Democracy in Trouble

I never vote. What's the use of voting? All politicians are lying, self-serving hypocrites. They're in it for themselves.

I thought about it: not voting is a political statement, but a rather weak one, and said:

Suppose by not voting, you actually get something worse than if you did vote?

And it just about entered into the 25 year old's head.

Democracy is in horrible trouble in Britain. So bad is it that the Electoral Commission has started a rather good TV advertising campaign. The theme of the campaign is that everything you do in your life - your choice of music, your football team, your clothes - is a political choice. Democracy is in that bad a shape, that some Advertising Agency's creative team figured out that it was time to explain what POLITICS means.

Well, the Green Party very kindly popped a flyer through my door last week. What a surprise, the elections are on Thursday, June 10, for London's Mayor, the London Assembly, and for the European Parliament. The other parties don't even bother to tell me this. They are that smug. Have a look at the Political Compass and see why. Spread your mind. Talking about Left and Right are pretty damn backward, considering that we've sent things to Mars and wired up the planet the way we have. Left and Right of what? The political compass suggests that North, South, East and West are the next step in the labelling of politics. You may discover that both Labour and the Tories are further away from your own political beliefs than either the BNP or the Greens.