Politics at Westminster | BREAKING: UKIP

Well, they are claiming now the turnout was 43% for the euros. I think general elections generally get more in the region of 55-65%. What can you do except legislate- loads of people don't care. My brother is a lab manager doing a Phd at UCL and he has never voted, nor does he have any political interest. He is not an idiot though (overall).

there are several things politicans could do. If you expect that an average joe is getting excited to tick a box every now and than, you´ll get disappointed. I am very interested in politics, but even I have higher priorities, so i missed some elections in the past. Its not necessary or even desirable to reach 100% participation in elections anyway; we are not living in Fascist society. If people have the feeling that their vote is important and meaningful they´ll do it. If 50%+ think it isnt, politicians are doing something wrong.
Do you think Australia or in general countries that force people to use their "right" to vote, have better governments?
 
there are several things politicans could do. If you expect that an average joe is getting excited to tick a box every now and than, you´ll get disappointed. I am very interested in politics, but even I have higher priorities, so i missed some elections in the past. Its not necessary or even desirable to reach 100% participation in elections anyway; we are not living in Fascist society. If people have the feeling that their vote is important and meaningful they´ll do it. If 50%+ think it isnt, politicians are doing something wrong.
Do you think Australia or in general countries that force people to use their "right" to vote, have better governments?

I'm not saying that latter point. But in that thread in the general about stupid people being barred from voting, there is an issue raised that if you don't bother to vote, don't fecking moan about the party that wins power. Thinking about it more though, I think you are right. If you force the ill-informed to vote, is that really a better solution?
 
I'm not saying that latter point. But in that thread in the general about stupid people being barred from voting, there is an issue raised that if you don't bother to vote, don't fecking moan about the party that wins power. Thinking about it more though, I think you are right. If you force the ill-informed to vote, is that really a better solution?

No, educating people to be more statistically, factually and politically aware is a huge priority as far as I'm concerned. Incentive to vote is still important though, I think, not as bluntly as the Aussie version admittedly.
 
No, educating people to be more statistically, factually and politically aware is a huge priority as far as I'm concerned. Incentive to vote is still important though, I think, not as bluntly as the Aussie version admittedly.

I agree fully but I cite the example of my brother who works at UCL and my wife who has an Msc and works as a hedge fund analyst as examples of intelligent people who are just not interested in politics. If an Aussie-style blunt stick forces my brother to vote he will. My missus is a bit better, but it's not like you can force people to sit down and genuinely analyse several parties' manifestos, hence the reliance on previous biases.
 
I agree fully but I cite the example of my brother who works at UCL and my wife who has an Msc and works as a hedge fund analyst as examples of intelligent people who are just not interested in politics. If an Aussie-style blunt stick forces my brother to vote he will. My missus is a bit better, but it's not like you can force people to sit down and genuinely analyse several parties' manifestos, hence the reliance on previous biases.

True enough but if from a young age he'd had the importance of understanding politics and voting drilled into him he'd probably have more than a passing interest in politics.
 
If we're being honest, this is an astonishing victory for UKIP. Especially when you consider that they have been on the receiving end of wave after wave of attack from the media.
 
The people I know of who have voted for UKIP have cited their reasons as to being sick of the other big parties, rarely any specific issue and of course the big one immigration. Immigration is just another populist topic being blown way out of proportion. It's also amazing how you will here some say that "they're stealing our jobs" then another person voting for the same party claims "they've just come to sit around and take our benefits".

Some may try to say it's not relevant but I will disagree but I think it's terrible how this country is in fact build upon its colonial power which it used to exploit many countries, leaving them with massive structural issues. When things went wrong, immigration played a huge part in rebuilding this country.
 
Why not? They're hardly 'regularly switching' between Enoch Powell and Tony Benn. They are both Thatcherite parties these days. I say again, the NHS is a 'genuinely socialist' policy, and is about as popular here as Islam in Saudi Arabia.

Where's your evidence that policies that are polled as popular among the British public wouldn't be popular enough in these marginal constituencies to pull in a Labour vote?
The public services side of socialism is always popular. It's selling people the higher taxes which is the challenge.
 
If we're being honest, this is an astonishing victory for UKIP. Especially when you consider that they have been on the receiving end of wave after wave of attack from the media.

The perceived attacks from society results are the very thing that UKIP needs the most - a sense of martyrdom.
 
I remember in 2010 the media lost their minds because Nick Clegg put his hands in his pockets during the tv debates. The word 'refreshing' was thrown around a lot. Probably the last adjective anyone would use for him nowadays. Something similar will happen with Farage I expect. I patiently await the disappearance of his shit-eating grin.
 
I remember in 2010 the media lost their minds because Nick Clegg put his hands in his pockets during the tv debates. The word 'refreshing' was thrown around a lot. Probably the last adjective anyone would use for him nowadays. Something similar will happen with Farage I expect. I patiently await the disappearance of his shit-eating grin.

I imagine Clegg would have continued to be 'refreshing' had he stayed out of power and not embarrassed himself by reneging on quite a few of his party's main policies.

Farage will continue for a while, they're not gonna be in power anytime soon, our rather unfortunate electoral system guarantees that (despite my dislike of UKIP). They'll get a few seats max most likely, Farage will cause a bit of a ruckus in the house and the haemorrhaging of votes will cause the two main parties to re-align their policies accordingly towards what the people are saying (which I believe is pretty much what Farage wants).
 
