The 'org Election Special Thread

[G]

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Seeing as you only selectively quote me, perhaps my whole statement is not laughable?

Not voting at all, means (to me at least) that you can't complain about how the country is being run - because you did not take your chance to have a say in who should be running the country.

Now if you vote for someone and they do not keep their election promises then complain all you like. If you vote for someone and their policies turn out to be a pile of poo then really you have no grounds for complaint, you got what you voted for. You can still grumble about the fact that it's rubbish if you want . If you vote for someone but they do not get in, then you can complain long and loud about cockups from the one who did get in.

Not voting is allowing the status quo to continue and will perpetuate government by those who have the support of only a minority of people in the country. It means you cba to make a decision on who to support. As I previously stated, no one party will meet the expectations of the usual voter. Apparently my views are 50% LD and 25% UKIP plus a smattering of other parties - go square that given LD and UKIP views on immigration and EU membership. So in a genuine contest I'll be voting for the party whose policies most closely match my own agenda and that is the Lib-Dems.

So although the 'don't vote, don't complain' is a nice glib phrase, for me it underlines the more serious message that we need to vote if we want to have a say in how the country is run.

It was probably your statements in the past that have made me actually be bothered to vote tomorrow morning for the first time in my life.

I'll be there, at the local primary school at 7am.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by G

It was probably your statements in the past that have made me actually be bothered to vote tomorrow morning for the first time in my life.

I'll be there, at the local primary school at 7am.

If that's the case, I'm flattered. Good for you voting, feels good and will make a difference.

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by ranathari

This is an excellent article that you should read if you're thinking of voting Conservative. Despite Cameron's shiny new exterior, most of the party is still full of horribly bigoted people who want to screw the poor and vulnerable over.

Yawn... Zzzzzz...

Oh my! The Eeeevil tories want to drown my puppy!

Wake up.

The poor and vulnerable no longer require screwing - 13 years of self interested, self serving, vote buying, authoritarian 'socialism' has made a damn fine job of that already.

[Biker Biggles]

Time to let the self serving vote buying authoritarian tories back in to carry on the traditions of all our leaders then?

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

Yawn... Zzzzzz...

Oh my! The Eeeevil tories want to drown my puppy!

Wake up.

The poor and vulnerable no longer require screwing - 13 years of self interested, self serving, vote buying, authoritarian 'socialism' has made a damn fine job of that already.

Sure, you go and vote for a party that will happily let the rich get richer by actively cutting the legs out from under the most vulnerable members of society. I'll retain my humanity by not being a bigoted old sod who buys into a ridiculously distorted and sad view of the world.

If you honestly think New Labour is socialism then you're a fool. New Labour and the last 13 years has been little more than a taster of what the Tories want - New Labour bears as much resemblance to socialism as America does. Likewise, the Tories are just as much "vote-buyers" as New Labour with policies that will only benefit the absolute richest (raising the inheritance tax threshold, cutting National Insurance, selling off the public sector).

Off-topic but we discussed the National Insurance increase in the last thread and I didn't get a chance to reply because there were too many new posts when I returned. You might be interested to know that there was a natural experiment on NI contributions in Finland when they scrapped employer NI contributions completely in the North of the country to encourage new jobs. Turned out that it created the equivalent of 1/10th of a job per company because they were just pocketing the extra money as increased profit rather than reinvesting it into the business. This was consistent across small businesses as well as large ones.

I would have been voting Lib Dem most probably, but spending my time in two places 100 miles apart circumstances meant I missed the registering deadline for both.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by ranathari

Sure, you go and vote for a party that will happily let the rich get richer by actively cutting the legs out from under the most vulnerable members of society.

Like this poor family:

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=151110

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

Like this poor family:

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=151110

Benefit fraud costs the UK about £25 million a year. Tax evasion, which the Tories have adamantly refused to crack down on (unsurprisingly, given their biggest donor lives in Belize) costs the UK an estimated £2 billion a year. I'm not too worried about benefit fraud happening if we crack down on businesses and individuals who **** the UK over by withholding money. The Lib Dems are committed to that, New Labour and the Tories aren't.

I'm not such a heartless ******* that I will screw over many more people just to target a small minority who manage to abuse the welfare state. If you honestly think that people like the ones in that article are the majority then you're deluded. If a tiny minority of people manage to cheat a system that helps far more innocent people then that's a price worth paying.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by ranathari

Benefit fraud...

How is that fraud?

Under Brown's socialist government they're entitled to what they're getting


Unemployment is costing the country £61 billion a year, perhaps we should be encouraging people back to work rather than buying them off with free laptops and state handouts

Well, at the moment I'm too young to vote, and this is a trite irksome, because I'd like to have grounds to moan when a government I don't like screws up.

Quite honestly at the moment we seem to be between a rock and a hard place. Labour are complacent and authoritarian, bigging the ethos of big government.

Conservatives admittedly, are supporting the top earners of the county. But quite honestly they'd be denying themselves if they tried to go bleeding-hearts liberals. They are Tories, and being Tories are what they do best.

If I had the vote, it'd go squarely to David Cameron. I personally believe that his party (not nessecerily HIM, remember we elect the party not the leader) is what this country needs. But that's according to my priorities, which, at the moment, is my educational and employment future.

I'd sorta like there to still be an Army for me to join in six years, and one that has an actual role.