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[scooters]

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[scaryoldcortina]

We only get the AV referendum here, no local elections until next year. I was thinking of voting yes unless it's less popular in which case I'll pick no instead.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

was talking with a mate about the referendum t'other day. Seems like the LibDems can't win, even if the "yes" vote goes through. All that it'd do is give more seats to the likes of the UKIP and other "kill immigrants/ban Islam/get us out of the EU" (funny how the EU competition laws have prevented a lot of bumming from the privatised monopolies/ex-monopolies, and I guess that Gordon Clown was also imposed on this country by OMG Brussels Eurocrats)or whatever populist shite is in vogue.

 

Quite sad, really, as they're the only party that talks any sense, and it's all coming undone because some faux-Northern bloke couldn't have waited for an extra week to become deputy prime minister.

 

I won't be voting, as I had my citizenship application refused because of a CD30 offense (the traffic cops were too thick to understand the concept that the van in front of me would've also needed an awful lot of metres to stop in an emergency, but there were two of them and I didn't bother turning up at court to challenge their shitty maths)! Good to know that the "good character" requirement is taken seriously and doesn't apply for petty things like bribery, arms trafficking, and killing people in the third world. Apart from voting, I can do everything with my Greek passport, so there's no way they'll get me to pay the stupid application fee again.

[ashmicro]

I've voted no to av, for 2 reasons:

 

The political parties here in NI that I don't like are in favour

 

and

 

We've had this arse of a system in NI for years already, and I wouldn't wish to foist it upon my compatriots in the rest of the United Kingdom. It's hard enough trying to get voters to turn out as it is. A system which would confuse large parts of the electorate is only going to make this worse.

 

I blame the French

[dollywobbler]

I'd vote for you Scooters!

 

Is AV really that hard to get to grips with? Way I see it, it gives voters an easier time because instead of having to decide which idiot to vote for, you can put them in order of preference (or least hatred) and not vote at all for the really bad ones.

 

If that gives UKIP and BNP an entry, that's only because the other parties have utterly failed to convince voters that they're any good. It's kind of how democracy is meant to work. People vote for who they want to vote for. I know it's not ideal to have people who think that Jeremy Kyle is acceptable viewing choosing who runs the country, but I'd rather have that than a dictatorship. Or areas that have been stuck with one party in charge since the first world war...

 

So it has to be a Yes to the referendum. As for who else I'm voting for (we have two decisions to make here - local and regional) I've still got no idea. I will vote though.

[scooters]

DW....I believe in Frankln's attitude of I may find what you believe in is abhorrant and utterly disagree with it but I will lay down my life for your right to express that belief...

 

thanks for saying that you would vote for me....although I can gaurantee that my rule would be a tyrannical dictatorship and there would be no unemployemtn as the masses would toil building a huge mausoleaum in the shape of 70's Wedge Princess fo me to rest for eternity...I'll pull down Windsor as a site for this - the castle will be a good barracks for the slaves I'll round up from Eton College

[trigger]

I've just been and voted, Yes to AV after hearing Tony Robinson give a good argument for it on Virgin radio and we also have a local election so i voted for an independent person as they can't fook things up anymore then they already are.

[Justin Case]

Not surprising that people are going to vote yes or no to AV on the basis of which system they think is less able to be manipulated by cynical politicians

 

On the other hand if AV would benefit the SSP (Scooters Shite Party, not the northern lot ) then I'm all for it. I would go along with all of your manifesto, but I would also reverse the taxation system , so that the lesser the CO2, the higher the tax. Not only would that price the Pious' off the road (and even better their drivers) but that would guarantee a future supply of cars that could be fixed with a hammer and a ball of string rather than eco-shit that will be consigned to the scrappy after five years with the Spanner of Doom your constant companion and the fubared piezo injectors welded immovably to the head.

[dieselnutjob]

Under FPTP

 

You like LibDem but hate the Tories. In your constituency LibDem don't stand a chance so you vote Labour instead.

 

Under AV

 

You like LibDem so put them first. You put Labour second. LibDem get knocked out in the first round so your second choice is given to Labour.

 

The end result is the same.

 

I don't understand why LibDem agreed to a reforendum on AV. It isn't PR which is what they always said they wanted. I think I prefer PR but I don't like AV much at all so I think I will vote FPTP.

[theorganist]

I don't understand why LibDem agreed to a reforendum on AV. It isn't PR which is what they always said they wanted. I think I prefer PR but I don't like AV much at all so I think I will vote FPTP.

 

The trouble with voting for FPTP (if you want PR) is that it will put political change on the back burner for generations, as those opposed to electoral reform will say that there is no appetite for change.

 

If AV is a step in the right direction to electoral reform (which IMHO it is) then it is the lesser of two evils.

 

I do not believe that this is an election which should be based on personalities.

[Andrew353w]

I've just voted in the referendum on AV; I voted "1" to "NO" and "2" to "YES". It that the right answer......

[Pete-M]

It should be 'one man, one vote', so that'll be a 'No' to AV from me.

 

I think PR would be a good move, but AV is just likely to invite more lunatics to the party. People who don't like, for example, the Tories and who don't understand how voting works would be likely to vote 1. Labour, 2. Green. 3. Raving Loony. 4. BNP without understanding that because of the way that AV works it's perfectly possible for those lunatics in the Green party to be voted in - even though they came second.

