Compulsory Voting: Yes or No?

My first response would be YES. As we should all be part of the process that determines how we live our lives.
However you then get into how do you police it, what are the penalties if you do not or cannot and who makes that decision.

The biggest issue I see is of people actually being interested and motivated to be part of the process. Since moving to N Ireland it was depressing looking at the tribal nature of politics and how issues were divided along the old sectarian lines.

More and more I was drawn to the Swiss idea of representative democracy through the use of referendums. Something that has a more direct impact on peoples lives and takes the "party line" out of the equation (a little). Doing that could possible appeal to more people and get more people involved and going to the polls
 
mat said:
I'd rather find various ways to encourage people to vote.

I'm sure we'd get bigger turnout with online voting.
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Absolutely. You shouldn't need to force people to vote in a well run democracy that's working for everyone. Having a conversation about making voting compulsory is also kind of moot when we have a government that is actively trying to make it harder for some demographics to exercise their right to vote.
 
LGWIO said:
My first response would be YES. As we should all be part of the process that determines how we live our lives.
However you then get into how do you police it, what are the penalties if you do not or cannot and who makes that decision.

The biggest issue I see is of people actually being interested and motivated to be part of the process. Since moving to N Ireland it was depressing looking at the tribal nature of politics and how issues were divided along the old sectarian lines.

More and more I was drawn to the Swiss idea of representative democracy through the use of referendums. Something that has a more direct impact on peoples lives and takes the "party line" out of the equation (a little). Doing that could possible appeal to more people and get more people involved and going to the polls
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Cos the last referendum went so well...
 
Kirkstall Blue said:
University fees are a recent introduction, The Blair government decided to reverse free education for all in 1998.we were lucky before then higher education was free.
Education is a fundamental right it prevents the kind of apathy we have now.
The Labour Party are responsible for fees and the Tories are not going to reverse the decision its the same with the NHS and decent homes. All under threat Thatcher selling off council houses I have a long memory of the fundamental changes and the common market was the first.

We start in schools that’s the place our children can learn how to evaluate what we have lost as a society, the gains that were made since the second world war, up until we joined the common market.
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I had the benefit of free higher education years ago. I received a grant from the government. It wasn't much, but it paid the bills and I had enough to get along and have a few pints in the evening.

We could also claim travel expenses to get home and back in the holidays, and while we were on holiday, we could claim the dole, though I always had a 'student job' in the summer driving a van for a local building company, so I didn't need to be a scrounger!

That was decades ago, when only 10% of school leavers went on to higher education. I agree it was a mistake Labour made enticing many more people into higher education and paying for it, as there are only a limited number of vacancies that require 'real' degrees, and I sometimes wonder if we are really being kind or realistic with our youngsters today.

Is it fair that so much pressure is put on them nowadays to take A-levels and go to University for a degree that will leave them in debt for years and most probably result in most of them being employed in the same sort of jobs 16 year old school leavers with 3 or 4 'O' levels would have been given years ago?

I don't think it is, but there is money to be made, and fairness on that score doesn't count a jot these days.
 
Pointless. Couldn’t give a monkeys which of these absolute bell ends are in office. Wankers to a man. The old adage ‘How do you know a politician is lying? Their lips are moving’ is spot on.
 
Our current political spectrum has sex offenders,law breakers, Air heads, liars, cronies, a parliament that accepts lies as politics. Porn browsers, misogyny. Anything else?

No way should it be compulsory.

In fact the best thing we could all do is to stop voting until they sort this shit out. From the media controllers to their mascots in power in government they've made a complete mess, they're actually ruining this country.

Stop voting if you want to improve things
 
Fred_Quimby said:
The problem is not compulsory voting; the problem is apathy. There is a complete lack of interest in politics. Consequently nobody bothers to read or find out what parties policies are. There is a popular belief that 'they are all the same' and you only have to read this forum to see that. They are not 'all the same'; this is just a lazy way of saying 'I can't be arsed finding out'. I am not sure how you reverse this; perhaps we start in schools? Electing student councils? We need to start somewhere. Keep doing the same thing don't be surprised if you get the same outcome.
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Politics?

There are 2 stances available, you either follow an ideology or you don't, if you follow one ideology then you have to follow all of it or you are "One of them".

Humans must be inherently stupid to allow the rights our ancestors fought for to be debased in this fashion, both ideologies are to blame here and the dishonest career politicians from both sides are milking us from both ends.
 
You can’t force people to vote for someone or a party you don’t believe in. There should be a box to tick for none of the above. That’s much more powerful than just not voting. THEN you can make it compulsory
 
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