Calling All UK People

[andrewducker]

For goodness sake - don't forget to vote!

With the undoubtably incredibly low turnout, and the EU elections being largely Proportional Representation, your vote can count - get out there today and stand up for something you believe in!

Comments

[dreema.livejournal.com]

what happens if your only belief is that they are money-grabbing, back-stabbing muck rakers who are only out for what's good for them?

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

The you go and spoil your vote. Make it clear that it's not that you can't be bothered voting but that you won't vote for them.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I work with politicians all the time, and most of them simply aren't like this. The current lot aren't like it *at all even a little bit*, and even the Tories mostly weren't like it. I mean, the politicians I've seen have the ordinary range of human strengths and weaknesses, they're not any more perfect than anyone else. They're constrained in lots of ways and they try to do what they think is best. There's a famous description of politics from John Kenneth Galbraith -- "Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable"; and that's certainly been my experience.

Do they get things wrong? Of course. Do they have an incredibly difficult job, with poor pay and long hours, in which it's hard to see progress, easy to see failure, and even minor mistakes are brutally punished? No question. (Anyone who thinks MPs and Ministers are well-paid should compare their salaries with comparable ones for ordinary employment in London for people with the same skill set, and consider what their working week looks like). Does this put some people who'd make excellent and fair politicians off, so there's a tendency for the ones that are remaining to be egotistical? Perhaps, though I haven't seen much sign of it really.

Even if you do believe that they're money-grubbing, back-stabbing muck rakers, surely you must see that some of them are worse than others, and it's worth using your vote to prevent the ones who openly state views that you find repugnant getting power?

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Thanks for saying that! I am pretty fucking fed up with the assumption that anyone who makes an effort and tries to enact what they believe in is automatically an evil fucker out to destroy everyone's lives. What kind of destructive, fucked-up, childish view is that?