dead Margaret Thatcher

[Tuber Mirum 126]

Hey folks I'm a Liberal Democrat and I didn't even know it!

 

Bring back Jeremy Thorpe I say and long may he reign!

 

(Or failing that Mosely would do instead )

[Simon I 1]

I wish her many more years of health and prosperity!

 

Good luck to you your Ladyship!

 

Simon

[Terminator 13]

Bring back Jeremy Thorpe...

I wonder why you "chose" Jeremy of all people???????

[Guest One Man Jury]

Bring back Jeremy Thorpe...

I wonder why you "chose" Jeremy of all people???????

Maybe Mr Notapotato didn't want to say "good luck" but "bottoms up"!

[Captain Oates 21]

Not wishing to enter into a political arguement with anyone (even if they do support the Tories), but here's an interesting site that might reveal hidden socialist tendencies that lie within Mr Josco et al.........

 

www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com

 

Another one for the Lib Dems, with Green not far behind. But who gets my vote on the day will depend very much on which candidate is up to standard.

 

I hate the "winner takes all" system that they have in the UK politics game. My vote will mean nothing unless I vote for the winning party. How can they call this democracy?

[Dr Strangelove 14]

Not wishing to enter into a political arguement with anyone (even if they do support the Tories), but here's an interesting site that might reveal hidden socialist tendencies that lie within Mr Josco et al.........

 

www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com

 

Another one for the Lib Dems, with Green not far behind. But who gets my vote on the day will depend very much on which candidate is up to standard.

 

I hate the "winner takes all" system that they have in the UK politics game. My vote will mean nothing unless I vote for the winning party. How can they call this democracy?

Your vote doesn’t mean much if you do vote for the winning party. Clearly they will have many policies you don't agree with, and will use their majority as evidence of their brilliance.

[Captain Oates 21]

Not wishing to enter into a political arguement with anyone (even if they do support the Tories), but here's an interesting site that might reveal hidden socialist tendencies that lie within Mr Josco et al.........

 

www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com

 

Another one for the Lib Dems, with Green not far behind. But who gets my vote on the day will depend very much on which candidate is up to standard.

 

I hate the "winner takes all" system that they have in the UK politics game. My vote will mean nothing unless I vote for the winning party. How can they call this democracy?

Your vote doesn’t mean much if you do vote for the winning party. Clearly they will have many policies you don't agree with, and will use their majority as evidence of their brilliance.

Of course, I would not vote for a party with whose policies I disagreed. But if I vote for a party which subsequently loses the election, then my opinion is not taken into account in the governing of the country (i.e. of me).

 

The only hope that I can then have of any representation would be if my MP (of whatever party) would speak on my behalf.

[Dr Strangelove 14]

Absolutely preposterous!

How can I possibly decide how to use my postal vote when there's no Plaid Cymru option?

It's rigged I tell yuz.

If you're using a postal vote, you've already voted for a Labour candidate in Birmingham. 15 times.

I don't get it.

Care to elucidate?

See here,

Birmingham vote rigging

Despite this the Labour party has decided to increase postal voting in the coming election.

Out of interest, some of the postal ballots arrived at my house today.

The fact that they're ballot forms is blazoned all over them and they have purple boxes over the edges, so you don't even have to look at the front of them to see what they are.

Wouldn't it have been smarter to put them in brown envelopes?

 

I pity the poor deluded sods who have decided to vote by post.

[Tuber Mirum 126]

Does anyone else see anything suspicious in the following sequence of events?

 

1) It is reported that postal voting is insecure and open to abuse.

 

2) Applications for postal votes quadruple in number compared to the last election.

 

 

 

Bearing in mind Mr Blair's close relationship with "President" Bush of the USA, it wouldn't require a particularly talented conspiracy theorist to come up with a conspiracy theory of some sort.

[Mortician 2]

The panic over postal voting is hilarious as we have no control at polling stations either. We get sent a voting card (not even in an envelope so you can read all the personal information) which you don't need to take with you.

 

The polling officer looks you up on a list and asks a challenging question like Date of Birth (which you can read yourself - providing you can read a list upside down across a desk). Providing that you don't pick a name that's already been crossed off (again reading upside down), look roughly the right age and sex, you'll get given a ballot to do whatever you fancy with.

 

The first indication of potential fraud would be if the person you impersonated turns up later (but with turnout under 60% may well not). The second person is the one likely to be challenged, or assumed to be a clerical error on the listing, so will get a vote as well.

 

At the point of the count, we're so desperate to get the whole month long election hell over with, we'll just declare the result and get on with it.

 

And then of course the real election fraud kicks in where a party that gains 40% of the popular vote wins 65% of the seats....

[Magere Hein 1,400]

The polling officer looks you up on a list and asks a challenging question like Date of Birth (which you can read yourself - providing you can read a list upside down across a desk). Providing that you don't pick a name that's already been crossed off (again reading upside down), look roughly the right age and sex, you'll get given a ballot to do whatever you fancy with.

 

The first indication of potential fraud would be if the person you impersonated turns up later (but with turnout under 60% may well not). The second person is the one likely to be challenged, or assumed to be a clerical error on the listing, so will get a vote as well.

 

At the point of the count, we're so desperate to get the whole month long election hell over with, we'll just declare the result and get on with it.

 

And then of course the real election fraud kicks in where a party that gains 40% of the popular vote wins 65% of the seats....

What a strange system! In the Netherlands you're required to take your poll card to the polling station and trade it for the ballot papers.

 

Postal voting is only possible for voters who live abroad. We have a system of voting by proxy for absentee voters which is prone to fraud, but in practice it works reasonably well.

