Local Elections

[Will]

My comment wasn't really a serious one.

You're right though.

[divine]

I don't disagree with what you said, my post was more an expansion

[Kitten]

Originally Posted by divine

Well it was local council elections - so you vote for the person who will best serve you locally.

I know, but a lot of people won't see it like that though, at least I don't think so.They're just totally disillusioned, won't vote for Lab or Con through traditional family persuasions and now see LD (who were always popular in my neck of the woods) as hand in hand with the Cons. Doesn't really affect us locally as we have a labour councillor who always wins with a big majority, this time it was over 75%. Imo we have an excellent, sensible council who act fast, put forward great initiatives, invest in the area, listen to their constituents, always reply when you contact them & don't buy into crap ideas like less bin collections etc, so that's fine with me.

[divine]

Originally Posted by Kitten

I know, but a lot of people won't see it like that though, at least I don't think so.

Which is a shame really. It really says something about the quality of voting in this country when it seems that the majority of voters aren't even sure what they're voting for before choosing who they're going to vote for.

It's a complete waste of time really.

[Kitten]

Agreed. What's the alternative though? So many people genuinely don't give a **** about politics, don't see how it affects them. Whoever was voting Conservative last election effectively put my job on the line, way before any of these austerity measures, but most won't realise that because they don't understand how it works.

[divine]

Well it would be a start if people could just understand that a local election is not related to national politics and so whether they like Ed Miliband or think the current financial plans of the Conservatives are awesome should have absolutely no consequence on their vote.

They ought to give people a basic exam to register to vote, to see if people at least have the basic level of intelligence required to understand how to vote without just thinking HUUUUURRRRRR THE RED ONE, DON'T LIKE BLUE, THEY LIKE RICH PEOPLE

[Kitten]

I think there should definitely be some 'teaching' of some sort. Many people grow up in families that have no idea about politics, so don't have a clue themselves, and don't know where to start. They just follow the same (often misguided ) ideology that their parents, and theirs before them, had. Politics & voting was never mentioned when I was at school, yet it is possibly one of the most important things people can do in their lives. What you say about intelligence tests is a step in the right direction, but you can't assume that someone who knows nothing about politics isn't intelligent, if you've ever been exposed to politics, you won't know how it works. They could be a rocket scientist. Doesn't make you stupid, just uneducated in that arena.

[Muban]

We did a course at school (can't remember the name of it) which comprised of (amongst other sujbects which escape me now) government (including politics, voting systems, political parties etc), economics & finance, swimming and a St John Ambulance first aid course. This was a long time ago now but I have to say it's a shame if this sort of thing isn't done elsewhere.

[divine]

PSHE?

We did that if so, complete waste of time frankly, it was just an excuse to doss around for an hour a week.

[Kitten]

Nope, we did nothing whatsoever related to politics, except domestic history.