Student Question: Voting at Elections

[John Simkin]

This question is for John Simkin, but other replys are welcome. With your opinions what political parties are there at present that you are able to vote for?

This question is for John Simkin, but other replys are welcome. With your opinions what political parties are there at present that you are able to vote for?

The Labour Party is the only party that I am currently able to vote for, even though I dislike the way in which New Labour is going – and for a number of reasons that John Simkin has set out. The alternatives, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, simply don’t come into the equation in my thinking. I don’t think the Liberal Party is capable of holding office under its current leadership and we saw what happened the last time that the Conservatives were in charge. I would like to see New Labour (1) get us out of the mess that is Iraq a.s.a.p., (2) renationalise the railways (we currently have the most expensive and inefficient railway system in Europe), (3) scrap the National Curriculum and relieve teachers of the excessive bureaucracy they have to cope with, (4) raise taxes to improve public services. It is clear that the Labour Party has moved to the right under Tony Blair. It needed to move a bit to the right in order to increase its vote, however. It was clear that Clause 4 was not liked by most voters, for example.

[Mike Tribe]

I'm sorry to say that these days, I seem to be voting more and more not FOR political parties, but AGAINST them...

I live in Spain, and it's become increasingly difficult to find anyone with whose political views I feel any sympathy. In recent elections, I have voted for PSOE, the socialist party, for Izquierda Unida, which includes the rump of the old Communist Party, and even once, during a sudden rush of blood to the head caused by something the socialist party had done just before the election, for the Partido Popular, the conservative party (although I don't like to admit the last mistake...)

PSOE has been taken over increasingly by career politicians along the Blairite lines and seems hell-bent on blurring all the distinctions between left and right. Izquierda Unida's internal organization makes Stalin's CPSU look positively liberal, and the Partido Popular -- well, I would never have voted for them at all if I'd been in full possession of my senses at the time...

Since I feel it's my democratic duty to vote -- "use it or lose it!" -- I trot down to the polling station every time and seek out the least bad... I fear that this is the case with an ever-increasing band of my fellow-voters...

Edited October 5, 2005 by mike tribe

[Anders MacGregor-Thunell]

This is for me a very interesting question. I think that we have an obligation to vote but at the same time I can see the dilemma in finding a party which you feel at ease with. I vote - blank! This is my way of showing that I agree with the basic idea of letting people decide about the leadership of the country and being able to participate in a democratic process every 3rd/4th year - but for me that is not enough. We need to be able to participate more often and the bourgeois concept of a parliamentary system built on political parties is (as I mentioned before) very limited. It allows a political elite - a new upper class - to fullfill their own needs and use the system. This system should be replaced by one based on the principles of federalism - where the political representatives should be given limited authority and the rotation of people in power should guarantee the whole group being truly represented.