UK Parliament dissolved, official election campaign now fully underway - Polidicks

I will be encouraging as many people my age to vote as possible, but unfortunately in South Wales there is a pants-on-head retarded level of UKIP bias. Nobody knows what they really stand for; they are literally just voting because they support a racist government. I hate this place. I'm in a dilemma of my own. My Tory MP has done much for my area and for my family. But voting Tory is supporting a really shitty central government. But the Labour candidate has been part of a town council which has fucked the people over time and time again in the name of holding onto as many high-paid councillors as possible. Shit.

[QUOTE=Jon27;47423240]I will be encouraging as many people my age to vote as possible, but unfortunately in South Wales there is a pants-on-head retarded level of UKIP bias. Nobody knows what they really stand for; they are literally just voting because they support a racist government. I hate this place. I'm in a dilemma of my own. My Tory MP has done much for my area and for my family. But voting Tory is supporting a really shitty central government. But the Labour candidate has been part of a town council which has fucked the people over time and time again in the name of holding onto as many high-paid councillors as possible. Shit.[/QUOTE] People in Wales think UKIP will set up a racist government?

People in the Valleys will vote for anyone who complains as much as them about foreigners. That sentiment has spread south with some haste since the cost of living crisis. People want something to blame and racism is an easy, yet cuntish, way of feeling better.

I vote Obama!..........wait

Here's hoping the Lib Dem's go all excommunicate traitoris on Clegg and become a decent 3rd option again. It was so close to being in their grasp last time.

Honestly it's just depressing that we're having another election and we still have this shit voting system. There is no downside to having a preferential/alternative system apart from it maybe taking longer to count. I'm so sick of this 'two party system'.

[QUOTE=Menien Goneld;47423595]Honestly it's just depressing that we're having another election and we still have this shit voting system. There is no downside to having a preferential/alternative system apart from it maybe taking longer to count. I'm so sick of this 'two party system'.[/QUOTE] least by the sounds of UK politics, more than 2/3 parties are considered Excuse my dumbness but by the sound of things, the lib dems don't sound too bad but then again there's always something rotten on everyone's plate that spoils it. Tories sound like trash and LabourUK sounds like a shit heap, and with recent trends it seems as if UKIP might scab a few seats

[QUOTE=Menien Goneld;47423595]Honestly it's just depressing that we're having another election and we still have this shit voting system. There is no downside to having a preferential/alternative system apart from it maybe taking longer to count. I'm so sick of this 'two party system'.[/QUOTE] there was a referendum after the last election. AV tanked badly. Partly I think that is due to poor coverage. Those with the most power argue against it because it gives them power and it would probably end up costing more. Sad really, we do need it.

[QUOTE=Baron von Hax;47422984]A "best of a bad bunch" scenario. [editline]30th March 2015[/editline] Yeah, because channel 4 totally don't have a left wing bias at all.[/QUOTE] The "debates" were co-organized between Sky News and Channel 4. Sky News is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;47423624]least by the sounds of UK politics, more than 2/3 parties are considered Excuse my dumbness but by the sound of things, the lib dems don't sound too bad but then again there's always something rotten on everyone's plate that spoils it. Tories sound like trash and LabourUK sounds like a shit heap, and with recent trends it seems as if UKIP might scab a few seats[/QUOTE] Yeah it's actually surprising how much 'choice' there is this time around, although I don't think people have forgotten that voting for a 'third party' lead to this awful coalition government last time. I don't know, maybe I'm just bitter because I've heard people say "I want to vote green but I've got to be practical so I'm voting labour", or "I like the lib dems but I don't want to throw my vote away, so I'm voting conservative".

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;47423191]So what's the difference between not voting and spoiling your vote? Sorry if this sounds dumb.[/QUOTE] If you don't vote you just get lumped in to the non-voters statistic and it looks like 30-40% of people don't give a shit about politics. If you spoil your ballot or cast a blank vote it shows that you cared enough to turn up, but didn't want to vote for any of the candidates. It's the closest to a 'none of the above' option [editline]30th March 2015[/editline] If you do spoil your ballot though, make it clear that that's what you've done. The people who count the votes have a tough time sometimes figuring out whether your vote is a legit vote or a spoiled ballot

