Quote of the day 12th November 2014
"The typical British person regards politics and everything that is associated with politics as being weird. They see it as being removed from their life.
"This is a real problem. We've seen that there has been a drop off in turn out of elections going all the way back to the early 2000s, which is a huge issue for democracy, because the decisions are being made by people who get 30 or 40 percent of the vote on a 50 to 60 percent turn out. It's a real problem with younger people. Generally speaking, the younger you get, the more removed you are from politics."
(Joe Twyman, head of political and social research at YouGov, quoted in an article in "Vice" this week on the book "Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box" by Phil Cowley and Rob Ford.)
"This is a real problem. We've seen that there has been a drop off in turn out of elections going all the way back to the early 2000s, which is a huge issue for democracy, because the decisions are being made by people who get 30 or 40 percent of the vote on a 50 to 60 percent turn out. It's a real problem with younger people. Generally speaking, the younger you get, the more removed you are from politics."
(Joe Twyman, head of political and social research at YouGov, quoted in an article in "Vice" this week on the book "Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box" by Phil Cowley and Rob Ford.)
Comments
The other parties are as bad if not worse, I mean Milliband is on thin ice even in his own camp, Clegg the less said the better, and UKIP, well, a stratagy from them would be like waiting for a rainy day on the moon.
Under it all lies the basic problem. People have access to information and dont depend on the BBC or newspapers anymore. People can see that behind the slight differences in short the parties are the same. Not one stands wanting to cede power to the source (which is the people) and the people cant even recall an MP. To get that through, has to be voted on, by MPs (duh) and turkeys dont vote for xmas. Even those trying to support it were doing so on the grounds "It wont be used often", I mean .....
The Scottish referendum had a very impressive turnout really, even from younger people. Why? well quite simply because people felt their vote would make a difference. Sadly with 4 main parties hell bent on point scoring and not solving the major problem of the current authoritative system, then why bother, its kind of like having a choice of which bullet you want to be shot in the head with.
I really am starting to think that party political loyalty is like a mental disease.
If Ed Balls had "negotiated" the same "deal" on the budget, and then said "we have halved the bill" then you, Chris, would have quite rightly nailed him for it, but he did not, so instead its "got a basis in truth"
I have seen people in UKIP falling into this disease, and its not good to watch. Its almost sickening in fact. There in is the problem, and there in lies the answer
In that circumstance I would say that there would have been no rebate for them to apply to the £1.7 billion without Margaret Thatcher having negotiated it in the first place, and it would have been a full rebate without TB giving half of it away, it would be odious hypocrisy for any Labour chancellor to try to claim credit most of which belongs to Margaret Thatcher.