megalaser

Hi, Would anyone happen to know if and how I could vote in the upcoming UK general election now that I have moved to the US? Thanks!

lansbury

You could read this thread

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=659735

TimberHut

Don't vote - it only encourages them.

Seriously - does anyone still trust any politician?

They are all a bunch of lying bastards who don't give a toss about anyone apart from themselves. Tow the Houses Of Parliament along The Thames and out to sea - then sink it.

sallysimmons

Voting is such a privilege. If more people got involved, politicians would be more responsive to them.

And politicians are the people who set up so many of the institutions we all rely on. Yes they are often self-serving. Yes they often lie. But if it wasn't for the current US administration extending help with COBRA and unemployment insurance, there would be a lot of kids going to bed hungry in this country. if the UK government hadn't set up the NHS, there'd be a lot of people who died a lot younger. It's just not as simple as 'they all suck.'

I think people who don't vote forfeit the right to complain. As do people who don't get actively involved in making a change.

megalaser

Absolutely, anyone who says that we shouldn't vote is just retarded, it's the same as arguing against choice. They would soon complain if they lived in a dictatorship where they had no democratic rights and were ruled by a fascist, we are lucky that we hold power above that of politicians and have the right to vote them out of office, how can you argue against that?

Octang Frye

It's not a privilege. It's a right. It's a privilege to drive a car.

But if it wasn't for the current US administration extending help with COBRA and unemployment insurance

*facepalm*

Bob

If you've not already set it up, you probably won't have time to get it sorted in time.

Better to get a proxy vote set up instead anyway.

lapin_windstar

There is a view that in liberal democracies like the US and the UK, elections are just a sham that give a false impression of legitimacy to a fundamentally unresponsive and undemocratic form of government that alienates decisionmaking from those with an interest.

There is also a view that liberal democracy is totally permeated with the values of the market and that the supply side of the market is failing over and over again: you have a number of candidates competing for your vote and you're expected to choose based on their platform and your own cost/benefit analysis of the likely results. This is directly analogous to any economic market - in fact, not analogous, it's exactly the same - as you say, it's a "choice" just like buying a car or a tin of beans. But some of these choices are like between Coke and Pepsi, or Miller and Bud - not much of a choice at all. And sometimes it's a choice between the Chevy Equinox and the GMC Terrain - a completely illusory choice.

If a consumer or voter thinks that none of the products are worth buying and none of the candidates are worth voting for - is that the fault of the consumer or those that manufacture the products/candidates? 40% of the registered UK electorate doesn't vote, which means that only a minority of British adults actually voted in the last two elections. If you owned the only supermarket in town and only a minority of the population bought things from you - who's to blame? Conversely, when you do get two candidates/products that have an appreciable difference and do get consumers interested, you get a higher turnout - 2008 Presidential election turnout was the highest in 40ish years.

It's easy to be snotty about people who don't vote but there are many people whose decision not to vote is not unreasonable and not without thought.

PS if you suggest other people are stupid and then call them "retards" - you've already defeated your own argument. http://www.specialolympics.org/sprea...-the-word.aspx

megalaser

'There is a view' and yes it is stupid. Somebody has to govern, one of the candidates has to win, you are arguing to not be involved in that choice and to have government forced upon you instead of choosing who is in power, yes that is stupid indeed. For hundreds of years the people have fought for the democratic right to vote and now you are arguing that living under a dictatorship is better? Why don't you go and live in Iran or Zimbabwe and then you will really know what it feels like before you suggest that a system like that would suit the UK. You my friend are an idiot, especially for the last paragraph in your response, there will always be one sensitive person who wants to ban some commonly used word or phrase that they deem to be politically incorrect and use this to deflect from the issue at hand, if you like I will use the word 'backwards' instead because I believe it is backwards to be arguing against democratic rights. Even if you think that none of the candidates are worth voting for, one of them still has to win and will govern your daily life. Your argument is like a person being given a choice of menus from two restaurants and then choosing neither because there is nothing that you like on both menus, well you have to eat something! Choose or be force fed! Somebody has to govern, this is your chance to be involved in the process.

lapin_windstar

Beautifully put. You're more eloquent than you know.

chartreuse

You appear to view "democracy" as a totem. In some ways, that reminds me of the old cargo cultists.

Incidentally, one fact that you have failed to grasp is that the only thing that choosing the lesser of two evils guarantees is that you'll get evil.

megalaser

'Appear' to you maybe. Yes there will always be evil and I agree you are choosing whom you deem to be the lesser of two evils but one of them will win the election so surely it's best for the people to choose which one? If anyone has a better system than the people deciding who governs them then I would be interested to hear it.

chartreuse

First, you should attempt to prove your assertion that the current system enables the people to decide who governs them. Many of the complaints raised here centre upon a view that offering an (often illusory) choice is not the same as enabling a decision.

megalaser

Get real, you are seriously arguing that if I cannot prove that there is no corruption in an internationally recognized democratic system then we should immediately accept dictatorship as an alternative? Lol!!!

chartreuse

That's got to be one of the weakest attempts at putting up a straw man that I've seen on here.

NB: I'm not laughing with you.