to think there should be some sort of aptitude test to qualify for the vote?

[MardyBra]

Before getting your polling card, you'd need to do a comprehension test where you look at all the parties' policies and demonstrate that you understand what you are voting for. Then people wouldn't vote on the basis that a certain party leader is a good bloke and buys his round, for example.

That's the whole point of a benign dictatorship.

You don't worry that Princes and Queens will get corrupt and steal. They already own the country & tend to take a long term view at bettering it. Unlike the elected official who has power only for a few years so does his best to line his own pockets & benefit his cronies.

Whether or not they are competent enough to manage this goal is another matter, of course.

"Surely benign dictatorship is really an oxymoron, power corrupts and all that."

Nah, let's put Mary Berry in charge. She wouldn't hurt a fly.

I'd rather make voting compulsory for everyone rather than trying to restrict the vote further.

You'll always get people who are voting for reasons other than policies anyway - if there wasn't so much inertia ("I've always voted Tory / Labour / Raving Loonies") then parties would actually have to consider their policies rather than trotting out populist slogans that mean nothing.

there is only one person that should run a benign dictatorship and that is Havelock Vetinari

Absolutely agree. Only intellectual, left-wingers like myself (and yourself by the sounds of it) should be allowed to vote. Plebs should cannot be left to their own devices because we left-wingers know what is best for them and we cannot allow the plebs to think for themselves because they will vote doubleplus ungood.

Perhaps compulsory subscription to The Guardian is a possibility to ensure rightthink (or should I say leftthink), all funded by the taxpayer for their own good of course? And if that doesn't work we can simply refuse them the vote, democracy should only be for those like us who know what is best, not for those people up there in the north who have probably never ventured into cultured places like Hampstead or Boden. If that still doesn't work perhaps we could simply jail them, for their own sake of course, until they realise the error of their ways?

I agree that voting should be compulsory - it would be very interesting to see whether results were the same in areas with turnouts as low as 19%.

Never mind the number of people who always vote the same way no matter what, it's the people who don't vote that concern me more.

We need to protect our democratic rights, which is not the same as attempting to impose democracy (an even bigger oxymoron) in countries where we don't like the regime in the style of the US administration repeatedly in modern times.

There's no perfect system, partly because culture/ society is always in a state of flux, what worked in the past won't work in the future.

Vive la left wing, middle class revolution, eh imavinalaugh.

If you're going to make a subscription to the Grauniad compulsory, for goodness sake discount the cost.

Nah, let's put Mary Berry in charge. She wouldn't hurt a fly.

I disagree, OP. I think she's ruthless and terribly right-wing to boot

Yep, agree with some sort of test to weed out the hard of thinking.

I too refuse to leaven this post with 'light-hearted' or a smiley or anything.

Actually I think the taxpayer should be paying more for The Guardian, wowfudge, because my bil works for them and needs a pay rise The Guardian know best and are the arbiter of rightthink morality that can be confered to the ignorant proles so that they see the error of their ways.

I am one of those frustrated voters whose vote really does not count (0.025% according to that website). We live in a seaside retirement area, all the elderly turn out and vote Tory every time. Cameron could appear in blue warpaint eating babies and they'd still vote for them, our local MP has just been accused of taking recreational drugs with a Brazilian rentboy but it still won't even make them think about if these people deserve our votes. It is so frustrating as we are powerless

OK, if Mary Berry is ruthless, let's have Mel and Sue in charge. Mary can make cakes for everyone instead.

YES!!!! to Mel and Sue.

Now no one come along and tell me that one or both of them are Tories.

Or Eddie Izzard. Although he'd probably have a few surreal laws, like everyone has to dress like a sheep on Fridays or something.

Did you read the Guardian interview with him about his vague ideas about becoming London mayor? He didn't come across that well TBH, although I did wonder if he and the interviewer just rubbed each other up the wrong way.

I think it would be rather interesting if we formed an MN consortium to form a government.

We have a good spread of skills amongst us and are nicely spread around the country (plus overseas for our Foreign Secretary and ambassadors).

Just think of the legislation we could force through Parliament promulgate for the common good of the nation:

- better lives for children (based on the Peter Andre's Love For His Kids manifesto)

- free cake and wine for all

- more GBBO on television; preferably nightly

- Premiership football outlawed and all players redeployed within the community as litter pickers and municipal garden weeders (poss. controversial)

- anagramming into the National Curriculum - all citizens forced to choose names that make good smutty anagrams

- trolling and goadery to become capital offences

signed Rt Hon T. Turnip MP; Minister for Inconsequence and Niff-Naff

I can't think of anything more terrifying to be honest.

Talc for pm. Especially the free cake and wine.

To cut the OP some slack, I don't entirely disagree. I don't remember at any point during my education getting a detailed explanation of the UK voting system (or any other country's for that matter), or the difference between proportional representation, first-past-the-post and different vote counting systems. Nor do I remember any teacher really explaining the differences between Capitalism, Socialism, Marxist Socialism etc., etc., or the idea that one can be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. All those things I learnt at university, by which time I was already old enough to have cast a vote. I do think as part of one of the compulsory GCSE subjects a comprehensive test on the voting process in the UK could be useful. I don't think that you have to 'pass' this test to be able to vote, but it would be great if we could send our young people out into the world with at least a rudimentary grasp of how these things work, so that they can make informed choices, and - more crucially - engage them in democracy which in turn could lead to greater voter turn out. The more people who vote, the fairer the result is. I cannot abide people who moan and moan about 'things' and then have the temerity to say they can't be bothered voting.

I would make government and politics and modern history part of compulsory secondary school education.

thebody - ah, but you will see that I have only published the popular-sounding parts of the MN Manifesto, in accordance with normal political shenanigannery.

You will have to wade through the 3000-page small type document to discover the rest of the pure evil that will be unleashed upon the populace, once our linen-clad arses are shining the seats in the Cabinet Room in Number 10.

I was just discussing this with the DW this weekend (and got THE LOOK), but I agree. Why shouldn't you have to demonstrate you comprehend what you are voting for?

I think what needs to happen is that politics needs to be a mandatory GCSE subject. I can't for the life of me see why being able to do algebra is more important than being able to be a citizen!

Just came on to say what thatbloodywoman said. Politics should be a compulsory subject in schools, which of course will never happen seeing as the politicians like their citizens dumbed down and ignorant.