h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Exactly... But what* exactly is the alternative? I can't vote labour as I'd be supporting all they stood for in taking our troops overseas to die... not to mention the government that has been in place whilst we as a country have gone from having a support system for disabled student's in higher education regarded as one of the best in the world, certainly the best in Europe, and taking it to the current broken state of absolute uselesness... Anyhow, they don't seem to be trying to get people to vote for them this time round as they've just given up... the lib dems? Any party so collectively stupid as to not be able to take advantage of the pitiful incumbanant government would be clearly so terrible in actual charge of the country...

"I'm not sure if I would vote (not that i can). Dunno if its *really* worth it."

Yes, it is ALWAYS worth going to vote. If you hate every option on the ballot paper, spoil the vote. Either with something along the lines of "None of these s" which amuses the count staff, or "I don't trust any of these, but I'm watching, and so are many others", to let those who want the power know they aren't what we'd consider voting for, but they are being scrutinised, so they'd better work for what they're getting.

Your vote is the easiest way of influencing policy you own, without actually doing anything - use it, or you will be largely unregarded by politicians. They'll be paying attention to those who did vote, and are politically active.

Unless something frightfully unexpected happens in the next six months yes, they will.

No, they shouldn't.

I'll be voting for my local MP who happens to be Labour. Voting Labour doesn't sit well at the minute but he's a good MP.

Please, please, please vote. Current levels of apathy mean it won't take much for the BNP to get a seat or two and it could be your vote that stops 'em.

Exactly. I agree totally that we all have only one real way to determine the country and its direciton, and that is through the vote. Unfortuantley the only thing I can do now is go along like alast time and spoil my paper. Even looking at a local level, the Labour party locally is just awful, and two-faced by the way their origional standpoint was to vote against severl issues I felt very strongly about, which they then folded in on and voted with the Governemnt for them...
We've had a fairly strong lib dem council, and each year their own particular brand of insanity gets further into ensuring the services I pay year in year out more for, are both less, less effecient, and in several cases, just utterly abscent. hey ho...

Which seats Dave do you expect to go the BNP under FPTP at the general election?

I don't expect them to win but am concerned about Luton, Burnley, Oldham.

The obvious ones.

If voters from former Labour strong holds stay away from the polling booth, and the Conservatives fail to capitalise, the BNP could slip in. I sincerely hope they don't and, as I say, don't expect them to, but it doesn't hurt to raise awareness.

Looking at this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/constituency/774/burnley

It would still require a massive swing to the BNP, little or no swing to LibDems, as well as low turn out to produce a BNP win Burnley under FPTP.


It's not entirely impossible. But in a general election a swing like that is less likely than in EU elections. In the EU election it was low turnout and PR that gave us two too many BNP seats, the swing wasn't big enough to translate to taking vulnerable seats under FPTP.

It's important that people are aware of the importance of using their vote and not to be complacent, I agree. Maybe I'm naive but I don't see the BNP getting seats at General Election.


It's one of the reasons I favour using AV+ for the elections to Lower House and PR for an elected Upper House. But that's another debate.

I think I'm probably one of the floating voters these things turn on. I've only voted Tory once in my life, and it was the first time I was old enough to vote in a general election - 1979.

It felt right then. It hasn't done since, but I'm near that mindset again now.

The crucial thing for me is the lack of recognition of the importance of a wealth-generating sector of the economy. I've just had enough of public sector acquaintances whinging about their bad lot, when they get better wages, better job security and better pensions. I despair of bad teachers, uncaring doctors and petty civic officialdom. I feel like I'm in a country where keeping people in work is more important than making sure they deliver a service, and even though I don't trust the Tories to do much right, I think they're the only ones who will change that.

And I don't think I'm unique by any means. If Labour has the wit and the courage to dump Brown and pledge a fresh start, then it might yet be close. If they keep him, it'll be a landslide, and it might even be a political extinction event.

"Exactly... But what* exactly is the alternative?"

