NotApathetic is closed to new submissions. The site is available as an archive for you to browse. Find out more...

Not Apathetic

Tell the world why you're not voting - don't let your silence go unheard

They're not voting because...

I am not voting because we live in a...

I am not voting because we live in a "formal" democracy not a "real" democracy. Political parties are reduced to little more than a handful of leaders who are totally out of touch with the needs of the people. Through the party machinery, powerful interests finance candidates and then dictate the policies they must follow.

written 26th Apr 2005

Responses

Miss Dipsy replies: This is certainly true of the main parties, but not of most of the smaller ones. OK, so most of them don't even stand a chance of getting a single seat in parliament, but you could be lucky to live in an area where a smaller party has a lot of support and has some chance of winning, or at least getting enough of the vote to give the bigger parties a shock. Unfortunately not many of us do!

written 26th Apr 2005

glenneroo replies: true true, same as in the US... only the Ds and Rs make it to the top, although realistically voters would have voted for somebody entirely different to represent them, but its just the way the system is...

written 26th Apr 2005

Michael M. replies: Voting for a candidate and party once every five or so years, basing your choice (or guess) on a manifesto and bunch of promises, is just not a good system. We can select problems and ideas as "issues" to be debated by the people and voted upon. If government neglects some important problem or strays way off course then we can intervene with a veto referendum. All this is possible with the methods of direct democracy. More detail is at http://www.iniref.org/

written 26th Apr 2005

Tiger43 replies: To poster..... I agree. I would much prefer an informal democracy, at least then I could dress in a more casual way instead of shirt and tie at work. (Its the shirt collar round my neck), its very annoying, probably a bit starchy. Any suggestions as to how I can make it more comfortable?

written 26th Apr 2005

About Not Apathetic

NotApathetic was built so that people who are planning not to vote in the UK General Election on May 5th can tell the world why. We won't try to persuade you that voting is a good or a bad idea - we're just here to record and share your explanations. Whether ideological, practical or other, any reason will do.

A lot of users would like us to mention that if you spoil your ballot paper, it will be counted. So if you want to record a vote for "none of the above", you can.

Search