[QUOTE=Menien Goneld;47423662]Yeah it's actually surprising how much 'choice' there is this time around, although I don't think people have forgotten that voting for a 'third party' lead to this awful coalition government last time. I don't know, maybe I'm just bitter because I've heard people say "I want to vote green but I've got to be practical so I'm voting labour", or "I like the lib dems but I don't want to throw my vote away, so I'm voting conservative".[/QUOTE] yeah I know what you're saying, happens in Australia as well though I'm noticing a little bit more support for the greens or maybe that's just my Uni. the left wing parties will side with the centre-left and same goes with right wing parties and centre-right, what really matters is what party would form a coalition

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;47423624]least by the sounds of UK politics, more than 2/3 parties are considered Excuse my dumbness but by the sound of things, the lib dems don't sound too bad but then again there's always something rotten on everyone's plate that spoils it. Tories sound like trash and LabourUK sounds like a shit heap, and with recent trends it seems as if UKIP might scab a few seats[/QUOTE] Nah, it is a two party system. Essentially the lib dems are the third party in that they're the only other party able to get a solid number of seats (though that's changing in this election, and it looks like the might SNP will get about as many). The trouble is, there's no chance of them ever getting a majority and forming a government, so the only way they get in is through a coalition if neither of the other parties get a majority. Because the lib dems are the smaller party in the current coalition (by a wide margin), and we have an incredibly restricting and rigid whip system so the larger coalition party can get pretty much anything through parliament, they basically have no power. A vote for the liberal democrats is basically a vote for either labour or the conservatives, only it's not up to you which one you get, so people are very dubious about voting for them now. Part of why smaller parties get shit all seats is because of the FPTP system where any party with regional support gets way overrewarded (conservatives are strong in rural areas and richer towns, whilst labour are strong in urban, poor areas) whilst parties with more universal but less concentrated support get way underrewarded (liberal democrats and the greens for example get about the same percentage of the vote everywhere, except for a couple of exceptions: the Liberal Democrats are very popular in south Wales, I think, and the Greens have a seat in Brighton and are expecting one in Bristol, both cities with large progressive student populations and hippy populations, and obviously the SNP are big in Scotland) . The Liberal Democrats come second in pretty much every constituency they don't win in. This is why both major parties support FPTP, because it assures them a political duopoly and will continue to underreward smaller parties. This can be seen as a good thing, actually, since it avoids coalitions, and it means extremist parties don't get seats... but as we've seen recently, it can't even get those two things right. We had a referendum on whether to adopt AV in about 2011, a system where you order each candidate in terms of preference on your ballot and, if no candidate gets over 50% of the vote for that constituency, the candidate with the smallest vote gets all of their votes split up and recounted by each voter's second preference. If there's still no majority, you repeat with the second and third preferences on the candidate with the second smallest vote. You repeat this process until you have a majority. Ok, it's complicated, but it's way more democratic, since most lib dem voters would rather see labour in power than the conservatives, and it gives smaller parties a much better chance. It didn't get passed because the conservatives and the conservative press played up that complicatedness. Thanks for helping me remember my A Level politics, actually. We had to do an exam on basically exactly this. [editline]30th March 2015[/editline] I can't bring myself to vote for any of these people. I'm probably going to vote green, but only on ideological grounds. They're disorganized, incompetent and don't even know their own policies, but the general ideologies of the party are closest to my views.

[QUOTE=Jcorp;47422863]I don't like any of them, and there's no "I want to complain" option on the voting slips. Typical, the first time I'm able to vote in a general election as well. I mean I'm still going to vote, but I've no fucking clue who for.[/QUOTE] In similar situations it's often recommended to vote in a blank. The vote is still counted as attendance but is the closest to the I disagree with everyone.

I want to vote labour simply because I think Ed Miliband will look terrible in front of the world. [img]http://i.imgur.com/ataADus.png[/img]

[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;47423799]I can't bring myself to vote for any of these people. I'm probably going to vote green, but only on ideological grounds. They're disorganized, incompetent and don't even know their own policies, but the general ideologies of the party are closest to my views.[/QUOTE] I was going to vote Green, but they have so many badly thought out and dogmatic policies that I can't endorse them in good conscience. Guess all that's left is drawing a cock on the ballot paper.

