Voting in all elections should mandatory, on penalty of £50 fine.

Everybody should get the day off.

No, I don't get that. Day off not a bad idea, or half day off at least. Make it as easy as possible to vote, but I don't see why it should be compulsory. It would make it harder for a fanatical minority to gain more power than their numbers would warrant, but that's only a problem if it's not your fanatical minority, and if it isn't then get out and vote! Otherwise, you have nobody but yourself to blame.

The right to vote is a free right that we have all earned!
We shouldn't be made to vote or should we be made to pay a fine.What a stupid idea.
I also think that your idea of getting a day of is crap.Why should the country come to a hault because of voting.The only 2 days a year in which bissnesses have to close is Christmas and Easter Sunday due to religous belifes I hardly think that voting crappy labour should be put in the bible (maybe voting green).Where I come from we have a postal vote anyway so it is easy.

Well, first off, bollocks did we earn it, we inherited an easy life. One which the majority of the people in this country don't even bother to take seriously, despite knowing full well how much is affected by the people in power.

Next up, you would only have to pay a fine if you were too lazy to fill in the forms or trot around the corner to the polling station. My point is that anyone who is too stupid to realise that five minutes mild effort beats a fifty quid fine deserves to line the governments coffers. But everybody would vote, voter turnout would be 100% and we'd be looking at a complete turn around in the way politics is done in this country, with a very rapid move away from the top-heavy fat-cat society we're currently stuck in.

Giving people the day off is a more stupid idea, but the country wouldn't come to a halt, most people wouldn't even exercise their right, just look at Sundays, or even Christmas day. And how exactly did you get to the idea that I want to put Labour in the bible? I'll give you ten out of ten creative points for that one at least.

What's you seemed to have failed to notice is that the status quo isn't working. Voting is a piece of piss, I actually enjoyed the sunny evening walk to the polling station with my girlfriend. Despite the ease, three in five people don't bother. Three in five! Something clearly has to be done. I'm not claiming to know the answers, I just think it's worth considering some radical suggestions. I don't see you having any bright ideas.

Then again, thinking about it, a day off would actually give people time to consider the issues and policies in question. Maybe they wouldn't just potter off and tick the same boxes their parents ticked, maybe they'd vote for people likely to give them what they wanted. Maybe some of them would even consider taking part themselves.

Hmmm, I hadn't thought about it in that way. Your point about changing the nature of politics is particularly significant. What would we get? I think it would just make politics even more populist, as it would no longer be a sane tactic to appeal to a small devoted group, as the Greens do.

Then again, they have compulsory voting in Australia, and do they have a significantly different political dialectic there?

holy shat u rock

holy shat u rock

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