Should we be made to vote?

ri.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9UnVh5HxTHwMAHZd3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTByNGxmazk4BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2lyZAR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1400722658/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.parliament.uk%2fabout%2fhow%2felections-and-voting%2fgeneral%2fdissolution%2f/RK=0/RS=s3lnSPIK5.Ys01.XF4clKqyd3C8-

The government ministers stay in charge of their departments but they are not allowed to do anything except in an emergency. To all intents and purposes there is no government, just civil servants doing their work.
Anyway, I was asking Soutra as it was her idea. Am I not allowed to ask? It would be a new and different situation if we were allowed to say that we did not want any on the ballot paper and none of them could stand on a second ballot. It would probably require new legislation. All eventualities would have to be thought through.

By the way, Gordon Brown did not cling on for dear life. He stayed because of negotiations between Libdems and Labour and Tories.
I do not see your problem with that, as you are all fairminded people.

I have no problem with that at all - just glad he left eventually!

I don't think voting should be compulsory, but I do feel it is our duty to vote and I think previous groups who fought for the franchise would be horrified that many do not bother to do so. I suppose what we did not have to strive for we take for granted. It is surprising that so many young people do not bother to vote, therefore is there any point in extending the vote to 16 year olds?

We do have a postal vote as we have been away during some elections but it is obviously open to fraud and could be denying many women(amongst others) in Britain a voice.

I would never feel that a vote for a minority party (such as the Greens) was a wasted vote, as, if nothing else, it sends a message to the main parties that they need to look more closely at their policies and sharpen up their act.

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2014/05/20/comment-the-green-party-are-now-the-real-threat-to-labour

If you look at this, there is also a sixty second video to the EU elections.

Thrilling.

What's up, Ana, no emoticon?
Thought you would want to vote for any party that would get rid of Labour.

They seem to be managing that quite well on their own.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/21/far-left-overtake-greens-first-time-new-european-parliament

Not in Europe on the whole.

Oh, give it a rest with the links! I'm sure most of us are quite capable of sourcing our own information - not always from the Guardian or similarly-biased publications, though.

I only gave the Greens as an example, could not remember the names of most of the rest of them. It was not a PP broadcast on their behalf.

Where are the Monster Raving Loonies when you need them?

Do not read them if you do not want to. Nobody's forcing you to.
I think some people might find them interesting. It might even make up some people's minds about who to vote for tomorrow.
I did not realise I was not allowed to put links on, particularly now GNHQ have made it easier.
At least if I put links on it shows it's not just my own subjective view I am promoting, which some people object to.

Greens mentioned on page 1, rose, and not just by me.

No one has said you 'aren't allowed' to put links on, durhamjen, that's just a silly thing to say.

You told me to give it a rest, and implied I only give biased links.
Here's one about politics, which is about as unbiased as you get.
www.politics.co.uk/information/about-politics-co-uk

it was me that mentioned the Greens as an example of a minority Party; other people may have mentioned voting for a minority party being a wasted vote in other posts. Or it may have been another thread. Or even another site ....

Sorely tempted tomorrow to write ''Who are these people?'' across the paper. I have had no information about the candidates at all or are we just voting for a party?

As rose said - where are the Monster Raving Loony party when you need them?

Just read somewhere that on one paper in London there are 129 candidates, so there must be a Monster Raving Loony in there.
I've also noticed that there is a Yorkshire First Party, for those of you in Yorkshire.
The only info I've had is from the Libdems. No chance here.

I was toying with the idea of voting Green yesterday until i read their manifesto. Ban animal testing. Right. This is going to tempt me on the day a friend gets our of hospital after 2 months of leukaemia treatment in hospital. In fact it is not going to tempt me ever.
It's sad about the mice, but without animal testing there would be no more cancer treatments or other medical advances. It would be a full stop. As it is my friend faces more crucifying chemo, as there are as yet no modern drugs for AML (as there are for several other cancers now).
In fact I was told recently that for the cancer that my son had, Hodgkins, there is now a new MAB drug that can be used if he has a relapse. Previously he was told he' d had everything they could throw at it.

Went to vote about 8am and I think they were very pleased to see me! I think the turnout for these Euro elections may be higher than normal because people are fed up of austerity and just want to make a point before the next general election.

Do they announce the UK results straight away? We don't vote until Sunday.

I have always voted both in the local and the general elections, ever since I was 18, but interestingly none of my very well educated DC seem to do the same, sometimes saying they forgot or were too busy. Not always, but sometimes. So I wonder if this present 30/40 age group of our DC feel differently to us when of the same age?

Mamie, the European election votes are counted in the UK on Sunday.

Went to vote today and was presented with a ballot paper as long as a roll of loo paper. I didn't count but there were 10 - 12 parties to choose from and as far as I could see, apart from the current 3 main parties, all the rest were zenophobic little Englanders, that includes UKIP.

Why are rightwingers so fissiparous?

Now there's a word to conjure with!

Perhaps it's just the nature of (extreme) right-wingery...?

No I don't think we should be forced to vote, if people are not sufficiently interested to vote then they probably don't know enough about the parties to make an informed decision.

I think we should at least have the opportunity to abstain officially so that then we would know how many people cared enough to vote. At the moment we don't know whether it is because they can't be bothered or because they want to abstain. I always vote, never tell anyone which party and have, on two occasions, spoilt my ballot paper because I didn't like any of them.