the public). 

 

Grrrr

[Rara]

Sounds like Jeremy Clarkson has read the Tao Te Ching.

[dust]

Odd thing to say from a close friend of David Cameron (career politician & current Prime Minister)

 

..but I agree with the premise

[Basher]

Forget the quote (presume it's from the Tao Te Ching).

Something about a Leader should do so with a light touch & should be almost invisible in their dealings.