Should we be made to vote?

Flickety our current Liberal (Tories) government only got in because the previous Australian Labor government lost the election. If an election was held today from what the polls are indicating this right wing Liberal party would lose. If voting wasn't compulsory would we be stuck with this extreme right wing government?

If voting was compulsory, I would do nothing about voting, including spoiling my vote or putting an unmarked voting paper in the ballot box. I would also not attend court unless arrested, refuse to pay a fine and if necessary go to prison.

Since gaining the vote 50 years ago to the best of my memory I have voted in every election at every level from parish council to the European elections, bar two when either ill health or a last minute problem made it impossible, both were elections for local councils. I will be voting tomorrow.

You don't even have to turn up to vote. There are other options.

I'm not sure you can make actual voting compulsory. You can make turning up and putting a scribble on a voting paper compulsory, I suppose, though how the fact that someone has or hasn't put a scribble could be determined before the count, I don't know. So, in effect, all that is "compulsory" is turning up at a voting station and being ticked off a list of electors. Then one can take one's voting paper and cross it all out in disgust or only pretend to make a mark on it before posting it in the ballot box.

I suppose a spoiled ballot paper is still a vote of sorts

And yes, I think voting should be compulsory. It might make a few more take an interest and think a bit about what happens rather than just sounding off and doing nothing or just being apathetic. But it does need a none of the above box of course.

Didn't Mr Clegg say something the other day about the present coalition agreeing not to do for the rest of the lifetime of this parliament as they could no longer agree on anything? It would be ok as Belgium had managed for, was it 18 months, without a parliament. No parliament did not mean no government.

How did Gordon Brown cling on then. There was all that carry on between the Lib Dems and Labour and the Conservatives. Went on for quite a while.

No 10 was never abandoned.
Just asking,

Actually, Ana, there is no incumbent government. Parliament is dissolved and every seat is vacant. Therefore there are no MPs until the election.
If the majority of people voted for none of the above and there was a revote with none of the previous candidates being allowed to stand, then it would take time and money to reorganise the second election.
I think it would be quite interesting but chaotic.

I have just read back up the thread to fay's comment on the actions of the new Australian government. She says 'We have just been handed down the harshest budget in our history targeting the poorest and single mothers by this far right government.'

If voting is compulsory then the majority of Australians have voted for this far right government and this budget is the one the majority of Australians want. So the protesters can only represent the minority vote and are probably less likely to be able to vote out a government they do not like than in the UK where, when there is a strong protest vote it is those electors who support the protests who are most likely to vote when the indifferent and complacent stay at home.

More generally DH always says that even when there is nobody you want to vote for there is always someone you want to vote against.

It was interesting, wasn't it, Mishap? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b043wx2s The Public Philosopher

No I don't...cos I'm fed up of people and big brother telling me what to do, we have enough of that.

I've just realised that the programme I heard tonight was probably a repeat of the one Lilygran was posting about to start with - sorry!

('re-election'? Is that right? The next election, anyway)

Because the incumbent government would obviously remain in charge until the re-election.

I have just been listening to a very interesting debate about this on R4 on the way back from choir. Not sure what the programme was called, but it finished at 10pm. Definitely worth catching on iPlayer.

The last thing they were discussing was whether we have the right to sell our vote to someone else if we do not wish to use it!!

Why wouldn't it, Ana?

Of course it wouldn't mean that we'd be without a government for a few weeks....

Would that mean we were without a government for a few weeks, Soutra?
It would also benefit the parties with the most money, as the smaller parties would not be able to afford it. As it is, the NHA and the Green parties cannot afford to have people standing in all constituencies.

Rather than spoiling/defacing my ballot paper I have often felt there should be a box to tick marked "none of the above". If this box gets more "votes" than any of the others there should be a re-election with none of the previous candidates eligible to stand.

No, the day compulsory voting comes in is the day I stop voting. We live in a democracy people should have a right not to vote, but if they do not vote they should have no right to complain about the government we end up with, their policies or actions.

If it is good enough for the Greeks its good enough for the Brits. Yes I think voting should be a responsibility.

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

I do not think I have seen one party political broadcast that did not insult the voter, DebnCreme.
Mishap, the EU elections are by a form of PR so your vote will not be wasted. My reasoning as well, health and education. The only party in the EU that will stop the TTIP apart from the NHA which did not have a party political broadcast and only has candidates in London. There are quite a few Green party politicians in the EU, so they do have some clout there.

I was tempted to vote Green too Mishap until I saw their rather insulting Party Political Broadcast.

I always use my vote - it's my right, thanks to intelligent campaigning women and men in the past. It's not always easy to decide who to vote for admittedly....