Tuesday 27 May 2014

changes to voting system

Maybe Cameron had a point when he said that voting in a general election was too important to be done by just pressing a button on a mobile phone, but Polly Toynbee is absolutely right to say that changes are urgently needed in the system she describes as "an archaic anachronism". (The British electoral system is corrupt - let`s change it,23/05/14) The truth is that despite turnouts dropping from 83.6% in 1950 to 65% sixty years later, there is "no sense of a crisis of legitimacy"; if there was, as Polly says, "Westminster would do its utmost to encourage voting". Aiming to attract 35% of that 65% cannot be described as "democracy in action"!
 Getting more young people to vote would undoubtedly benefit Labour at the polls, and "bolder" policies, especially on rents and tax avoiding landlords, could do the trick, and "seize their imagination". However, more accessible polling stations, at supermarkets, town centres and university campuses, would force politicians out of the complacency which feeds the current corruption. A bold move by Labour could see a Private Member`s Bill on changing the location of voting, and a debate in the next session of parliament!

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