Curiously, there wasn't much about this on the front pages this morning, with only the Indie (which nobody buys anyway) giving it any prominance. The purpose of UKIP to the mainly Tory press seems to be to get Cameron to stop being so damn lefty, so bad PR for UKIP doesn't tally with their editorial lines.
Ukip - why are they gaining support?
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ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
In addition to my "no confidence in any of the above" proposal, another electoral reform I'd like to see in my fantasy land of unicorns and rainbows is that eligibility for parliament would depend on having lived in the real world for a certain amount of time. Anyone who's left education and spent all the intervening time as a parliamentary researcher, city boy, union officer, Brussels bod, etc, would be barred until they've spent a few years doing a normal job amongst normal people.
I have no fucking idea how this would work in practice of course - how it would be termed so as not to bar people unable to find employment or with disabilities for example. Or how you'd draw up the list of what did and didn't count. Or how you'd prevent convenient exchanges and secondments that ticked the boxes but counted for fuck all in reality. Essentially, it's entirely unworkable, but it's a nice thing to imagine anyway.
It'd be as easy to institute a system such as you propose, as to institute any other bar to seeking political office - that is, it';d be simple to write the legislation, but much harder to get it past the self-interested hordes that make up our legislature.
Plenty of polities allow a "none of the above" option on ballots, and the NOTA option is counted and disseminated just the same as the votes and names of candidates are. Some polities even allow "write in" candidates.
This polity, however, will never do so, because to do so would further highlight the bankruptcy of our parliamentary "democracy".
Corax
Luke 5:16
I had a vague recollection that it's an option in places, but is there anywhere where it actually has any effect? Do any of them count NOTA in a way that would enforce a re-run with previous candidates barred in the way I've suggested? That's the key piece.
To clarify what I mean:
If "no confidence in any of the above" won, the constituency polling would have to be re-run, with none of the previous candidates allowed to stand again.
I'd predict that the initial effect would be a whole shitload of reruns in some places, as constituencies would have to repeat the ballot multiple times before reaching a result. There would be an expense to that of course, but it would be naff all in comparison to the amount of money spunked on pointless foreign campaigns and overspent white elephant projects, and unlike those it would be entirely worth it.
Ultimately, the parties would find themselves having to field candidates that people actually believed in.
All it would demand is that the supporters of all the candidates between them outnumbered the number of people that thought they were all a bunch of useless twats. That's not too much to ask is it?
And I bet turnout at elections would rocket too, as a lot of disillusioned, disenfranchised, and angry non-voters that the state currently inaccurately dismiss as 'apathetic' might have a reason for making a cross again.
I think it's unlikely to come to pass, but possible given enough public pressure. There's fuck all chance of Labour or the Tories implementing it alone, but there might be a small glimmer of hope for a junior coalition partner forcing it as they'd stand to lose far less (and perhaps even gain by giving them a second bite of the cherry). It would be a major concession by the senior partner though, so they'd essentially be blowing their wad on a single horse.
Doubtless it would be 'negotiated', mangled, and the effect somehow negated along the way of course...
It's probably a naively idealistic idea. I'm sure some bitter and hypercynical Urbanite will be along to cryptically ridicule me for it any minute.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Brilliant pic of Farage in The Grauniad today, taken at just the right moment:
I read that as "Farange". Do we think it'll stick?
Are they all jurisdictions in which voting is compulsory?
Gingerman
Is a great bunch of lads.....
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
I've never cleaned behind my fridge and I like sluts.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Nope. Some US states offer it, as do many US municipalities.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
What do you mean?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Nope, and in any established polity, you'd have a damned hard time getting something as elegant and effective legislated, unfortunately!
And/or with policies that actually reflected what the people wanted, rather than what the politicians tell them is in their best interest.
Well, quite. It's convenient to label voter disengagement as "apathy". It prevents reflection on exactly why voters are so massively disengaged.
Hey, if you believe in a democratic electoral system, your proposal is a damn sight more democratic than our current "Parliamentary democracy" is!
Mr.Bishie
pickled egg
Some scary photos from their conference - http://jesshurd.com/2013/09/20/ukip-conference/
You have been warned!
