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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that people who can't be arsed to vote are lazy.

134 replies

frances5 · 04/05/2007 11:42

A democracy cannot run if people do not vote. We need the right politicans to ensure our country is well run. People who don't vote are letting their country down.

Especially as in many countries many people do not have the freedoms we enjoy.

OP posts:
GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:24

joash - I like the "none of the above" option better!

dionnelorraine · 04/05/2007 13:27

oh and thanks to the government I havnt been on holiday for many years cos of money. I cant see the government changing that for me this year, can you?!!
Australia is much better well balanced country. They dont have half the problems this pathetic country does!

casbie · 04/05/2007 13:28

dionnelorraine - good luck on your move, i hope you'll get involved with politics over there.

dionnelorraine · 04/05/2007 13:30

he,he, thanks. Cant see it happening though. Maybe I will vote as they have a better structure and maybe I will care more!

FlossALump · 04/05/2007 13:33

"If you don't like the candidates then you should stand for election."

How stupidly flippant! There is no way I or in fact most other people I know could possibly stand for election. I work nearly full time with a two year old and a shift working partner. I have another on the way. If I was to cut my hours or quit my job to start my campaign to be elected then we would loose our house. Not to mention the fact that I dont want to stand. Just because for this particular election I have not voted does not mean I will not always in future, nor does it mean I have enough policies to appeal to enough people to vote for me!!!

Sorry that comment has really riled me.

casbie · 04/05/2007 13:37

you could always perswade (sp?) someone who you did trust to stand - the 'entry fee' is only £150 and i'm sure if you stood for a party they would stump this fee.

if everyone said it was impossible, nothing would get done.

maybe that's why you get mainly older/retired people taking up position on councils etc?

[shrug]

you can always act polictical on certain issues like BF (babymilkaction) or environment (FoE or Wen).

i think as a woman it's even more important to vote.

jenkel · 04/05/2007 13:41

I voted yesterday but....

I knew one of the candidates out of the 10 candidates that we could pick.

I have no idea of the views on any of the other candidates, I looked on the internet and could find nothing, no canvassing was done, no information was sent through the post or pushed through the door. Quite how I was expected to make a decision I don't know.

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:42

And if you don't consider the election system legitimate, standing as a candidate wouldn't really be consistent with your views, would it.

I always think that "if you don't like it, do it yourself" argument is a bit odd. Like when you say you can't stand Wagner and people say "well you couldn't write a three day opera"

No I couldn't, I wouldn't want to, but why does that invalidate my dislike of Wagner? Same with the electoral system. Sort of. (OK I know I'm stretching it a bit. )

FiveFingeredFiend · 04/05/2007 13:42

I take it as a personal slight for althose people who were killed allowing me to have this vote.

My 17 year old son said to me "I'm not gonna bovver, the're all the same whats the point?"

I told him of the men and women from his own town who has died at Peterloo, i told him of working class people who fought for better working conditions, i told him to think about that the next time he was wearing a hard hat at work and had the RIGHT to sue his employer if their H&S standards were not up to scratch.

It's a duty.

casbie · 04/05/2007 13:44

"And if you don't consider the election system legitimate, standing as a candidate wouldn't really be consistent with your views, would it."

it could be argued that you should stand, then you can change the system from within.

stepping waaaaaay back for fireworks!

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:45

This is really irritating. People telling me I've got a duty to vote for people I despise, really irritates me.

If you've got no-one who represents your politics, then there is no-one to vote for. It is just stupid to say do it yourself, our electoral system ensures that independent candidates make no impact whatseover on the political system. ANyone remember Martin Bell? He got rid of that corrupt Tory politician by standing as a knight in white armour candidate. Anyone think corruption in politics is finished because of him?

FiveFingeredFiend · 04/05/2007 13:47

you have a duty to excersise your vote or spoil it.

but use it. use it to say the system is rubbish if thats what you want - spoil your vote. make a protest.

but doing nothing?!

shameful

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:47

Hmm.