 

If a horse wins a race, you don't give the prize to the second place horse because lots of people bet on it each way.

[Cavcraft]

I don't understand all this AV business and if truth be told I can't be arsed with it. I'll just vote for whoever I feel like* it come the election safe in the knowledge they'll all shaft us one way or the other and I won't be voting for or against AV as I won't be voting on that at all.

 

 

 

*Except Cameron's shower of shit circus.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

because of the way that AV works it's perfectly possible for those lunatics in the Green party to be voted in - even though they came second.

 

I voted Green today.

[Negative Creep]

Voting isn't cool, so I'm staying home by myself and eating a Pot Noodle instead

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

one single noodle? bloody hell, package sizes have definitely become smaller.

[tooSavvy]

My 'postal vote' went off so long ago.... I can't remember what I put on it (probably end up in a Railway Waggon in Eastham, anyhow )

 

....ah, yes! YES to AV & LibDem (locally, they really DO things in Wallsend)

 

tooSavvy

[Guest]

With all the half-baked explanations of Alternative Voting out there, I heard about this one on the way to work and felt it to be the most accurate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9rEZqvSu8

 

"Everybody gets what nobody wants!"

[Pete-M]

"Everybody gets what nobody wants!"

 

Perfect.

[Richard]

it's perfectly possible for those lunatics in the Green party to be voted in - even though they came second.

 

If a horse wins a race, you don't give the prize to the second place horse because lots of people bet on it each way.

 

It's worse than that. In Scotland we ended up with a First Minister from the party that came fourth.

[Guest]

The main problem I have with AV is that I don't feel the majority of the public will put much thought into anything past their first choice, or indeed know enough about the various parties to make that decision. If everyone was fairly politically switched-on, it might work - however, the public at large are pretty dumb. On that basis, you can imagine parties gaining positions on the back of them having a memorable name or a pretty logo.

 

I'm not a massive fan of first past the post, but it stops things like that happening.

[AnthonyG]

Trouble is, I think the AV vote will be just be a vote about if you think the Lib Dems have done a good job in the coalition, and most people think they haven't because of various reasons, the best known being tuition fees, so I think the result will be a NO, that is if enough people in England (as opposed to Wales and Scotland, which are having assembly/parliament elections as well) go out and vote.

 

Mostly, I'm with Pete M. FPTP is very good at getting rid of a tired unpopular party as 1979, 1997 and 2010 proved.

 

Hirst has also made a good point, most people usually just vote on the grounds of 'I've always voted XX' or 'I would never vote XX' and so they might be fairly random about anything beyond the first or second choices. The politics fanatics who listen to Radio 4, Newsnight and write to the Times or Guardian with earnest arguments in favour of AV/PR etc don't realise this.

[Cavcraft]

I'm not sure if the suggestion that people 'won't put too much thought into it' is true in all cases. Those of us who may be vote for one party wouldn't neccessarily want to vote for any of the others.

For example those who might want to vote Labour would never in a million years vote Conservative or BNP and may see the SDLLOLPS for their siding with the Tories, and there's those who would never vote Labour or Conservative too of course..

[seth]

[CreepingJesus]

I'd vote for the Shite Party, and its' totalitarian regime of shite.

I would've voted for the SSP in the past, being a lefty: but sadly, if you except Mr Sheridan (or 'the member for fast-tan west' as a comedian had it), the rest of the party would make the average Jeremy Kyle 'guest' look normal. I like Patrick Harvie, he's hilarious when wound up, but the rest of the Green party...who are they again?

Labour are led by a man whose mum has to Google 'Ian Gray', when he turns up for dinner, and the Tories...well I said I'd never vote for them out of principle, and I've had no trouble following that. The Libs have been a joke, since the coalition days up here, it's just a pity it took so long for the rest of the country to catch up.

Yep, SNP all the way for me - I must remember to actually join someday.

And yes to AV. I've been convinced of the need to ditch FPTP since my Modern Studies 'O' grade in 1989. AV isn't my preferred system either, but maybe if we get this, we could look at PR. Plus, not only have all the 'No To AV' people I've heard on the radio been obvious middle class Tory yah's, (as good a basis to vote yes as any) they keep making this fundamental fucking mistake: they've insisted all along that AV means that the 3rd/4th place candidate 'decides the outcome'. NO THEY FUCKING DON'T. Not unless they've been rigging the ballot. It's the people who put crosses in boxes who decide. Pedantic, perhaps; but why would I vote for people who can't even put their argument correctly? Mongs.

[myglaren]

I'm voting for the Anarchy Party.

 

Or then again, possibly the Apathy Party.

[bigstraight6]

Myself and Mrs straight6 voted no for AV earlier, it seems rather complicated and pointless, there should never be any prizes or spoils for being second choice If it aint broke, don't fix it....

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Aye, because the current system works so well.

[Negative Creep]

Or then again, possibly the Apathy Party.

 

 

Now that's the kind of thing I can get excited about!

[scaryoldcortina]

Or then again, possibly the Apathy Party.

 

 

Now that's the kind of thing I can get excited about!

When we voted at half past nine, we were the 98th and 99th people out of 1500 on the roll to show up. I think the apathy party would probably win it as long as not turning up counts as a vote for them.