UK Politics Thread (Part 1)

What would Johnson do next :thinking:

Go camping?

Can you give us your secret?

Sure - If you have an open mind and absolutely want to quit then you can give it a go.

But if you still want to smoke - for whatever reason - other than the physical nicotine addiction - then you will be wasting your time.

Perhaps I could detail it in a new thread - so that anyone can access it?

What it boils down to is there is a choice between a narcissistic psychopath and someone who isnā€™t those things. You donā€™t abstain because you canā€™t vote for a socialist.

There is a similar choice here in the UK.

Trump would be absolutely delighted if people abstain. Despotism needs a low turnout.

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My point exactly - what an awful system to select leaders. If you dont vote you will let in the crazy guy again. If you dont like the alternative to the crazy guy well stiff shit - you have to stop the crazy guy winning or you are a selfish bastard. Participate in this shit rigged system even though your participation will only result in more of the same.

Repeating exactly the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is the definition of madness.

Thatā€™s democracy?

And as I mentioned there are alternatives to this system - it would just take enough people with some cojones to reject this system as a starting point.

In America today, voting None of the Above would (once again) be the rational thing to do.

I guarantee you that Trump is desperate for people like you to not vote. He needs people not to vote. Heā€™s doing his fucking utmost to prevent people voting.

The rational thing to do is to get the tyrant out and then we can have a conversation about democratic reform.

Those are 2 enormous difficulties donā€™t you think? (first bit particularly) :wink:
Btw I have given up before (and regressed some years later) and in no way is it with out difficulty, it took a lot of preparation and a lot of will. I can not believe thereā€™s some easy way. (Just to say your example probably isnā€™t the best. :innocent:

So vote against someone / something - not for something you believe in. This is where we are at.

The politicians are desperate for people like you to keep endorsing and supporting their quest for power. Keep voting for the bastards - it gives them encouragement.

There has been decades available for democratic reform and no shit sherlock - it doesnā€™t happen and it wont happen - Why ? Because Turkeys donā€™t vote for Christmas. The Liberals were banging that gong in the 80s/90s. Nothing happened.

It is time that people stood up to this pretense and stopped swallowing the delusion that their vote matters.

I agree, not much will change in terms of the system, itā€™ll still be shit no matter what for the foreseeable future. I guess the question you have to ask yourself is if the Trump madness outweighs the ā€˜more of the sameā€™ madness.

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My experience is that if you are not open minded and at the point where you are desperate to quit then it wont happen. Not for the long term anyway

We had a referendum a few years ago to change the voting system from FPTP to a PR lite type system. The country, because most voters are idiots, voted to keep the status quo :man_facepalming:

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Is there like a minimum percentage of votes that must happen or else it would be voided? What I mean, is like if only 10 people in the whole of USA voted, would it still be considered valid? Why I am asking is that, and perhaps my opinion is not valid since I am living on the other end of the earth but I always felt that the American political system has gotten to a point of its probably shitty or shittier. And I think the Trump administration has just brought this rotten system to the very forefront. I can understand why some fatigued neutrals who probably just want the best for the country in the most innocent of motives do not want to vote. And that brings me back to the original question, is that if the vote turnout is lesser than a certain percentage and it becomes invalid, then it probably forces in the long term to change the system somehow. Right now, its either Republican vs Democrats. Nothing wrong with parties but its now either this or that. I can almost foresee if Democrats win this election, the Republican supporters will just find reasons to do tit for tat and go onto the streets for protest etc. And it will just be a vicious cycle of such degeneration unless there is a critical mass who believes that there are good in both parties and finding a common ground is the only beneficial way.

This is a very frustrating discussion because the course of action being suggested - non participation in the election - is utterly devoid of context.

In the UK and the US we are not in a situation where they are all the same so why bother. In the US one of the candidates is literally fucking insane. An illiterate, ill-informed racist psychopath of the verge of bankruptcy. In the UK one of the candidates is a bumbling, incoherent fop, in it purely for his place on the Etonian old boys roster and happy to cede daily control to an evil genius so ruthless and morally bankrupt heā€™d make Davros seem benign.

They are categorically not ā€˜all the sameā€™. There is obviously a choice.

How lovely in would be to live in those carefree heady days in the 90s when you could go into the ballot box on voting day and spoil your paper with some pithy and terribly clever slogan. Off youā€™d trot thinking ā€˜that will show themā€™ while being safe in the knowledge that whoever got in would be at the very least moderately sane.

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You are talking about UK, right!

I donā€™t know which was the biggest blunder by the UK voters; Electoral Reform or Brexit.

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Easy, Electoral Reform. Give me a harder one. :wink:

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Donā€™t you think itā€™s just a teeny bit ironic that youā€™ve defended the Brexit vote to the hilt, but in the referendum result you didnā€™t agree with suddenly the same electorate is stupid?

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Reports out today that the UK Government does not appear to have the rights to use that image of a ballet dancer for the cyber ad. That would be the final touch - often not actually the case, as subjects may not realize what they signed away to a photographer at some point.

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That is the best reason I have heard for Brexit. :slight_smile: Posted after Iftikar (" You are talking about the UK, right ? )

I was throwing you a bone :wink:

But yes, much of the electorate donā€™t fully understand the thing theyā€™re being asked to give their opinion on. In those circumstances they tend to stick with the status quo.

Thankfully not with the Brexit referendum :slight_smile:

Brexit came about in part because of the lack of a PR system.

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