See this is why I ask, I saw Paddy Power had the over/under at 0.5 and I was really curious. I get that the UK system is ridiculously discriminatory to the lesser parties in terms of what they should get and I get that UKIP support collapsed between the last Europeans and general, but that was when they were seen as more of a one-issue party. The latest "if there were a general election tomorrow" poll had them at 23%. The Lib Dems got 22% in 2010 and got 57 seats. I know that in all likelihood they won't get 23% (or probably close) in 2015, but only 1 seat? Really? Could someone explain that to me?
If they got 15%, which would be a huge swing up from 2010 for them in itself, it would be fairly useless if they just got 15% in every constituency as they still wouldn't win any seats. With that 15%, they need to be getting up to 40% in some constituencies along with the 5%s in others, which is the big challenge. I'm fairly sure they'll get more than one seat though, Essex and the South East look promising areas for them.
 
But I want people who dont have a clue not to vote.

Unfortunately, there's no way to enforce that. Hence the rise of UKIP.

If you force everyone to vote, the people who don't have a clue will be in the minority. As it stands, the reasonable majority didn't make their voices heard. Which is a problem.
 
The result is driven by the collapse of the Lib Dems, the protest vote factor and the low turnout. On Thursday they failed to win a single council and in a general election they won't get more than one or two seats if any.

This is true. In a way, the protest vote in council and European elections will have a counter-productive effect when it comes to the real deal. You'll probably get a much higher turnout from the moderate voters than you would have otherwise.
 
If we're being honest, this is an astonishing victory for UKIP. Especially when you consider that they have been on the receiving end of wave after wave of attack from the media.

They've spent the last year getting enormously disproportionate, largely uncritical coverage from the media. A few outlets finally noticing their nastier elements in the last few weeks has a negligible influence in comparison.
 
The public services side of socialism is always popular. It's selling people the higher taxes which is the challenge.

Well selling people short term improvements before telling them that they have to pay extortionate tax rates before the economy collapses is always difficult to stomach. This is made even worse when the Tories come in and have to cut all of these 'improvements' to keep the country afloat.

But then that's just the Labour Party isn't it? Short termism to the loss of the poor.
 
I actually feel as if the Lib Dems will do better at a general election.

They tend to have good individual candidates (hence why Cable gets re-elected in a massively Tory area) and the residents often vote intelligently based on local issues.

I doubt they'll lose every seat.
 
Well selling people short term improvements before telling them that they have to pay extortionate tax rates before the economy collapses is always difficult to stomach. This is made even worse when the Tories come in and have to cut all of these 'improvements' to keep the country afloat.

But then that's just the Labour Party isn't it? Short termism to the loss of the poor.

I'm sorry alastair, but you've lost the plot if you think thats what happened in 2008.
 
It makes sense that Labour are the most likely to win the general election - they weren't too far away last time, and both the Tories and the Lib Dems are projected to lose about 1/3 of their votes with Lib Dems losing closer to 1/2

I'm not too clued up on the confusing voting system, but Labour stand to gain the most seats overall, even though I find Ed Miliband insufferable.
 
Labour should be doing a lot better at this stage if they want to really win the next election.
 
It makes sense that Labour are the most likely to win the general election - they weren't too far away last time, and both the Tories and the Lib Dems are projected to lose about 1/3 of their votes with Lib Dems losing closer to 1/2

I'm not too clued up on the confusing voting system, but Labour stand to gain the most seats overall, even though I find Ed Miliband insufferable.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Labour have had a shocker, there's tonnes of anger against what the coalition have done but they haven't been able to harness it. Comfortable Conservative win is on the cards.
 
I was just thinking back to the aftermath of the result the other day, in England. Some pro-independence friends of mine were very much "look what the English are doing - we're not like them" which seemed a handy argument. I think it'll be harder to argue that, with Scotland having a UKIP MEP.

True, although UKIP only won about 10% of the vote in Scotland compared to about 30% in England. Still a massive difference there.
 
I imagine Clegg would have continued to be 'refreshing' had he stayed out of power and not embarrassed himself by reneging on quite a few of his party's main policies.

Farage will continue for a while, they're not gonna be in power anytime soon, our rather unfortunate electoral system guarantees that (despite my dislike of UKIP). They'll get a few seats max most likely, Farage will cause a bit of a ruckus in the house and the haemorrhaging of votes will cause the two main parties to re-align their policies accordingly towards what the people are saying (which I believe is pretty much what Farage wants).

That last line is exactly why Ukip ate getting all this. People don't believe that will happen, after all it hasn't before. The main parties know exactly what the people increasingly want, they aren't stupid.
 
Its the voters that are stupid right?

Right across Europe it would seem

Well actually I would argue that yes, the majority of posters are ill-informed and make their voting decisions based not on rational analysis of data and policies but instead on upbringing, their own prejudices, media influence, personalities, how their friends are voting and single isssues.

And yes, I do have a rather large problem with France voting for the National Front unsurprisingly. Just because people voted for it, doesn't mean that it is all hunky-dory.

This is however, a moot point, considering that Europhile MEPs still make up the majority of the parliament as far as I am aware?
 
Well actually I would argue that yes, the majority of posters are ill-informed and make their voting decisions based not on rational analysis of data and policies but instead on upbringing, their own prejudices, media influence, personalities, how their friends are voting and single isssues.

And yes, I do have a rather large problem with France voting for the National Front unsurprisingly. Just because people voted for it, doesn't mean that it is all hunky-dory.

This is however, a moot point, considering that Europhile MEPs still make up the majority of the parliament as far as I am aware?

When most policies are full of lies and non-actions, it makes sense people will vote based on personal circumstance.
 
The public services side of socialism is always popular. It's selling people the higher taxes which is the challenge.
I think selling progressive taxation is doable (cracking down on tax avoidance is very popular obviously). The turnout is the real challenge.