How to vote in the UK General Election...
- Thread starter Rhys
- Start date
Is this the extent of discussion of the May 6th UK Elections? Are there no SOTT members in England? 
Seems US elections and politicians get much more coverage. Keyword Bush, Obama, McCain, Palin etc.. and we have endless articles comments.
Would be nice to hear some perspective on European politics.
Seems US elections and politicians get much more coverage. Keyword Bush, Obama, McCain, Palin etc.. and we have endless articles comments.
Would be nice to hear some perspective on European politics.
Rich
The Living Force
RMJ said:Is this the extent of discussion of the May 6th UK Elections? Are there no SOTT members in England?
Seems US elections and politicians get much more coverage. Keyword Bush, Obama, McCain, Palin etc.. and we have endless articles comments.
Would be nice to hear some perspective on European politics.
I was thinking how interesting this was too RMJ and it says alot about UK politics. We actually have many UK members but this sick bag is all we have to show for the level of interest in the current TV reality show election.
Basically the reason is that there is really no difference between the three main parties. They all inhabit what is referred to as 'middle ground' but it's really just right wing capitalist sympathizers. They have different front men with varying acting skills who use focus groups to gather what might be important issues in contested constituencies. - Things like crime, schools, traffic. They then go on TV and say bad things about the other two and that they are the party to vote for low crime, great schools and better traffic. - or what ever the focus groups decide is important to their particular quality of life in suburbia. Each party will differ slightly because they will target different constituencies where they think they can 'swing' the vote. So their focus groups might be more concerned about health care or waste disposal and their leader will stress on TV just how much they care about nurses and clean streets.
The other important issue is the voting system. It is split into constituencies whose boundaries frequently change to favour the ruling party. They often vary policies to try and win votes in marginal areas. so for example they may build some public housing in a part of town that are 'swing' voters but ignore developments in areas where they have a large majority or no chance whatsoever. The result is that currently even if all parties won the same percentage of the total votes cast. Labour would win 300 seats, Conservatives 200 and libdem 100. - The result being a 'hung' parliament where they can then jiggle about and decide who is going to play on who's team for the next 4 years.
Hence Rhys' sick bag and this article by ignatious: Satire: UK General Election 2010: first reality TV game show next week, pretty much sums up all you need to know :)
cagoule
Padawan Learner
I think some of the debates have been quite interesting... I do however worry about Gordon Brown's arguments that Nick Clegg is "anti-american" and is a risk to our nations defence. It makes me wonder if he could be used as a scapegoat in a false flag operation... Perhaps it's just my ignorance.
Agree Jeep,
Pob, you seem to have described the USA election process quite accurately. The circus comes around just enough to make the masses feel they have a say and more importantly, make it appear there is a change in the government every so often. Even the key issues. It's like a template they use to stay in power. Vote for us and we'll keep you safe, fed, educated etc. Talk about excessive or illegal immigration though and you'll get called a bigot behind your back by Mr Brown. Anything outside of the template then your ignorant and need to be marginalized. At least Brown had to seek out Gillian Duffy in an attempt to apologize.
Seems British politics may be more reserved. It's non-stop here and the divide is quite wide, thus may account for the wider coverage.
Pob, you seem to have described the USA election process quite accurately. The circus comes around just enough to make the masses feel they have a say and more importantly, make it appear there is a change in the government every so often. Even the key issues. It's like a template they use to stay in power. Vote for us and we'll keep you safe, fed, educated etc. Talk about excessive or illegal immigration though and you'll get called a bigot behind your back by Mr Brown. Anything outside of the template then your ignorant and need to be marginalized. At least Brown had to seek out Gillian Duffy in an attempt to apologize.
Seems British politics may be more reserved. It's non-stop here and the divide is quite wide, thus may account for the wider coverage.
Rich
The Living Force
RMJ said:
Yeah, elections and politics are all circuses wherever they are.
The bigot gaffe is hugely popular with Brits - brightens up the normal second-hand car salesman routines. Not sure what you mean by 'at least' RMJ?....Brown's 'apology' was just an orchestrated publicity stunt. His spin doctors would have all met together and decided what they thought the best course of action for his campaign would be. Told him to go and spend 40 minutes in her house then come out of her house with a pretend smile on. Contrived and insincere.
Further similarities with the US system: Gillian Duffy will be the new Joe the plumber equivalent. She's rumoured to have won a 50K GBP newspaper deal and will no doubt end up with her own Tory TV chat show. :D
The "At Least" comment suggests when it comes to accusations of bigotry I couldn't see a US politician appearing to work so hard to offer an apology. Then again your spin doctor descriptor is quite likely what happened. :D Reminds me of Obama's "Beer summit" at the white house when he accused the white police officer of "Acting Stupidly".
"The coverage allowed the public to get the we've-come-together photos and video footage that the White House wanted, while keeping the discussion private among the men"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/beer-summit-begins-obama-_n_248254.html
"The coverage allowed the public to get the we've-come-together photos and video footage that the White House wanted, while keeping the discussion private among the men"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/beer-summit-begins-obama-_n_248254.html
vinny
The Living Force
currently there are some Conservative "Vote For Change" posters out there with David Cameron's head on it.
I thought wouldn't it be wonderful to create our own spoof ones (for SOTT?) that had:
Gordon Brown: "Vote for Change"
David Cameron: "Vote for Change"
Nick Clegg: "Vote for Change"
Nick Griffin: "Vote for Change"
Obama: "Vote for Change"
Bush: "Vote for Change"
Clinton: "Vote for Change"
Hitler: "Vote for Change"
Springfield (The Simpsons) Town Mayor: "Vote for Change"
Santa Claus: "Vote for Change"
The Tooth Fairy: "Vote for Change"
which had all their silly heads in it in a row plus a few fictional ones for good measure, with the same slogan across each one, just to show how ridiculous the whole thing is. It could be SOTT's participation in the election campaign :D
I thought wouldn't it be wonderful to create our own spoof ones (for SOTT?) that had:
Gordon Brown: "Vote for Change"
David Cameron: "Vote for Change"
Nick Clegg: "Vote for Change"
Nick Griffin: "Vote for Change"
Obama: "Vote for Change"
Bush: "Vote for Change"
Clinton: "Vote for Change"
Hitler: "Vote for Change"
Springfield (The Simpsons) Town Mayor: "Vote for Change"
Santa Claus: "Vote for Change"
The Tooth Fairy: "Vote for Change"
which had all their silly heads in it in a row plus a few fictional ones for good measure, with the same slogan across each one, just to show how ridiculous the whole thing is. It could be SOTT's participation in the election campaign :D
