The two party system

trojan698

trojan698

trojan698

Soldato
Joined
21 Oct 2005
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Edinburgh
In most democracies there exists only room for 2 partys. Party right and party wrong. Now to me this doesn't seem like a democracy, but a popularity contest with two over inflated egos everyone hates, and with only 2 boxes on the ballot slip what are we to do?

Should we take a leaf out of icelands book and rewrite everything?

We have the internet, the people can have an instantaneous say on government issues. The media are overinflated, poorly regulated, and seem to cause more trouble than they solve.
 
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I think if you had no parties you would have just as many problems.
Apart from people basing their opinions off what a party thinks, it will just be what a certain politician thinks.
 
RomanNose said:
I think if you had no parties you would have just as many problems.
Apart from people basing their opinions off what a party thinks, it will just be what a certain politician thinks.
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How about, instead of fixed terms (for them to build their legacy), we hire and fire as appropriate. Just like the apprentice with viable PM candidates. And we get to watch them work on webcam constantly for lolz.
 
MeatSack said:
How about, instead of fixed terms (for them to build their legacy), we hire and fire as appropriate. Just like the apprentice with viable PM candidates. And we get to watch them work on webcam constantly for lolz.
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So your suggestion to avoid a popularity contest would be to make the parties even more populist than they are now? I'm hoping this isn't a serious suggestion but it can be difficult to tell.

I'd love to have faith that given entirely free choice people would be altruistic or even just that they'd be able to take a long term view and vote in their own interests beyond the next month or so but I'm sadly not so certain that they would.
 
semi-pro waster said:
So your suggestion to avoid a popularity contest would be to make the parties even more populist than they are now?
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Nah, the Apprentice thing was a joke. But fixed terms are nonsense. The point is the government should be serving the people, acting as a means of organisation, not telling them what to do. Obviously Law and Order is important, but it needs to become more real.

Aye, it's as though someone needs to come up with a plan for the planet, and be like - "right, this is what we've gotta do. you guys do that, you that. aye, solar panels over there, let's get moving, go go go."

Someone like Hitler! Without the genocide. Charming man apparently.
 
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Plan for the Planet!

Aye and in like 5 years we'll have free energy if we make enough panels. Then we can make more panels to provide energy for our technologised (just made the word up no biggy) farming systems.

(please don't ban me for spamming, these are genuine viable ideas)
 
Someone like Hitler!
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Oh come on. If your ill-thought out brain wrongs have to be put into words could you at least perhaps make them better, more considered words?

I was going to make a joke about this thread being written by a 1st year Sociology student but I think even that would be an massive over stretch.

e : hang on, time zones. Just realised that this is Saturday night bevvie time in Scotland. Please tell us more about things you don't understand.
 
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Most people on the street are that dim that anything more than 2 opinions hurts their brain, heck even 1 is probably 1 too many.

Winston Churchill said:
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
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[FnG]magnolia;23371818 said:
Oh come on. If your ill-thought out brain wrongs have to be put into words could you at least perhaps make them better, more considered words?

I was going to make a joke about this thread being written by a 1st year Sociology student but I think even that would be an massive over stretch.
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I'm just trying to get people thinking m. critique ;)

e - tell us something you DO understand? contribute for once.
 
My contribution would be that if you want a debate then you're in the wrong forum. Having said that, I don't think you want debate, you want to have 3 sentence conversations about subjects which have grown and developed over hundreds of years.

So maybe you are in the right forum.
 
joeyjojo said:
Do you remember that referendum the other year?

FPTP is optimal for two parties. For any more than that it's terribly unfair. The sooner we get STV the better. Probably won't be another referendum for a decade or two though. Such a shame.
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Yeah, that vote was a farce though.

[FnG]magnolia;23371851 said:
My contribution would be that if you want a debate then you're in the wrong forum. Having said that, I don't think you want debate, you want to have 3 sentence conversations about subjects which have grown and developed over hundreds of years.

So maybe you are in the right forum.
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You managed to excuse yourself and burn me in a short wee post there! Discussing something that's grown over hundred of years in a few sentence is perfectly OK, because we have GOOGLE. Most people know what I'm on about or can find out for themselves if they so care. If you want to keep playing devils advocate fine.
 
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The first thing that needs to happen to clean up politics is that people need to start thinking for themselves and not just voting for whatever their newspaper/friends/family tell them to vote for.

Until that happens, things will stay a mess.
 
People are more capable than ever of thinking for themselves thanks to the internet, and the consequent proliferation of critical thought. But it's the lack of focus on political matters that's the problem. The people are disenchanted, and believe you me the powers that be want to keep it that way. Internet has made a new mode of organisation possible, people just need to realise their power.
 
MeatSack said:
People are more capable than ever of thinking for themselves thanks to the internet, and the consequent proliferation of critical thought. But it's the lack of focus on political matters that's the problem. The people are disenchanted, and believe you me the powers that be want to keep it that way. Internet has made a new mode of organisation possible, people just need to realise their power.
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I think the opposite is actually true here. The vast majority of people are even more inclined to converge to populist misinformed ways of thinking with their easy access to the Internet. People generally don't think for themselves they just find some bandwagon to jump on and will stubbornly stick to their guns even when they know theyve picked the wrong side, just to save face.

Also, solar power is not the magic bullet. What happens when the sun goes in etc? I can't stand it when people drop the wind power/solar grenade without the full argument. Not having a go, just don't agree.
 
when the sun goes in? the sahara can power the world man. i've looked at the calcs. regardless of sunset. what grenade would u prefer?
 
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