HomePoliticsTHE VOTTO

Comments

THE VOTTO — 4 Comments

  1. There are two points that your suggestion raises.

    One is that of voter fatigue – the virtual turnout will eventually fall off until the results are only representitive of those with axes to grind. The attendance record of MPs is poor enough, and it's meant to be their job.

    The other is that, with the recent UK referendum in mind, even on such an important issue with lots of prior public debate and a decent turnout, the result was not far from a 50/50 spilt. Nothing will ever be completely cut-and-dried.

    • Yes Mick, I had considered voter fatigue and I suspect also that turnouts for some issues may be low also because of it. The simple way around that is either to A) Make voting compulsory as they have done in New Zealand, or B) Introduce a minimum quota. If, for example, the turnout is less than 50 pc, then the issue is scrapped or put on the back burner. It means the people think it is a non-issue and there are more important things to tackle. 

      The tight margin of victory in the UK referendum is a difficult one I grant you. In an ideal world one hundred per cent of the people would vote one way. But as that never happens then the majority rule has to apply even in the tightest situations. It already happens in many walks of life and all of us have been compromised at one time or other pursuing policies or methods we don’t believe in because that was the majority decision. 

      The point of the Votto though is that party politics cannot dictate our direction. If we care enough for our freedom then we will vote for it. If not, then we do not deserve that freedom and a dictatorial group must surely fill the void. The leave vote in the UK was, for me, a vote for democracy and personal freedom. It will come at a price because like us over here, a lot of British freedoms have already been given away. Now you have the opportunity to take them all back without interference. I predict a vindictive EU will fleece you for your temerity but once you ride that storm, you will have control of your destiny back. Of course, you’ll need to keep a sharp eye on your home grown megalomaniacs, hence the Votto!

  2. In the UK, the last Labour administration is reputed to have averaged passing a new law every day for thirteen years. Making voting compulsory isn't going to help if we're obliged to vote that often – they'd clear a fortune in fines, though. A better variation would be to assume that any vote left un-cast was against change. That would stagnate things nicely!

    I suspect you're right about the vindictive EU, which is why I hope that Teresa May doesn't win the Conservative leadership election. Her heart really isn't in the idea of Brexit – as Home Secretary she was one of those actively giving UK powers away.

    • Un-cast votes being counted as an ‘against’ would be fascinating but I doubt we’ll see that any time soon. But if there’s a necessity to draught a new law a day for thirteen years, what must the country have really been like? Was it a free-for-all bloodbath or what? And if not then what was the necessity for all those laws? 
      Instead though, we could insist on the very first vote on the Votto machines be to limit the number of a laws allowed to be passed in a calendar year. Let’s pick twelve representing one a month and we get to vote whether they get passed as well each time.

      As regards what happens next, nobody knows because it’s never happened before. Wise heads could prevail and it could go smoothly if all parties have the right intentions – or the opposite could take place and the EU would be in a mess also. Mind you, a Europe-wide Votto network operating like the Euro millions draw could help a lot to mend fences, don’t you think? Oh hang on! That would be democratic ………..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>