I'm becoming increasingly politically disillusioned. Tories? - treat the disabled and vulnerable like crap. Labour? worryingly silent about helping the disabled and vulnerable. Lib Dems ?- They willingly went into a coalition with the Tories. Corbynite left?- All too willing to sacrifice the disabled and vulnerable in a quixotic quest for a socialist utopia.
It's about making the least bad choice. That's Labour. I want better than voting for the 'least bad choice'.
but yet if stupid people wasnt allowed to vote the elite would brand everyone stupid... only those that have fancy private school education would be able to vote no? ... they have already branded all of the north to be stupid so the entire north loses all its votes. this leaves only the rich people in london, in the cotswalds and oxford... the rich elite only allowed to vote as they are the only ones with a fancy education to be branded not stupid.... and ofcourse by default anyone with any personality disorder or disability will be branded as too mentally impaired to vote am i right?
Have you looked into why it is that all political parties seem to turn to dog doo-doo after a while?
In my experience with the civil service it comes down to 1 simple thing.
Power corrupts.
Once people get into power then there are so many interested parties who want things done for their personal agendas (or business interests) that they are happy to bribe, blackmail or influence politicians who make the decisions affecting their interest.
I experienced a similar phenomenon in business once I started taking on major purchasing decisions for companies - the bribe offers come thick and fast as do the backstabbers.
Once politicians become mired in this swamp then they also find many others wanting their positions so they are further bogged down with attempts to unseat them, expose them or blackmail them, never mind the endless lies and misinformation that come with politics now.
They spend so much time and effort maintaining their position that they rarely get anything done and lack the bandwidth to do something decent when the opportunity presents itself.
At the end of the day I can only conclude that the people who seek out such positions are singularly unsuited to hold them.
[Understanding why it is that politicians seem to not do anything, and why autistic people seem to be viewed as lesser, are my jam, and my other jam. You’ve hit on my “special” interest.]
Anyone who isn’t considered lesser, by our society, is happy with the status quo. That’s why there are so many groups claiming oppression, and becoming more active.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/oppression
It’s our society, that needs to change. Politicians cannot help us, and they do not want to. When society comes to understand those they deem lesser, such as non-white, non-male, non-neurotypical, non-heterosexual, etc., but, primarily, non-wealthy, beings, it is able to recognise our humanity, and treat us as equal. Our politicians will not help us, because we do not have the ability to buy them. The same is true for non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual, etc., beings.
Wealth is the primary form of being a lesser being, because wealth can exclude an individual from these various, identical forms of being non-human. It’s also through our lack of wealth that we are all united, not as our individual labels, but as non-human, and, therefore, not deserving of society’s consideration. It’s through the fact that society views us all as lacking humanity, and being undeserving of consideration, that we are all equal.
I have come to understand this through reading, and experiencing the NHS’ inability to help me, and refusal to recognise my autism. It has completely destroyed my trust in any government institution’s empathy for those that society views as unworthy of equal treatment. I wonder how many autistic people, non-white, non-British, “foreign” people, female people, Muslim, Jewish, or any other ungodly people, any people who are not like what our society views as ideal, have died due to mistreatment from any of our institutions.
If I’m saying politicians serve those wealthy enough to buy them, why would those wealthy enough to buy them, who also own major media companies in our country, report on the failures of their property, our nation’s political leaders, with any honesty? Why make the politician, who you have purchased, less able to direct the nation’s wealth to your company without the attention of the people? Why do something so silly, and reveal that our lives, the lives of the rest of the country, who are not rich enough to buy the loyalty of our political leaders, are not our own, but a manufactured product of a society that is not for us?
If this sounds like communism, that’s because communism is clearly inspired by the identical core beliefs of the three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Humans are social creatures. We need each other. We all need help. We should not be left to die from our mental disorders, which are a result of trying to integrate into an unaccepting society, because we are born with brains that are different, but still human. Nobody should have to experience that.
(I don’t mean to impose politics onto you, but the political nature of being autistic, in our current society, is brutally imposed on all of us. This is not something we should ignore. There are many autistic people who cannot handle our society, who have taken their own lives. Members of our community, our natural, human, autistic community, are being killed by the cold-hearted, hard-headedness of our society, which leads it to refuse to acknowledge our struggles, and provide us the help we need, in order to operate as any other person does.)
This has been advocated by the rather awful 'Abelard' for quite some time now. www.abelard.org/.../iqedfran.htm
If I could change the electoral system it would be to ensure that stupid people don’t get to vote
It is pretty common for anyone to think that others who have not come to the same conclusion about politics that they have, are stupid.
Unfortunately it seems a massive part of the population are too lazy (ie "there is no point voting as my vote won't make any difference"), have agendas (eg "I'm voting Tory as they cut business taxes that make me rich") or are so set in their ways that they would continue to vote for a party even when it is full of charlatans, grifters and liars (well that covers 99% of politicians).
