Party politics and voting.

[Phill]

Damned if they do and damned if they don't! Woe the politician!!

The UK is a party based government / political system, Why?

Who do you vote for and why?
Do you actually seriously consider all the relevant candidates on offer for your local council/MEP/MSP/MP vote? Or do you vote for whichever party you've always voted for, or your parents voted for?

Do you read party manifesto's or do you listen to the individual representatives offerings?
Do you vote for the person you think will do best for your area or do you vote for the national party?

[tonkatojo]

Damned if they do and damned if they don't! Woe the politician!!

The UK is a party based government / political system, Why?

Who do you vote for and why?
Do you actually seriously consider all the relevant candidates on offer for your local council/MEP/MSP/MP vote? Or do you vote for whichever party you've always voted for, or your parents voted for?

Do you read party manifesto's or do you listen to the individual representatives offerings?
Do you vote for the person you think will do best for your area or do you vote for the national party?

Phill you should know by now the party system is toe the line or face the whip and be deselected, hence all the good guys do not count in the present system. A question for you name some independents that have made any significant changes in any of the UK parliaments.

[Phill]

Phill you should know by now the party system is toe the line or face the whip and be deselected, hence all the good guys do not count in the present system. A question for you name some independents that have made any significant changes in any of the UK parliaments.

So, you acknowledge then that a Party system is flawed?

Significant changes... Subjective. May not be initially and immediately significant but small acorns and all that.

[Rheghead]

I used to vote Labour until I saw that they were tories in sheep's clothing, deffo left-libertarian. Does it show?

http://www.politicalcompass.org/charts/uk2010.php

[David Banks]

The UK is a party based government / political system, Why?



First a question: my British history is not as good as it should be. Have political parties evolved over time, or has each party's manifesto been unchanged for many years?

Next, an observation from Canada: our political parties have evolved over the years I have lived here, especially on the right. There was the Progressive Conservative party, which sounds like there were changes in the past. Then came the Reform party. Then, the Alliance party. Then, briefly, the Conservative Reform Alliance Party (CRAP) - yes, seriously, that was their name. Now we have the plain old Conservative party of Stephen Harper.

Thirdly: I do not have any objections to a party system so long as there is proportional representation.

Main Questions: How would a non-party system work? Are there any working models?