I'd suggest the Green Party. Are they going to win? No. Might they win a couple of seats? Probably not, but I wouldn't be too surprised to see them do very well in Brighton and Norwich. Is it a wasted vote? No. The more votes the Green Party gets this time, the more people will be prepared to vote for them next time.

>Is it a wasted vote? No. The more votes the Green Party gets this time, the more people will be prepared to vote for them next time.<

That's what the Liberals have been saying for nearly a hundred years. And look how much power they've had.

Politics is a funny old game though, and there's no certainties. And anything can happen. I voted green last time, and made history by helping NI get its first green MLA. Ok, you may say "but he's the only one, what can he do?" Well, the DUP, now NI's largest party, started 30 years ago with only one elected representative.

Will the Conservatives win? At this point in time it's looking like a plausible result, but not a foregone conculsion.

Is this a good thing? I doubt it. I know there are some very difficult sums to be worked out, but taking money from the sick, and making people work till they are 66 whilst young people struggle to find a job seems unfair.

And of course you must exercise your hard-won right to vote!

I for one will not vote Green. They are a greater threat to the NHS than the Tories. They against animal experiments that are vital to developing treatments for people and are in favour of alternative medicines. There policy on food production would reduce the amount of meat produced and imported making unaffordable and beyond the means of those vulnerable to disease and who need meat most to stay healthy and fight illness.

They're as crazy as the BNP, just a different kind of crazy.

Equating the Greens with the BNP in the craziness stakes is just plain wrong....

Wait and see what the Green manifesto has to say about animal experimentation. If it's still making daft claims, then fine, don't vote for them. But it might be different this time round.

Many in the party were stung (and surprised) by criticism of the party's health and science policies, and moves are afoot to change them. There's actually a lot of disagreement in the party - from what I've seen the Green Party is a real mixture. There are a lot of what might be called "tree huggers" but there's also a lot of rationalists who understand the need for urgent action on climate change. Like most parties, the Green Party is a "broad church". But you may well see policy changes in time for the next election.

I feel generally very hopeless and gloomy about the future. No party I want to vote for...and even if I did not a chance of power. I'm attracted to the Greens, but I believe the only realistic short term answer to climate change is nuclear power.

They are just too stupid beardy and sandal wearing vegetarians.

Okay just read your last post in more detail Otto. Lets hope they have a pragmatist/realistic attitude emerging.

I think that's a fair point about animal experimentation. Though it's always good to question the status quo and examine alternatives, but I wouldn't be in favour of a wholesale abandoning of animal testing.

The making meat-eating less attractive might be hard to swallow (pun intended) but just look at the high correlations between saturated fat eating and heart disease, especially in the first world.

This does raise an interesting side debate though; If there's a party that you by and large support, but there's one or two of their policies that you're less enamoured with - what do you do?

"Equating the Greens with the BNP in the craziness stakes is just plain wrong...."

I don't think so. They are equally intellectually repugnant, going by the last manifesto.
What the BNP stand for may be more popularly condemned by society.
But until the Greens do launch a new manifesto upon which to be judged they running about equal in the crackpot idea stakes.
The can be equated on terms of craziness, just not equated on terms of the ugliness of the craziness.

Personally I feel you can have a healthy diet for any state of health without meat.

I've worked with lots of patients who are vegatarian for reglious reasons and together with a dietician we've been able to come up with a healthy diet for whatever their situation. Diabetes, weight reduction, weight gain, renal failure, high cholesterol.

I am vegatarian and would never consider eating meat - even if it was for 'health' reasons.

Animal testing on the other hand - for drugs is essential, withouth it we would have NO DRUGS at all.

The run up to this election is looking to me as though no party actually wants to win.

They both seem to be playing a game of making themselves seem as unelectable as possible so we will pick the other side and they won't have to clean up the mess.

"The can be equated on terms of craziness, just not equated on terms of the ugliness of the craziness."

Maybe it's just semantics, but I'd include ugliness as a constituent part of the craziness. It's not crazy to want the world to be as the tree hugging wing of the Green Party think it is, but it's very crazy indeed to want it to be as the BNP think it is.

I also find it hard to imagine a Green government being anything like as bad as a BNP government.