Saturday 15 January 2011

How low does the turnout have to get....?

The turnout at the recent Oldham and Saddleworth by-election slumped to 48%. That means that more than half of the constituency have been so switched off by the politicians that they couldn't be bothered to vote. Of course that will also mean a penalty kick for the socialists as for some unknown reason they command the loyal support of a class of people with concrete for brains.

Mind you if your only means of support was to accept hand outs from a government that cannot discover any other way of garnering loyalty or running the country then I suppose you are duty bound to keep voting for them.

It does beg the question however...just how low would the turnout have to get before an election was declared a no contest. If more than half the population hold the Political Class in such contempt that they just shrug their shoulders at the thought of recognising them then where does democracy stand?

Will the Labour Party still claim a great victory if say ten people voted and six of them voted Labour? Do you know I suspect that Ed Miliband would even accept that. They are so desperate for any good news that they claim victory when less than 30% of a constituency support their moribund policies!

So where do we go from here? Should it become a legal requirement to vote? Should you be fined if you don't vote? You see I suspect that the BNP for example would get more votes if the people thought that it was not just a wasted journey to the polling booth.

If it was a legal requirement to vote then might it make people more aware of what is happening in this country? I have friends who frankly could not give a damn about politics. They just don't want to tax their brains enough to discover what is happening. Consequently the Political Class is doing what it likes and we have ridiculous results like the recent one in Old and Sad.

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