 

regards,

Hein

[The Four Horsemen 26]

What's wrong with Proportional Representation, that's what I want to know!

[Josco 49]

What's wrong with Proportional Representation, that's what I want to know!

I'm all for it. There would be a 'hung' parliament with no overall majority, so no decisions could be made, so there would be no interference in our lives.

[Captain Oates 21]

What's wrong with Proportional Representation, that's what I want to know!

I'm all for it. There would be a 'hung' parliament with no overall majority, so no decisions could be made, so there would be no interference in our lives.

So you won't be voting Tory, then....

[Josco 49]

Why not?

[Magere Hein 1,400]

What's wrong with Proportional Representation, that's what I want to know!

I'm all for it. There would be a 'hung' parliament with no overall majority, so no decisions could be made, so there would be no interference in our lives.

That's not true.

 

I understand that Britons think PR is against both nature and God's will, but hung parliaments and coalition governments do work.

 

Of course there are some drawbacks. Coalition negotiations after elections can take forever and the largest party in parliament may be barred from the coalition.

 

Your "first past the post" system isn't perfect either. The fact that 40 % of the vote can land a party a huge majority of parliament seats seems a bit unfair.

 

regards,

Hein

[Josco 49]

So therefore the perfect solution is a benign dictatorship.

 

I'll do it if you wish, I don't mind.

[Mortician 2]

So therefore the perfect solution is a benign dictatorship.

 

I'll do it if you wish, I don't mind.

Aaah 1 man 1 vote

 

Josco's the man and he's got the vote....

 

Mind you with the quality of the election campaign:

 

Don't vote for Tony he's a liar

(although we would have invaded Iraq anyway)

 

Don't vote for Michael he's a Vampire/Fagin/Anti-Christ

(remember pre 1997 but forget any let downs in the last 8 years)

 

Vote for us because we're not being negative unlike the other bastards

(is it me or has Charles Kennedy missed the irony of this pitch - lack of sleep probably)

 

Perhaps General Josco should head the Junta, Hein as Foreign Sec and OMJ as Deputy PM (he displays the tact and elegance required to follow Prescott in the role)

[The Four Horsemen 26]

Suppose I'll get to be head of the Tote, then............

[Mortician 2]

Suppose I'll get to be head of the Tote, then............

I would have thought Ambassador to the US would be more in keeping.

 

I think George, Condi and Don have been desperate to have you ride out for the last 5 years?!

[Captain Oates 21]

So therefore the perfect solution is a benign dictatorship.

 

I'll do it if you wish, I don't mind.

So you definitely won't be voting Tory?

[Josco 49]

So therefore the perfect solution is a benign dictatorship.

 

I'll do it if you wish, I don't mind.

So you definitely won't be voting Tory?

AS the current dictatorship is anything but benign I most certainly will!

[Captain Oates 21]

So therefore the perfect solution is a benign dictatorship.

 

I'll do it if you wish, I don't mind.

So you definitely won't be voting Tory?

AS the current dictatorship is anything but benign I most certainly will!

I agree completely about the current appalling set-up, but do you really think that your alternative would be an improvement? I will take quite some persuading - perhaps you would care to try?

[Tuber Mirum 126]

Perhaps if Proportional Representation were introduced, and people started realising their votes counted for something, then other changes might occur, resulting in a new breed of voter which demanded competence and sensibleness from their politicians.

 

More likely though would be the rise of a number of smaller parties which in a coalition would hold the balance of power, thus possibly tempering the dogmatic idiocies of one of the larger parties which tend to put ideology before people. Or perhaps in the other direction, although here in Germany, it is not yet done to enter a coalition with extremists.

 

The worst thing is a government which gets a huge majority and then believes it has carte blanche to do any number of awful things which nobody wants. Far worse than a hung parliament.

 

Another worst thing is simple-minded and blinkered people who habitually vote the same way every time clearly oblivious to the fact that the parties and the issues are changing constantly. To say Conservative or Labour is good because C. or L. has always been good is utter nonsense. Both are responsible for most of the miseries of the past 100 years or so, and without the one, the evil-doings of the other would have been worse, probably. Sadly at present, I doubt whether either is what Britain needs.

 

Sometimes it is necessary to vote differently remove a government which is incompetent (like the Labour one until 1979) or wicked (like the one which followed it and the present one). Of course nobody could have guessed quite what a nasty, vicious, inhumane, bloodsucking bunch of meanies Thatcher, Tebbit et al were going to be, (and anyone who thinks differently is a silly sausage, and there still seem to be a few folks around who can't accept that they did a lot of unnecessary and bloody-minded harm in clearing up the mess left by their predecessors and a more moderate middle way might have given manufacturing industry a chance of survival in the UK. Although on the other hand, the death of the Austin Allegro was probably a good thing on the whole.) Nevertheless, in 1979 voting Conservative must have seemed like a sensible choice.

 

I wonder how many of us have ever looked beyond our political prejudices and seriously considered changing our voting habits?

 

I have never voted in a General Election and don't intend to this time, but I am hoping the election result will be fair and results in a strong, competent, morally conscientious government for the UK. I can't imagine how that could possibly come about though given the current bunch of candidates.

 

A benign dictatorship would be nice, and works well here on the Deathlist, but I would hesitate before supporting Mr. Josco for the head of one. My vote goes to myself, or possibly to Hein, though I believe he may be a foreigner of some sort.

Edited April 29, 2005 by Notapotato

[The Four Horsemen 26]

If I was head of a dictatorship then there would be 3 of us to rein in (ho ho) any wild ideas that the 4th might come up with.........

 

Surely if it's a dictatorship you don't get to vote for who you want to be dictator?