Why our electoral system is rubbish

Vote for policy not party imho.

What's the point when parties don't even keep policy promises?

The majority of the country wanted new elections as soon as Tony Blair stepped down, why didn't we have one us being a great democracy and all that?
 
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This is the big problem, and why I support strict constitutional limits on the power of government as a result.

Enforcing opinion through law and taxation should be considered unacceptable.

I agree in a way, but at the same time, people are really really stupid, and have been known to make awful decisions.
 
If only we had a constitution, then Labour couldn't continue to destroy the country by criminalizing innocent people with ridiculous laws and increasing tax rates forever more.
 
If only we had a constitution, then Labour couldn't continue to destroy the country by criminalizing innocent people with ridiculous laws and increasing tax rates forever more.

The US has a constitution and has passed all sorts of laws to criminalise 'innocent' people (think marijuana, Prohibition etc). So does Japan, and they also have taxation levels very close to our own anyway.

Also our tax rates are at relatively low levels, historically. Corporation tax has declined from 52% to about 28% over the last 37 years - it has never been raised in that time. Since WW2 income tax has declined from about 50% to the 20/40% level now.

So please tell me why you think a constitution will magically fix things. They can be manipulated just like any other set of laws, in fact they can even be a bad thing from the start - see the absolute mess that has been caused by the Californian State Constitution.

To me, far too many people are expressing views which highlight the increasing Americanisation of British politics, which is not a good thing.
 
The US has a constitution and has passed all sorts of laws to criminalise 'innocent' people (think marijuana, Prohibition etc). So does Japan, and they also have taxation levels very close to our own anyway.

Also our tax rates are at relatively low levels, historically. Corporation tax has declined from 52% to about 28% over the last 37 years - it has never been raised in that time. Since WW2 income tax has declined from about 50% to the 20/40% level now.

So please tell me why you think a constitution will magically fix things. They can be manipulated just like any other set of laws, in fact they can even be a bad thing from the start - see the absolute mess that has been caused by the Californian State Constitution.

To me, far too many people are expressing views which highlight the increasing Americanisation of British politics, which is not a good thing.

That the US consititution doesn't protect their people enough doesn't mean that ours couldn't. There's actually no clause such as the one people like myself want in the US consitution that would prevent the sort of laws you describe.

With regards to taxation, the overall tax take has not changed that much, tax rates and tax take are two different things.
 
They'd just amend the constitution.

Which is why the amendment process has to be suitably onerous (there is a reason why the US constitution has been amended rarely).

The way you are talking, it's almost as if you think there should be no rights for the people at all...
 
Which is why the amendment process has to be suitably onerous (there is a reason why the US constitution has been amended rarely).

The way you are talking, it's almost as if you think there should be no rights for the people at all...

We HAD a Bill of Rights, Labour have repealed most of it when they came to power
 
The US has a constitution and has passed all sorts of laws to criminalise 'innocent' people (think marijuana, Prohibition etc). So does Japan, and they also have taxation levels very close to our own anyway.

Which part of the US constitution prohibits victimless crimes?

Also our tax rates are at relatively low levels, historically. Corporation tax has declined from 52% to about 28% over the last 37 years - it has never been raised in that time. Since WW2 income tax has declined from about 50% to the 20/40% level now.

While NI has risen to 11% and VAT to 17.5%....

Compared to other countries around the world we pay very high taxes, 43% of income ends up as tax, rising to 60% for higher earners, and then theres a gazillion different taxes and duties on top of that.

So please tell me why you think a constitution will magically fix things. They can be manipulated just like any other set of laws, in fact they can even be a bad thing from the start - see the absolute mess that has been caused by the Californian State Constitution.

So your argument against a constitution is that, some idiots somewhere made a badly designed constitution?
 
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A thing I find most annoying is when I turn up at the polling station and hand in my card and I’m handed my form to vote the person who hands me the voting form enters my registration card details on the counterfoil of the voting slip.

I queried this a few elections ago and was told that, yes, they could discover whom I had voted for, but suggested that the counterfoils went to one destination and the voting forms to another and never the twain should meet.

Unless you voted for Bin Laden of course!!

So much for secret ballot!

Makes you think doesn’t it?
 
A thing I find most annoying is when I turn up at the polling station and hand in my card and I’m handed my form to vote the person who hands me the voting form enters my registration card details on the counterfoil of the voting slip.

I queried this a few elections ago and was told that, yes, they could discover whom I had voted for, but suggested that the counterfoils went to one destination and the voting forms to another and never the twain should meet.

Unless you voted for Bin Laden of course!!

So much for secret ballot!

Makes you think doesn’t it?

Not really, it's a well policed fraud reduction measure, with the counterfoils recording only used in the event of an accusation of fraud.

What other alternative fraud management approach would you suggest? Every single one requires the ability to trace back votes to voters...
 
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