Does "No vote" = "No right to complain"?

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by aclivity

oh stop the whinging and go out to vote.

People have died to gain that right and here in the UK it is treated as some kind of joke.

If you can't agree with the national policies, vote for who you think will do the best for your local area.

Being involved in a democracy, voting is a duty not a priviledge.

Dude,

I'm gonna have to wait to green you for that, but inbound it shall be.

[Garf]

Originally Posted by aclivity

oh stop the whinging and go out to vote.

People have died to gain that right and here in the UK it is treated as some kind of joke.

If you can't agree with the national policies, vote for who you think will do the best for your local area.

Being involved in a democracy, voting is a duty not a priviledge.

Sorry, I have a different take. People did not die in order to give me a duty to vote, people died to give me the freedom to vote should I choose to. I'm not voting for the least disagreeable choice.

[Lynne]

Originally Posted by Garf

Sorry, I have a different take. People did not die in order to give me a duty to vote, people died to give me the freedom to vote should I choose to. I'm not voting for the least disagreeable choice.

Perfectly encapsulated - green incoming when I can

[Tony F]

Originally Posted by Garf

Sorry, I have a different take. People did not die in order to give me a duty to vote, people died to give me the freedom to vote should I choose to. I'm not voting for the least disagreeable choice.

I think you have a point. However my opinion FWIW is that I have been granted a vote to allow me a very small influence and it's pointless to cast that away by not expressing an opinion.

If I don't care enough to vote then IMHO I can't care enough to complain and I like a good whinge as much as the next fella so I'll be voting

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by Tim Ingmire

The current system does not allow for a protest vote - the only way is spoil the paper or not turn up...

Sorry Tim, that's bollocks.

If you want to register a protest vote (whether it's to give the party in office or the target of your ire at the time a bloddy nose protest or whether it's to register your contempt/disagreement/vote of conscience etc.) simply turn up and vote for a party which either:

A) as close as can be represents your views

B) one which will do the least/most damage (depending on the strength of the protest you wish to make) to those you seek to protest against.

Again, if you're given the statutary opportunity to vote, in all conscience, for the party you wish to see win or 'hurt' a party you wish to see lose, then what give anyone the 'right' (certainly a moral right) to whine if they don't vote? You were given the opportunity to do so and couldn't be arsed.

It's amazing the number of 'couldn't be arsed' wallahs who appear to whine the loudest and yet can't be arsed to do anything about it

[aclivity]

I know, lets ALL not vote. That'll shake them up in Whitehall, won't it!

Oh wait, if we ALL don't vote, but the extremists DO vote, do they get more of a share of power? Hang on, let me think about this.

No, I've been won over by your persuasive arguments and I'll let my vote go to waste. Not to worry that I live in right wing area with an odious BNP following (and an odious BNP councillor), I'm sure if I don't vote they won't either. What's that? They might lie to me? Surely not.

[Scuby]

Hmmm - voting! Well, i've got two votes, so feel I should probably use one of them. Whether I do will depend on what time I get up / get dressed / leave the house, whether I can find the place i'm supposed to go to to vote, and whether i'd have to queue.

Now, if we had postal voting (or ideally internet voting, obviously once security issues were resolved) then I could have done it by now, just tick the box I want and i'm done, rather than wondering aimlessly around a housing estate I don't know looking for somewhere where I can stand in a queue for 2 hours just to tick a box on a bit of paper that I don't much care about anyway.

In reality, I don't even know what options i've got here. I know i've had a leaflet from Labour and Conservative, nothing from Lib Dems so do I assume we haven't got one, or just that they didn't bother giving us a leaflet?

Stupid way to decide who can run a country if you ask me. Anyone who says that it shows your support / dislike for certain policies is deluded, there's far too many factors involved to read anything specific into voting patterns. They all do broadly the same thing in the end (they generally do what is best for the country in most important ways), but go through various tactics in elections that really don't impress anyone to be able to do so. Can anyone really say that they've found all the political campaigning interesting / relevant / meaningful?

Just let the Queen pick, it'd be far easier! :O)

*runs away and hides*

David

[Lynne]

Tell me if the only choice of candidates were Stalin and Hitler would you still think I have a duty to vote for one or either of them? Im not in the business of, as Garf said, rewarding the least offensive of the candidates I have to choose from and I have the right to choose not to vote if I dont wish to

[aclivity]

Originally Posted by Scuby

Just let the Queen pick, it'd be far easier! :O)

Julian Clary?

[aclivity]

Originally Posted by Lynne

Tell me if the only choice of candidates were Stalin and Hitler would you still think I have a duty to vote for one or either of them? Im not in the business of, as Garf said, rewarding the least offensive of the candidates I have to choose from and I have the right to choose not to vote if I dont wish to

are they running in Leicester then? Aren't they a bit smelly?

I doubt that the candidates are as extreme as either of those two, this is an example of reductio ad absurdo (pedants, please correct my poor latin)