I hate them all but wanted to show I was still willing to take the time and effort to cast a vote. I spoiled my ballot by drawing a massive ejaculating penis with hairy balls. Regardless of who wins I despair for the future... :-(
thomasquinn 32989 · Member since
I thought the Official Monster Raving Loony Party was the reasonable alternative. Shame they didn't get a huge majority.
Anyway, I'm glad that Theresa May didn't get the huge majority she was hoping for. "Hung parliament" seems like what a lot of people would want to see put into practice very literally.*
* I know it's "hanged" and not "hung", but just give me this, okay?
Holly2003 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]
I spoiled my ballot by drawing a massive ejaculating penis with hairy balls.[/QUOTE]
Isn't that a vote for UKIP?
mooghead · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]
I spoiled my ballot by drawing a massive ejaculating penis with hairy balls.[/QUOTE]
Isn't that a vote for UKIP?
[/QUOTE]
Looks like I blasted them away....
thomasquinn 32989 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]
I spoiled my ballot by drawing a massive ejaculating penis with hairy balls.[/QUOTE]
Isn't that a vote for UKIP?
[/QUOTE]
You just won yourself a free beer.
Thistle · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]
I hate them all but wanted to show I was still willing to take the time and effort to cast a vote. I spoiled my ballot by drawing a massive ejaculating penis with hairy balls. Regardless of who wins I despair for the future... :-([/QUOTE]
I know you're likely joking, but you do know that is NOT wasting your ballot paper, right? If you put the cock and balls in a box, and left the others empty, you have just voted for the person you put the drawing in.
You could also write "wank, wank, good guy, wank" and the "good guy" would be a vote.
I was at a count last year, representing a well known party and candidate...when the officers were putting papers into the "spoiled" pile, my job was to fight for anything I thought was actually ours. I won every contested paper.
YourValentine · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Thistleboy1980 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]
I hate them all but wanted to show I was still willing to take the time and effort to cast a vote. I spoiled my ballot by drawing a massive ejaculating penis with hairy balls. Regardless of who wins I despair for the future... :-([/QUOTE]
I know you're likely joking, but you do know that is NOT wasting your ballot paper, right? If you put the cock and balls in a box, and left the others empty, you have just voted for the person you put the drawing in.
You could also write "wank, wank, good guy, wank" and the "good guy" would be a vote.
I was at a count last year, representing a well known party and candidate...when the officers were putting papers into the "spoiled" pile, my job was to fight for anything I thought was actually ours. I won every contested paper.
[/QUOTE]
Really interesting read. I have been an election committee volunteer for many years and in Germany the rules are very different. As soon as you write something or draw something on the ballot the vote will be invalid. If you write an exclamation mark (!) instead of a cross (x) into the circle next to the candidate or party the vote counts as per court ruling. If you use a question mark, smiley or anything else it makes the vote invalid.
It is also important to make your vote invalid rather than not voting because invalid votes cannot be used by parties to get their percentage tax money per vote while the non-votes are counted like votes and parties get money from you even if you did not vote.
Thistle · Member since
That makes sense Barbara. We should make it that way too. I know I'll probably take a panning here for saying it, but I also think there should be a basic test to see if people are actually fit to vote - there are so many who don't have a clue about what they're voting for or why, and many think they're voting correctly but somehow spoil the paper: how difficult is it to read the fecking instructions? I was just at a local council count, and it was the STV system - mark each candidate in order of preference (for instance 1-6) or simply just number the candidate(s) you wish to vote for. So many still put X next to all candidates....which, of course, meant we couldn't determine the order of preference.
I know I'll probably take a panning here for saying it, but I also think there should be a basic test to see if people are actually fit to vote - there are so many who don't have a clue about what they're voting for or why, and many think they're voting correctly but somehow spoil the paper: how difficult is it to read the fecking instructions?[/QUOTE]
You're so obviously right - but tragically, important life decisions like voting and breeding aren't reserved only for those of higher intellect or even sane decision making processing abilities.
