Its annoying, im not 18 until the 20th of may, so i just miss out on voting. Otherwise i’d vote Lib Dems for the FPTP seat and a smaller party for the PR seat. (in Wales you have 2 different seats to vote for in the assembly)
boothy wrote:
it’s difficult to teach politics in compulsory education as teachers have to be completely impartial, from the BNP to the Communist party. it doesn’t sound hard but certainly some of the political discussions we’ve had in our backward-Tory opinionated school (the kids/parents, not teachers), some of the things naive kids can come out with can be very difficult to be impartial to…
Haha, my politics teachers impartial?? After one kid in my class said (as a joke to provoke a reaction i might add) “Thatcher is my hero” to my teacher he said, “If you think that you can get out right now!!” And the other teacher routinely insults the tories and the right wing press (he reads the telegraph because he wants to “know his enemy”).
Thats the cool thing about my politics teachers, they arent impartial at all. Its depressing that the people who dont learn politics know nothing, one asked me today wha left wing and right wing meant.
Its also depressing the amount of people who are gonna waste their vote, they dont realise how important politics is.
To be honest though, if i didnt do politics AND economics for A level, i wouldnt have a fuckin clue. evem politics on its own isnt enough, many people in my class know a lot about politics, but because they dont do econ, they cant grasp some of the most important aspects of it as easily.
boothy wrote:
to be honest i dont completely understand the distinction between local and national elections….
i thought national elections were voting for your constituency anyway? so aren’t you still voting for which party you want in power in your local area in the national elections too?
and do local elections effect anything nationally i.e. number of seats in the commons or owt?
There is a difference because local elections are more concerned with how money is spent in your local area (its a bit different in scotland with the parliament though), and in general you’ll get a bit more of a proportional represtentation because more parties get a chance at representation. I think its a good mix, a strong govt in westminster voted using FPTP, then more proportional local govt.
boothy wrote:
hmmm “never” isn’t what i would say because labour could reform completely, like go back to left-wing old labour, then i’d vote them..
Thing is, i have accepted now that socialism doesnt really work, i have to be honest, and Thatchers free-market economics doesnt work either, i think you do need the free markets, with regulation, i.e what we have now. I just think that some areas need to be more closely regulated and some public services need to be improved. Voting for “old” Labour would be a step back IMO.
I am depressed at the amount of my friends want to vote Tory. Even though i was born in 1989, so ive missed them really, I still cannot stand them. When they elected Thatcher as leader in 79, they lost any chance of EVER getting my vote(no matter what their policy i hate them on principle), the day i vote Tory is the day i die. I hate Blair, but not enough not to vote Labour when hes gone. But Thatcher is a fuckin whore.
Out of interest, those of you who live in Scotland, is the strength of the SNP an exaggeration on the part of the media, or is there a large support for them and independence now?
