Before we take at face value much of the commentary this weekend on the continuing political ascendance of the Facist Frog & ReformUK Ltd, its worth just putting their vote in the local elections in some context.
As many have noted even with their success ReformUK Ltd still on control a very small proportion of *all* local councils, but its also worth noting than less than 10% of eligible voters cast a vote from the Frog & his associates.
h/t Dan Södergren/LinkenIn
Clearly the majority of people did not vote because they oppose the voting system and in the Democratic principle of going with the majority we should abolish Democracy and voting
@ChrisMayLA6 @shortstories Australia disagrees
@ChrisMayLA6 @shortstories This is the truth! I do not vote, and many people seem to find that incredibly provocative. I tell them that the politicians we have today are the scum of the earth, so why would I want to participate in a system that makes them millionaires based on stolen money (taxes)? _That_, if anything, would be highly unethical!
But I think that is entirely legitimate - what I hate is the idea that not voting is political apathy - often it can be a reasoned judgment about the system itself
@ChrisMayLA6 @shortstories This would actually be _very_ interesting to look into! In the news, non-voters are always dismissed, and never questioned.
I would be very interested in knowing _why_ people do not vote. In some EU countries, the nr of voters is down to 40%-50% of the population, at which point, I do not call it a democracy any longer.
Why is no one looking into this?
I think there has been some valued based research that has looked into this in the uK, but I cannot immediately recall where it is or what the conclusions were
@ChrisMayLA6 @shortstories Hmm, interesting. I'll have to look into this a bit more. It is an interesting question!
@shortstories
Except of course one of the core 'rights' of democracy is the right not to vote...