In fact, this mentality is precisely largely what led to the election of Donald Trump - people with double digit IQs were tired of being excluded from the political process. They were tired of the big words and political correctness of educated people and wanted to return to the world of the 1950s where someone with a grade 4 education could easily get a hard labour job and buy a house.
But as seen in the French, Dutch, and now UK elections - this trend of right wing populism was just a passing fad. Rationality seems to be returning to the fore, at least for the time being. Of the industrialized nations, it's only the US who are out to lunch now.
How humiliating this defeat must be for May. She had a majority and got greedy, and it blew up in her face.
But the sad thing is - if this were true about a right wing party these days, it wouldn't surprise me.
thomasquinn 32989 · Member since
From what I know, the DUP isn't really that right wing - economically, it seems to be quite a bit to the left of the Conservative Party, but it is EXTREMELY reactionary on social policy - a majority of its support comes from fundamentalist protestants (Ian Paisley's lot), it wants creationism to be taught in schools, it wants 'sodomy' made illegal again, and it wants the death penalty reinstated (and some of its more radical supporters want to make homosexual acts a capital offense again). That's going to cause a lot of trouble - the Conservative Party is economically rightist, but many representatives are not social conservatives, certainly not to this US heartland-like extent. The DUP is going to play its hand as strongly as it can, Theresa May is in no position to drive a hard bargain, and it only takes a handful of Conservative MPs to rebel for this prime minister to tumble. That's not a stable situation. May is trying to head this off by not going for a true coalition but simply an informal agreement, but I doubt that will be enough - the DUP is going to charge a serious price for its support. If poorly handled, this could even spark more unrest in Northern Ireland, a very disturbing scenario.
I think Osborne may well have been spot on when he called her "a dead woman walking". And that's without even considering her incredibly weak position when Brexit negotiations start in a week!
Holly2003 · Member since
"a majority of its support comes from fundamentalist protestants "
Not quite true. Protestants certainly but in Northern Ireland people tend to vote tactically to stop the "other side" gaining power so many perfectly ordinary people hold their noses and vote DUP to ensure the likes of Sinn Fein don't attain a majority. In this election Brexit complicates things a bit but not that much. SF like to position themselves as socially liberal so on the surface this looks like a vote for (religious) conservative against liberals but in actuality it is exactly like every other vote in Northern Ireland -- unionists voting for unionists and nationalists voting for nationalists. As much as I despise both the Tories and DUP, they have every right to form an agreement and unionists from Northern Ireland have every right to be represented in a national UK government -- just as Scottish or Welsh nationalists would possibly have been if Labour had gained enough MPs.
The Real Wizard · Member since
Great discussion.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves, this is all moot until the Queen gives the green light.
She just may say no.
Thistle · Member since
Great discussion indeed! Remember those on QZ? ;) :p
thomasquinn 32989 · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
"a majority of its support comes from fundamentalist protestants "
Not quite true. Protestants certainly but in Northern Ireland people tend to vote tactically to stop the "other side" gaining power so many perfectly ordinary people hold their noses and vote DUP to ensure the likes of Sinn Fein don't attain a majority. In this election Brexit complicates things a bit but not that much. SF like to position themselves as socially liberal so on the surface this looks like a vote for (religious) conservative against liberals but in actuality it is exactly like every other vote in Northern Ireland -- unionists voting for unionists and nationalists voting for nationalists. As much as I despise both the Tories and DUP, they have every right to form an agreement and unionists from Northern Ireland have every right to be represented in a national UK government -- just as Scottish or Welsh nationalists would possibly have been if Labour had gained enough MPs. [/QUOTE]
It may have come to that in these most recent elections, but from what I know, less/not fundamentalist-religiously inclined Unionists tended to vote UUP rather than DUP. This may have changed with the death of Ian Paisley, who was pretty toxic to anyone who wasn't an adherent of his branch of Presbyterianism. The UUP certainly did get wiped out in these past elections, and the DUPs growth is pretty much exactly the the UUPs shrinkage, so that backs up your story.
Still, I would argue that, until recently, the DUP was a bullwark of religiously extremist Unionists, while the UUP was the party of more moderately conservative Unionists. I may be wrong, but that is the impression of the Unionist side of Northern Irish politics I always had.
