to not use my vote at the election

[ThatVikRinA22]

bracing myself...

but i dont believe in any of the policies ive not seen so far - ive no idea who stands for what. no one is canvassing in our area and i think politicians are full of shit anyway.

so for the first time ever i dont think im going to vote at all. cant see the point in voting for a party (any party?) when i dont understand what they stand for and dont know what that is anyway.

yes i know what women did 100 years ago to ge the vote etc etc but is sticking a X in a box at random any better than not voting? id have to go eeny meeny miney moe....

for the record when this thread goes tits up im hiding it....and probably name changing

what's wrong with the door to door canvassing that has been done long before TV and radio were common in people's homes?

That's what used to happen......once everyone (just about) was allowed to vote.......

It's worth a try in conjunction with the other methods. But a canvasser might call at an inconvenient time, or not really be the best representative of their party, or not have the time to answer everyone's individual questions. Many people don't like unsolicited calls at the door from anyone.

plus the election hasn't actually been announced yet, so the heavy duty canvassing won't have started yet. Expect it all to go into overdrive once that happens, it'll be wall to wall lies politics

I read this thread and then (completely coincidentally) read a blog post talking about the Give Your Vote campaign and thought I'd mention it in case you're interested.

I hate the idea of not voting but if you do feel strongly about it then perhaps something like this is an alternative. I'm with the original blogger and feel uncomfortable about it but not sure why really. Even if you don't want to give your vote away, maybe you could try and focus on one issue that is very important to you for whatever reason and see what party/candidate has similar views?

It can be hard to find out what's going on. There is one candidate down here who has been canvassing and campaigning on local issues for at least the last 3 years (when I became aware of him). He's involved in almost every local cause and was on our doorstep in a terrible storm once asking our opinions about one issue. I don't like his party much but can't help feeling he'd be a fab MP when I haven't heard anything from the other potential candidates at all.

yabu - but you know you are

You should vote, you can be sure all members of the BNP will be.
Apathy in the european election means that I now have Nick Griffin as my MEP

People have begun canvassing already around where I live. They seem to have convinced themsselves that our seat will be hotly fought.

For what it's worth, I think you should definitely vote if there is a whisper of a chance that the BNP will poll well in your constituency. And I agree with the others who suggest spoiling your ballot - low turnout just suggests apathy. High turnout but lots of spoiled ballots suggests that people do care, but aren't happy with the choices available. If everyone who felt like you did it, it would register.

Not really relevant, but someone once told me that they saw a Tory party worker at an election count trying to claim a voting paper with a swastika in the the Conservative box for their pile, but they were then shamed into agreeing it was a spoiled ballot.

Ever seen any of the footage in recent years of various African countries where people have walked many miles to vote, as the whole idea of having a personal stake in a deomocracy is so precious?

Your apathy in not even attempting to make a token effort to find out about the various issues at stake in this election doesn't surprise me, as I think it's endemic, but I think it's pathetic, abject. Is that what you wanted to hear? And this petulant "why should I care as I doubt it affects me" just filters down to people's kids and it all intensifies over the generations. When Thatcher said all those years ago there was no such thing as society, she was right: there is a significant proportion of the population who lack a sense of collective, social responsibility. Absolutely flipping shameful.

I agree with shockers

And Toccata, AFAIK, elderly people are one of the sectors of society who do exercise their vote, despite infirmity.

Also, comparing our bigger turnout to Iran, Zimbabwe etc ignore the fact that in those countries people suffer intimidation and threats.

The OP is not illiterate, so she should be able to source info and use her vote.

What about suffrage ?

I'm tactically voting in my area. I don't like any of the main parties, but our local MP is a complete bag o shite - every time I write to him, I just get a form letter and half a rainforest of photocopied info explaining why he's going to completely ignore me and carry on as he has been. Conservatives have the best chance (here) of ousting him from his seat, so they've got my vote.

This is in contrast to where I used to live where my Labour MP was awesome, always took the time to write a personal letter or phone and even (gasp) occasionally changed his mind. Always voted for him there.

If you're not enamoured by the parties, vote for the people. It's far more interesting that way, anyway.

YAoutrageouslyBU, you know that. You know the arguments.

As Shockers said, you can bet the BNP will be rallying all their support and if you think the current options are bad, wait til they got in power and changed the constitution so you suddenly don't have the right to vote because somewhere in your family tree there might be 'immigrant' blood - not saying this is a BNP policy right now but that's the stuff that scares me about apathy at the ballot box. Those bloody people getting some power and failing us even more than the current shower.

if you have no interest in party politics then look up who your local MP is and what they stand for (and how much they won by last time etc, all available online very easily if you google) and vote on the local issues.

at least that way even if you don't like the government that gets in you might still get a local MP you like who can do some good locally.

Yep that is exactly what I thought too Shockers, so yes OP you are completely BU.

"Draw a big spunking cock on your paper.
(I did that for the London Mayoral elections and llok who we got. so, actually, don't do that)"
Yes that was very clearly a vote for Boris

Please vote for someone - if only so that the BNP doesn't increase its proportional share of the vote.

Here in the NW we have the shame of having returned a BNP Euro MP primarily because less than 30% of the electorate voted.

Canvassing will be concentrated on areas that those campaigning feel are potentially winnable. Its not out of laziness but practicality. They will be out every night and every weekend (and already probably have been for several weeks), there is only so much ground that people can physically cover and in many areas, campaign teams are not that big - they are all volunteers who care about the cause they are promoting.

Why don't you read a good daily paper to find out more about the parties and their policies?

Try reading The Guardian and The Telegraph for a week to see how each reports the same stories.

Or Contrast The Daily Mail with one of the more left-leaning red tops.

I'm amazed, frankly, that you have no view as to what each of the parties stands for, even at the most basic levels. How can you not have this? Do you not watch the news/listen to the news?

YABVVVU.

You might find this site useful

there was no intimidation at the elections in Zimbabwe 15-20yrs ago. People just didn't turn out

in South Africa, aside from the 1994 elections (at the fall of apartheid) their more recent turnouts have been pretty similar to the UK's.

and the elderly still quite frequently go with their "traditional" party, this is why they always say that the young voters are the ones they need to target and swing.

Its completely wrong OP and you know it is - do you live in a marginal? Or somewhere the BNP is standing?

If you dont want your vote can I have it?

for me I guess the key is that what women did 100yrs ago was give us the right to be able to vote.

We are not bound to exercise our human rights if we choose not to. For me rights is about freedom to do what we choose.

fwiw - as I said I always do turn up to vote (apart from one year when they my "local" polling station was over a mile walk away, it was blazing sunshine, I had a toddler to contend with and was 8 months pg, I really tried to summon up the strength to get up there but didn't), however I don't actually have any qualms about people exercising their right not to vote.

I think perhaps if the major parties did something to try and convince voters to vote for them - like making sure that all the electorate (or as many as possible) know what their policies are - and not relying on people to look them up themselves.........and people actually (at least vaguely) trusted them to do what they say they will do then more people WOULD turn out to vote, and would actually vote, rather than spoil the paper.

You can't expect everyone to want to go out and vote if all they see in an election campaign is bickering and bitching, and hear nothing on concrete policies.

Tilly that is an excellent site. I've just done it and I should be voting for the Green Party which is fine by me as being a previous labour party voter, I really didnt want to this time round and most certainly didnt want to vote Tory.

btw YABU Vicarinantutu, take a look at the link and see if there is another party you could be voting for.

door to door canvassing is still the best way to get voters to get out and vote.

The OP has said that no-one has been canvassing in her area.