D'you reckon Martin Bell and/ or any of those other independent candidates changed the system from within?

Not a chance.

We have a choice of Tory or Tory-lite in this country. If you are a socialist, unless you have a lefty labour candidate, there is just no-one to vote for.

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:48

Agree that spoiling is a better option.

But a duty to vote? For that shower? Come off it.

FiveFingeredFiend · 04/05/2007 13:48

your argument is "what's the point?"

divastrop · 04/05/2007 13:51

i havent read all the posts but i get the general idea.

when i lived in essex my mum used to get leaflets through the door and people canvassing etc at election time.

now i live in cumbria,and the only leaflet i got through the door was from the BNP.

i didnt even know about the elections till i saw the headlines of the local paper today.

FlossALump · 04/05/2007 13:51

I don't see the point of 'spoiling the vote'. Its happened in Scotland and it has just been assumed that the people found the voting paper too complex. Its not really making much of a stand.

casbie · 04/05/2007 13:51

this is the point:

"it only takes apathy to let in the BNP - please vote!

look at France, where it's almost acceptable to vote for the National Front.

do you really want your comfortable life turned upside down by these people?

i'm going to go all Yoda speak now...

apathy leads to ignorance
ignorance leads to distrust
distrust leads to hate
hate leads to fear
fear of... leads to loss of freedom and democracy

even now it absolutely enrages me that the police can imprison anyone by dragging them off the streets and hold them for 28 DAYS without due process.

what is the world coming to?

use your vote or loose it."

[climbing down off soap box]

FiveFingeredFiend · 04/05/2007 13:54

Poiling the vote is to make an individual protest. An intellectual protest at that. a private protest that says " i am not lazy, i understand the system, but i refuse to vote for what i have been presented with"

Rather than " there's no point, i can't be bovvered, Emmerdale is on in a minute"

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:55

No, my argument is that the right not to vote is just as important as the right to vote.

And that the state doesn't have the right to tell its citizens to vote any more than it has the right to deny them the vote.

My other argument is that some people have no-one who represents them even vaguely (I'm not talking every single I and T here). Why should those people be forced to stop pursuing more interesting things in their lives in order to go and spoil a paper? If they want to, fine, I'm all for it, but I don't think the state should have the right to require you to do it.

tiredemma · 04/05/2007 13:56

I have not had ONE canvasser at my door- showing me why they want my vote.
If they cannot be arsed, then why should I?

I really did not have a minute spare yesterday to go and vote, what with trying to work/study and arrange childcare for my ds1 who was out of school, specifically because of these poxy local elections.

Im in Birmingham, look at the news, most of our councillers here are bloody corrupt- two were arrested only a couple of nights ago for applying for vote rigging.

tiredemma · 04/05/2007 13:57

sorry for vote rigging- not applying for vote rigging!

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 13:58

I really don't think the state should have the right to interrupt Emmerdale.

(Not that I ever watch it, but for those who do and prefer it to voting, that's their choice.)

I prefer Corrie and would be pissed off if I was told that I wasn't allowed to watch it because I had to waste my time spoiling a ballot paper.

Again, spoiling a vote doesn't really mean anything. Until we have a meaningful spoiling system (the "none of the above" option). It reminds me of that ridiculous "vote labour with a peg on your nose" business. Did the peg on the nose change the policies?

FiveFingeredFiend · 04/05/2007 14:04

so show them that you excesise your right in an intelligent way. show them you can be bothered not to vote.

anything else is just a lazy excuse and you know it. If you want to excersise that right them get of your bottom and actually go further than your own front door to "excersise your right"

GiantSquirrelSpotter · 04/05/2007 14:06

Sorry what is intelligent about spoiling a ballot paper?

Some people spoil them because they are illiterate and mistake the names of their candidates.

As I said before, until there is a specific, positive "none of the above" option, spoiling isn't necessarily an intelligent protest.

In some cases nowadays it can mean the computerised ballot machine has failed (apparantly this is happening in Scotland now - there's a big hoo-ha about it on the news).