You have been warned!
goldenecitrone
post tenebras lux
UKIP if you want to. Nigel's not for kipping.
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Scary monsters and super creeps, to coin Bowie.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I've been calling him falange for ages
As the Court of Appeal said of the judge: they're not asleep; they're thinking with their eyes closed!
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I can't help saying his name as if it rhymes with garage (UK pronunciation, rather than French/American)
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Falange is preferable as it suits his variety of politics.
Falange is preferable as it suits his variety of politics.
But "Farange" is a vaguely xenophobic take on "Falange"...
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
even that loathsome ultra right sociopath guido fawkes seems to have it in for Farage now.
There's a lot out there on him (google junius in UKIP, or the "Dr Edmunds" blog linked from it).
There does appear to be a small minority in UKIP fairly aghast at the behaviour of the leadership of the party, and Phallange in particular. His speech was tepid and the conference- an important one for UKIP in building credibilty- has been a grandstanding disaster.
This is the difference now that UKIP have become a touch more mainstream- their conference is no longer in a remote telephone box on a new university campus, but is covered by the media with quite a lot of interest. It's not just of interest to politics geeks, psephologists and purple-and-yellow-bow-tie wearers with extravagant facial hair. Drunken fights amongst the leadership in response to policy differences used only to make the funny pages of Private Eye, now they make the front pages.
Not that they will actually do anything, or that it would even matter if they did, though. But a rubbishing of UKIP in the MSM is one the cards for the next few months and it may well sweep away Phallange, who is clearly out of his depth. He might be able to present himself as an amiable blokey troublemaker but the media I suspect will expose that painfully, as Crick began to do last week.
What will be interesting is if the press go down the route of exposing UKIP as monomaniac oddballs, or, rather, if the y will follow the failed HnH / Searchlight tactics of shrieking about individual criminality and extremist right wing views. The destruction of UKIP this week in the press and the recent interest from state-sponsored antifascists in the party, can hardly be coincidence.
There's a lot out there on him (google junius in UKIP, or the "Dr Edmunds" blog linked from it).
There does appear to be a small minority in UKIP fairly aghast at the behaviour of the leadership of the party, and Phallange in particular. His speech was tepid and the conference- an important one for UKIP in building credibilty- has been a grandstanding disaster.
This is the difference now that UKIP have become a touch more mainstream- their conference is no longer in a remote telephone box on a new university campus, but is covered by the media with quite a lot of interest. It's not just of interest to politics geeks, psephologists and purple-and-yellow-bow-tie wearers with extravagant facial hair. Drunken fights amongst the leadership in response to policy differences used only to make the funny pages of Private Eye, now they make the front pages.
Not that they will actually do anything, or that it would even matter if they did, though. But a rubbishing of UKIP in the MSM is one the cards for the next few months and it may well sweep away Phallange, who is clearly out of his depth. He might be able to present himself as an amiable blokey troublemaker but the media I suspect will expose that painfully, as Crick began to do last week.
What will be interesting is if the press go down the route of exposing UKIP as monomaniac oddballs, or, rather, if the y will follow the failed HnH / Searchlight tactics of shrieking about individual criminality and extremist right wing views. The destruction of UKIP this week in the press and the recent interest from state-sponsored antifascists in the party, can hardly be coincidence.
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"Mainstream left wing British media" I must look out for them, I haven't come across any yet.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
That'll be The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Times and even The Express, all of which have run stories mocking Farage and UKIP?
Yep, they're certainly "the mainstream left wing british media".
It may not affect UKIP supporters, but outside of that rather small sub-set of humanity, people are pretty much rolling their eyes and remarking on what an arse Farage is. That includes my staunchly right-wing Tory parents, who were considering voting UKIP at the next General Election.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
You could, at a stretch call The Guardian (with its 300,000 circulation) left-wing if you weren't aware that it's actually centrist and social-democrat.
You could probably accurately call The Daily Mirror "left of centre", but that doesn't make them "left wing".
As usual, norwood is vocalising rectally.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/381800295371522048/photo/1
Interesting graph looking at UKIP support over last three years
Interesting graph looking at UKIP support over last three years
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Junius is class.
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