Sunday, April 26, 2015

Tactical voting - why not tactical shopping?

Peter Hitchens describes this as "the most fraudulent General Election I have ever experienced" and discusses Norman Tebbit's message to Scottish voters that they should plump for Labour (rather than the SNP).

It's hardly surprising, considering our crazy, unrepresentative voting system. The big zombie political parties are spending millions (and boy, do they have it from us, let alone biz donors*) on advisers and computers to game it, and spent millions in 2011 to block the introduction of the Alternative Vote. They prefer to continue with an arrangement that can be manipulated, and that gives them Buggins's Turn, to one that might get rid of them altogether. So they'll even encourage us to vote for their equally moribund opponents.

How if we behaved as they urge us, but in relation to our weekly groceries?

"Normally I would shop at Waitrose, but I've read that Lidl is on the rise and must be stopped, so I'll go to Aldi instead."

Pity we can't influence parties as much and as often as we do with retailers. If only we could have a Parliamentary shakeup like the one Dave Lewis is starting at Tesco.


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*Just look at "Short money" for instance:

"General  funding  for  Opposition  Parties  –  the  amount  payable  to  qualifying  parties from 1 April  2014  is  £16,689.13  for every seat won at the last election plus  £33.33  for every 200 votes gained by the party."

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