British Voters

[Tiberius]

Brown would have to be out of his mind to call an early election.

I don't agree. I personally think it would cause the same amount of damage either way.

If he doesn't call an early election, he angers the already angry British public who have been calling for an election since...erm...two years ago. His party are already falling away from him, and it is clear that the majority of the people don't want him in power. If he calls an election now, he might just save his party.

If he does call an early election, he won't anger the British public again, but he won't get their vote either. Current polls suggest that the Conservatives would win as they rightly should IMO.

Just look at these recent EU election results. The Lib Dems (the third largest party) almost beat Labour in seats, and UKIP (not a very mainstream party until now) beat Labour by more than 2%.

[leo-rcc]

It's a bad trend to have the EU elections spill over from the local political scene. No one in our counrty had any idea on the program points of the different parties so they just voted what they would have for local government. These do not always coincide.

The big winner in the Netherlands for the EU was a party that doesn't even have an EU program and just votes where the wind takes them, PVV.

[Tiberius]

UKIP won 13 seats, and it is an anti-EU party. Ironic much?

[LukeMC]

Current polls suggest that the Conservatives would win as they rightly should IMO.

Rightly should? Could you expand on your opinion a little?

[Tiberius]

I think the conservatives are the best party at the moment given their policies.

[LukeMC]

I think the conservatives are the best party at the moment given their policies.

On their website's policy section I read something which stated "the Human Rights Act gets in the way of dealing with crime and terrorism. For this reason, we plan on aboloshing the Act and replacing it with a new British Bill of Rights". Sounded too much like the Patriot Act for my liking. Perhaps I'm paranoid.

Can't find the segment I'm referring to but I'll try and locate it. Perhaps you can tell me more about this if you know anything I don't?

[Tiberius]

It's nothing like the Patriot Act. You can read about it here: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/orgwiki/i...tive_Party

As for getting rid of the Human Rights Act, this is partially true, but the new Bill of Rights will "protect the fundamental rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights in clearer and more precise terms".

In other words, it will be a Human Rights Act, but specifically for Britain.

My hope is that they will protect freedom of speech from prosecution in this Bill of Rights, and also move to clear all laws protecting religion from criticism. Freedom of speech means complete freedom of speech.

[bozo]

Where are we thinking of putting our votes at the next general election? Is it going to be a two-party race? Where do we stand on the issues in Britain today?

I'm just curious as to which parties people are backing- if any.

EDIT: damnit, should have added a poll

I haven't voted in recent general elections because I haven't had a socialist party candidate to vote for and I don't like the choice of voting for the " best of the worst " under our first-past-the-post electoral system.
I am hoping that part of the reforms we are being promised after the expenses scandal will be a change to proportional representation. Such a change should help re-engage people with politics. In my case, I could join a socialist party that could campaign on a socialist agenda with a real hope of having a voice in Parliament.
If that doesn't happen, I may well not vote again next time, unles Labour is still intending to introduce ID cards ( I belive it will now probably drop it before the next GE ). If I'm wrong, then I might vote for the likeliest party that will form the next government that will ditch the policy.

[LukeMC]

@ Adrian

The reason for this is not human rights act its self but due to the fact that European Court of Human Rights has no legal document in Britain that it can use as a guide for what rights and responsibilities people in Britain can expect.

See, this sounds fair enough, but isn't convincing when preceeded by:

# "The Human Rights Act has made it harder to protect our security."
# "And it's done little to protect some of our liberties."
# "It is hampering the fight against crime and terrorism."

This appears to imply that rights are getting in the way of dealing with crime and terrorism. My knee-jerk response was to compare it to the erosion of American rights brought in under the guise of anti-terrorism and conveniently named The Patriot Act. Of course, it was only a knee-jerk reaction but I'm still unconvinced that such motives don't exist within the party. In context of the rest of the article however, it does appear that the conservative party are far more concerned about our freedoms and rights than we might think- especially when compared to labour.

It makes me wonder why the conservative party are crushed into the upper right of the Political Compass if Cameron's policies are so much "for the people".

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I haven't voted in recent general elections because I haven't had a socialist party candidate to vote for and I don't like the choice of voting for the " best of the worst " under our first-past-the-post electoral system.
I am hoping that part of the reforms we are being promised after the expenses scandal will be a change to proportional representation. Such a change should help re-engage people with politics. In my case, I could join a socialist party that could campaign on a socialist agenda with a real hope of having a voice in Parliament.
If that doesn't happen, I may well not vote again next time, unles Labour is still intending to introduce ID cards ( I belive it will now probably drop it before the next GE ). If I'm wrong, then I might vote for the likeliest party that will form the next government that will ditch the policy.

My mother is very much the same in regards to her feelings on electoral reform and how she would engage with a socialist party. Slight difference- she votes "best of the worst" in each election. She's still under the impression that Labour are for the working people and the closest we have to socialism. Sigh. On a sidenote, she used to campagin for socialism when she was younger I never knew this until recently.

It's very strange this year; there appears to have been a huge shift in the positions of labour and conservatives. Or perhaps the fact that I'm new to politics just makes it seem so.


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I'm also under the impression that our elections aren't nearly as fierce or epic as those in America. The divide between Labour and Conservative supporters doesn't match that of the split between Liberals and Republicans in the US. When following the run-up to the elections, it became apparent just how much passion was put into the 2-team run. Am I right in saying we don't have anything like that in Britain? And if not, do you think it would be a good thing to have or not? I feel like it might spark an interest in British politics that I can't seem to find elsewhere. Nobody in my school is associated with any particular party- they show complete apathy, and when I'm on websites such as politicsforum the British politics section is only a tiny and underviewed section with little contributions being made. The american section is booming constantly though. Perhaps we need third party with completely different ideologies to make an impact and bring some "big debates" to light here. Even this forum is pretty void of British political discussion. If I want to some decent debate material I have to look towards the United States- be it on youtube or in forums.

[Tiberius]

IMO no party is perfect, so whilst the Conservatives might try and inhibit some rights (and I hope that a public backlash would prevent them), they are also in favour of scrapping ID cards.

If there were a Libertarian party I would vote for it, but we don't seem to have any of them in the UK. It's a shame, because Right-wing economics with Left-wing social policies is a nice combination.