Tag archives for democracy
Warning! Politics and Elections Ahead
A ballot paper used in the 2005 UK General Election. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) If you are in the UK it won't have escaped your notice that we have a General Election in a few weeks (on Thursday 7th May). Campaigning hasn't moved into high gear yet, but it will next week when Parliament is prorogued. (Maybe that word implies a lot about our politicians, pro rogues!) don't care about politics? Voting isn't mandatory in the UK. However, t if you don't vote don't expect anyone to listen to you complain about the government or anything affected by what it does. That includes the economy, housing, immigration, defence, policing, traffic, trains, prices of things, the NHS, public services, or just about everything else. In fact you can probably only talk about the weather, reality TV and football. I personally don't want…
Opinion Polling Accuracy
In September I did a series of factual posts on the opinion polls for the referendum. There is stuff we can learn from comparing the actual result to what the polls said beforehand. Especially as we have a General Election in a few months. It is also worth pointing out that my day job is politically restricted and so I can only offer factual analysis and need to avoid political partisanship. That said I may say positive or negative things about party positions, that shouldn't be construed as support for any party. Many political positions are not supported by relevant evidence but the public doesn't often know or listen to evidence and politicians that want to be elected must listen to the public. Many people, mainly pro-independence supporters, were surprised by the 55% no vote. The polls had narrowed in…
A Call To Action for Everyone in the UK
Yesterday was a victory for democracy, lets use that to make the UK genuinely better. Regardless of what result you wanted, the primary outcome of yesterday's referendum is showing that people can be engaged to vote. It had the highest turnout ever recorded for a democratic election in the UK. That needs to be kept up. People voted despite the politicians and their tired rhetoric. The politicals need to wake up and be scared for next May. If the rest of the UK puts half the effort into getting proper representatives for themselves that the Scots put into the referendum then there could be a lot of new faces in Westminster in 2015. That can only be a good thing for both democracy and the people of all of the United Kingdom. People don't vote because they don't think it…