Maybe we deserve to live in a dictatorship given the omnishambles we have made in electing the last 3 governments (Tory, New Labour and Tory again). I don't imagine the next lot will be any different.
I too am disillusioned with politics, as others have said the only thing politicians are interested in, those of any party, is getting and holding on to power. Labour are as bad as the Tories, Kier Starmer for instance is jettisoning many core socialist beliefs in order to win the coming general election. He’s doing this because unfortunately the majority of the electorate are right leaning and prejudiced as Brexit clearly demonstrated, just one local example being that the people in my very disadvantaged northern town go endlessly on about immigration being bad (we have a hotel in the area dedicated to Ukrainian refugees) and how they are “taking food out of the mouths of combat veterans”, are child abusers, “should be the ones on the streets sleeping rough”. It saddens me so much to see disadvantaged people attacking other disadvantaged people, worse though is that these people are symptomatic of the electorate. If I could change the electoral system it would be to ensure that stupid people don’t get to vote
PS....It's wild fire season - the crowds heading in have all brought disposable BBQ's with them, and the grass in this field is TINDER dry and VERY long. I'm slinging my stuff over me'shoulder and headin on out - see you elsewhere soon.
Good. You bring me joy Pegg. Thank you.
I'm not sure about it taking 3 terms to become rotten. May and Cameron's governments only look less awful by comparison to what came after.
And I would be very concerned about the actions of politicians who are assured of their party losing power. It would be actively beneficial for them to allow crises to develop and have them fall at the next person's door. If the concrete had lasted just a little longer, they would have been very happy to be able to claim that crumbling schools is a Labour problem.
I can't give up entirely Number, although many times I've wished to. That's not in my DNA either, annoyingly..
Yea - I hear you - and I don't disagree with you either.
I try to steer clear of political discourse here - too depressing & inflammatory for such a diverse and generally collegiate bunch of folk - I don't want to accidentally start a wild fire !
One of my special interests is the study of past civilisations on this planet over the past 5 millennia or so.
Accordingly, I would ask that a young soul such as yourself, DOES hold on to "hope" please.....it is the one thing that we can ALL get behind ! If we become entirely hopeless - well - you can imagine !
"Hope Springs Eternal."
Enjoy the sunshine (but try not to think too deeply about why it is approx 30 degrees in the UK half way through September !!!!!!!!!) [And yes, I know it is an Iberian Plume for anyone who thinks I meant that literally - rather than just "in the round." Meteorology is another of my special interests.]
It's about making the least bad choice
All the parties are only interested in being power so they can do whatever they want when they get there.
For us, the disabled and vulnerable, we are just too small a percentage of the vote to be worth doing anything serious about. We are never going to make a shift in the power balance and it isn't as if we represent one political viewpoint so there is just too little return for the time investment needed to look after us.
We are also financially much more expensive to cater to than the rest of the population - they are not asking for every company in the country to implement a system where comms can be done without a phone (as one example) to for staff to be hired in organisations such as schoold and universities to make it easier for us to participate.
We are just not attractive to them other than to pay lip service to in the hope of getting votes.
In the bigger picture of the balance of power in the country, any party that stays in for 3 terms invariably becomes rotten. It is happening now, it happened to New Labour and it happened to the conservatives under Thatcher at the end.
I think all parties should be limited to 2 terms just to ensure the late stage rotteness is avoided, but that would no doubt bring plenty of its own problems too.
I agree with firemonkey that getting the current bunch out is more important than what is going to replace them - it would be hard to be any worse.
In that case I expect they're not wrong, pretty much everything is broken. It's hard to find something that isn't. Societal systems and institutions we've taken for granted, that in fact took many decades of work and political struggle to effect have been so far eroded in recent years that they're collapsing. Really difficult to think about what comes next.
Britannia Unchained, if we re-elect the Tories. Most are blissfully unaware, of anything really. By the time they wake up, it'll be too late.
A cheery topic for a sunny afternoon... I loathe politics, and being involved with people, but feel obliged to be involved, because the situation is so dire. I don't hold out much hope though, honestly.
Voting should be mandatory with a "none of the above" option
Not the ones that I speak to.....they seem fearful that the system (their system, if you like) has become broken beyond repair.....there is a pervasive stench of fear and frustration wherever I look.
Well, I'd be surprised to hear if ANYONE in this country was satisfied with the status quo at the moment
That'll be the people with money who benefit from the unequal society. Sure they're quite happy with the status quo.
Afternoon FM,
Well, I'd be surprised to hear if ANYONE in this country was satisfied with the status quo at the moment OR if they were "excited and pleased" about the imminent political landscape either.
"In a democracy, people get the leadership they deserve." It is this truism (as I see it) that makes me most sad. I cannot focus my disillusionment on the political system or politicians themselves (generally).........its the current populous and the way that "we" have collectively opted to live and operate that makes me sad. Foolish & short-sighted.
