Spotlight Election Special
There's no edition of William Crawley Meets ... tonight. We're making space for an extended election special edition of Spotlight (it begins at 10.30pm), which features a live studio debate. I'll be interviewing the writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg when our series returns next Tuesday night. He's one of my broadcasting heroes; I'll write a little more about meeting Melvyn next week.
Will you be voting tomorrow? I'm one of an apparently growing number of people who believes that voting should be a legal obligation for members of a democracy. We already have a legal obligation to register for elections; there's something to be said for extending that principle to establish a legal duty in respect of actually voting. People can vote in person, by proxy or by post, and they are entirely within their rights should they wish to spoil their ballot paper, but why not make it a responsibility of citizenship to cast a vote in one way or another?
There's also something to be said for reducing the voting age to 16 -- an age now widely recognised as the threshhold of adulthood.
Comments
I'm not sure I agree that voting should be mandatory. There are some very good reasons that people don't vote; some of them are even justifiable!
What other obligations of society do we want to force upon our fellow citizens? Bring back the draft? How about mandatory civil service? Or if you want to watch a TV you should be forced to fund a broadcasting corpor- oops. We're already doing that.
I won't be voting.
Why should I be forced to attend a polling centre?
I really don't get it.
SG
errrr
who actually is Will speaking about when he says 16 is "widely" regarded as adulthood???
This is the generation that has given us the tweenagers after all.
Regarding compulsary voting, that almost seems like a possible first step on the road to some form of totalitarianism; not voting is itself an expression of non-support for political parties.
I have seen several carefully thought out articles which explain why young people are so put off by politics; politicians never listen to what matters to young people.
Put another way by one daily newspaper editor, the things people get VERY passionate about, political parties often refuse to take a stance on. This chap said political parties often take the attitude that such matters are best resolved among themselves and not left to the vulgar voters.
one clear example he gave was abortion.
Put another slant on it, why is the daily mail the only newspaper in the uk which has rocketing circulation? most of the others are plummeting or just clinging on by their fingernails.
Now, these people will vote, but which party will articulate their views and concerns?
So, not voting too is a perfectly valid kick up the rear to politicans too, and a voice in itself they should listen to.
But what do I know?
PB
John, what do you say about Will's point about the registration to vote. In the UK we are required by law to register. Thats not true in america, right? I think will has a point. I know australia has a law requiring people to vote. Good idea if you ask me.
Stephen G nobody ever kicked a politician in the back side by NOT voting!
I get really annoyed by people living on state benefits who are too lazy to even walk to a local primary school and cast a vote in an election.
Im all for making voting compulsory.
dumbdumb- You haven't actually said what it would accomplish, or made an argument for it. You've just said you agree with Will. Why?
Dumb:
That isn't good enough reason for making voting compulsory.
And since when was voting for any of them giving them a kick up the backside?
Don't vote - you only encourage the buggers!
SG
I think I'd like to see voting become compulsory but on one condition - that there is a "none of the above" option on the bottom of the ballot paper!
REF POST #5
Helenanne Smith why do you assume that those who are on state benefit are to lazy to vote why not apportion the blame of not voting on the middle classes, I would suggest to you that you have no evidence to support your first order language therefore your statement is without grounds.
I think I'd like to see voting become compulsory but on one condition - that there is a "none of the above" option on the bottom of the ballot paper!
REF POST #5
Helenanne Smith why do you assume that those who are on state benefit are to lazy to vote why not apportion the blame of not voting on the middle classes, I would suggest to you that you have no evidence to support your first order language therefore your statement is without grounds.
I think I'd like to see voting become compulsory but on one condition - that there is a "none of the above" option on the bottom of the ballot paper!
My oldest daughter is almost sixteen. She doesn't have a financial stake in society, so a lot of political issues don't affect her yet. Equally, she hasn't really a historical context to put current politics into - to a child that has no memory of the troubles, the contortions required to reach a working power-sharing executive are unfathomable.
Basically, I'm not sure that her choice would be very informed. She's not quite got past the stage of assuming everyone from an older generation is hopelessly unenlightened about everything.
Alien Line [Real or not? You decide!]
Do you know that there are more than one kind of alien? Well, there are. People categorize aliens by what they look like. If they are grey, if they look like humans, if they look like reptiles, or anything else. They can come in ALL shapes or sizes. Some aliens are considered 'ancient' because they worked in the military thousands of years ago, and then suddenly left the earth.
looking --->