[QUOTE=Askaris;47423867]I was going to vote Green, but they have so many badly thought out and dogmatic policies that I can't endorse them in good conscience. Guess all that's left is drawing a cock on the ballot paper.[/QUOTE] There's no way they'll get majority anyway. You can still vote green in the hope they will have more power to oppose the privatisation agenda the tory/ukip coalition will be pushing. Even if they're a mess, having votes and being taken seriously will force them to sort their shit out and act like a real party.

[QUOTE=Askaris;47423867]I was going to vote Green, but they have so many badly thought out and dogmatic policies that I can't endorse them in good conscience. Guess all that's left is drawing a cock on the ballot paper.[/QUOTE] Yeah, I understand completely. My hope is that if they got a decent amount of support, they'll realize they have to start thinking their policies through properly. But what's more likely is that if they get a decent amount of support, they'll be lobbied at like crazy, and be forced to turn around their agenda. But still I'd like to at least show I'm behind the Green ideology. Interesting fact: The Bristol Green Party MP hopeful used to work for an arms company. I don't know what to even think of that.

[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;47423933]Yeah, I understand completely. My hope is that if they got a decent amount of support, they'll realize they have to start thinking their policies through properly. But what's more likely is that if they get a decent amount of support, they'll be lobbied at like crazy, and be forced to turn around their agenda. But still I'd like to at least show I'm behind the Green ideology. Interesting fact: The Bristol Green Party MP hopeful used to work for an arms company. I don't know what to even think of that.[/QUOTE] But if they get a decent amount of support wouldn't that make them think their policies are good as they got support with them?

[QUOTE=Rapscallion92;47423958]But if they get a decent amount of support wouldn't that make them think their policies are good as they got support with them?[/QUOTE] Nah I think they know people vote for them on an ideological basis. If they're on their way up, they're going to have the whole public, the media, and their opposition scrutinizing their manifesto like crazy. They're going to have no choice but to address the problems it has. Especially since, in this scenario, their membership will grow and grow and present a challenge to their current policies from the inside. Green Party policy direction is determined by it's membership.

[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;47424021]Nah I think they know people vote for them on an ideological basis. If they're on their way up, they're going to have the whole public, the media, and their opposition scrutinizing their manifesto like crazy. They're going to have no choice but to address the problems it has. Especially since, in this scenario, their membership will grow and grow and present a challenge to their current policies from the inside. Green Party policy direction is determined by it's membership.[/QUOTE] They've already had a surge on membership, they've already had their retarded policies attacked and they haven't changed them. We'll see how things break down when all the manifestos are released.

We should all just vote for the Monster Raving Looney Party.

[QUOTE=CrumbleShake;47423933]Yeah, I understand completely. My hope is that if they got a decent amount of support, they'll realize they have to start thinking their policies through properly. But what's more likely is that if they get a decent amount of support, they'll be lobbied at like crazy, and be forced to turn around their agenda. But still I'd like to at least show I'm behind the Green ideology. Interesting fact: The Bristol Green Party MP hopeful used to work for an arms company. I don't know what to even think of that.[/QUOTE] Hardly, he worked on the Nimrod - a surveillance plane - 20 years ago. What is interesting is that he served in the armed forces, which the Green party wants to get rid of entirely.

Now I can see how Waldo in Black Mirror got so popular

At least you guys get more than 2 choices

[quote]UK Parliament dissolved[/quote] What I think: [img]http://i.imgur.com/zEPoksYl.jpg[/img] Reality: [img]http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/629565/stream_img.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=smurfy;47422866]Added to op [editline]30th March 2015[/editline] You could always spoil your ballot or cast a blank vote[/QUOTE] the fact my window was JUST small enough to omit him made scrolling over a nice suprise [t]http://i.imgur.com/EjaM4K1.jpg[/t]

interested to see how well the SNP do, since they are currently the third biggest party in the whole UK

[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;47424246]What I think: [img]http://i.imgur.com/zEPoksYl.jpg[/img] Reality: [img]http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/629565/stream_img.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] cool

[QUOTE=Marzipas;47424402]interested to see how well the SNP do, since they are currently the third biggest party in the whole UK[/QUOTE] They're gonna take just about every seat in Scotland, Labour have officially shat the bed here and at this point they've pretty much stopped letting Jim Murphy do anything that will get him on the news, especially after his last cock up, where he mentioned the big thing to do when he was a kid was huff glue out of crisp packets.