Emigrate or Not?

[crinklystarfish]

peter - 2008-02-06 8:31 PM

crinklystarfish - 2008-02-05 10:30 AM

Emigrate or not? It depends where to.

Still searching for that elusive place where common standards of decency, civic pride, and respect for the environment are the values that smack you in the face whenever you venture outside. If anyone knows such a place, I’d appreciate the nod. 

Norway/>/> is the closest I’ve yet seen. Sadly the UK/>/> falls way short – and appears to be getting worse, particularly regarding mutual respect and civic pride. I don’t feel like there’s any compelling reason to stay here at all.

Check out Austria

Cheers Peter, I absolutely will.

[mom]

I have the answer, I believe, to fix your poor quality politicians and parties, but whenever I mention it, I get thumped from all directions! So I am reticent to mention it!

 

Ah well, in for a penny....

 

The way to dramatically improve the quality of your politicians and their parties is to introduce compulsory voting. At this point, I get screams of "true democracy gives us the right to choose, and I choose not to vote". My response is always the same, "true democracy should give you the right to choose on everything, except the decision to vote". Democracy exists only because we vote. When too few vote, the party with the strongest minority backing wins. And this can be catastrophic, leading easily to the destruction of the existing political process by corrupt governments with agendas.

 

Of course, this is the extreme, and we're not there yet, but just imagine if you were the leader of one of the current political parties. At your strategy meetings, you will be focusing on pleasing only the groups and factions in the community that are likely to vote, or likely to make a difference. You don't have to look after the country as a whole, just those bits likely to have greatest effect at the polls. All the parties will be doing this, on all sides of politics. Now imagine that suddenly everyone will be voting. The sections of the community not accustomed to voting will attend the voting hall, and at some stage on the walk to the booth, think "Ah well, I'm annoyed with all this, but I guess I need to choose someone." And the parties who have ignored them will not get their vote. This will have a dramatic effect on the outcome.

 

Now imagine that compulsory voting has been in place for quite some time. Political party strategy meetings will now be considering every group, every demographic, every corner of the community. Because they know that almost 100% of the adult population will be in the booths on polling day. They will lift their game, or be out. Natural selection will attend to the rest!

 

Of course, this can never happen, because the politicians themselves would have to bring it in, and at the moment they have it nice and comfy.

 

The alternative to compulsory voting, is everyone voluntarily voting, everyone choosing to vote anyway. But whenever I ask friends here why they don't vote, the answer is the same. "All the politicians are useless, there's nothing to choose from and my vote wouldn't make a difference anyway". So unfortunately it is the people who keep politics where it is. The parties will only improve if you make them.

 

My vote is very precious to me. It is the single greatest gift given to me by this country, and I never want it to be taken from me.

 

In my humble opinion, anyway!

 

[CliveH]

Agreed - I have felt that making the vote compulsory is a way forward.

 

For those that object to being forced, then there should be a "None of the above" option on the ballot paper.

 

[Sparkle]

K&D - 2008-02-04 8:33 PM

 

ive always said id hate to one day say "i wish i had done this years ago" i admire people that do go to live in hotter climates, personally id like to give it a try but its a case of not wanted to mend something that isnt broken. i have a good mostly easy to run business close family and friends here in nottingham. we have three young kids two of which have just started school, i think it only fair to give them a brittish education our local schools are good (we live in a nicer part of nottingham for anyone stratching their head). and having moved down to live with me from manchester karen is very settled and has lots of friends in the village. so for now at least, personal circumstances makes us better off still in uk. looking forward to the holidays

 

I have to say the kids out here seem very well adjusted - from the families that we know who have moved out here. I wish I had the chance to grow up in a place learning 2 or 3 different languages (in the case around here its english, spanish (castellano) and valenciano. Its like turning back the clock 30 yrs or more to when I was a kid in the Uk... the family values out here are so strong and sadly the UK seems to be loosing it, with the pressures everyone is under to work hard to earn the dosh to live.