The Euro Elections.
So, I’m sitting in bed, watching the BBC bring us the results to the euro elections. Firstly, I know this site is nowhere near finished, but I am going to publish this, so people know my opinion.
The apathy of people not voting is killing the UK. It seems like the extremists are actually getting off their arses, in places like Yorkshire, (and at the time of writing rumoured) in the North West, and have voted in their thousands this year, and the BNP have seat(s) in the European Parliament.
Let me focus on Yorkshire, as this is an interesting result, and why the apathy is killing the UK.
Back in 2004, Yorkshire was trialled as a postal voting only system. We got the forms through the post in plenty of time, and huge instructions on what to do, and also an envelope to send the votes back in. This was wonderful, I could sit down, research, and decide who to vote for. But not just that. It meant that people voted.
Lets look at 7 parties that stood in both 2004 and 2009.
In total 1514798 people voted in 2004
In total 1160995 people voted in 2009
so there are 353803 votes less this year, than 5 years ago.
So who didn’t turn out?
2004 – Labour – 413213
2009 – Labour – 230009
183000 people didn’t vote for labour this year.
2004 – Conservative – 387369
2009 – Conservative – 299802
87000 people didn’t vote for conservatives this year.
so far, with 2 parties, we’ve got over 250,000 people who could fill in a form and send it in the post, but couldn’t actually get to a polling station, or just too lazy to go.
It can’t be that they can’t get to the station, they could have ordered a postal vote regardless.
The LibDems don’t paint a pretty picture either, as they got 14000 less votes this year.
The Green Party did wonderfully in Yorkshire, with 14000 more votes than 2004, so maybe a swing in votes there. Obviously that’s just me looking at figures, and proving a point, and also the English Democrats had 7000 more votes. So 2 parties out of 7 had an INCREASE in votes. But the BNP, who actually had less votes this time around, got a seat in the European Parliament.
The huge drop in the Labour support and the Conservative support, meant the BNP got a seat, but when you look at figures, you find out that 126000 people voted for them in 2004, yet they didn’t get a seat, but this year, 120000 voted for them, and they got a seat. 6000 less people voted for BNP, yet they got a seat. The margin of apathy in the extreme racist party that the BNP are, is a lot less than the apathetic people who support the “major” parties.
Maybe the Euro elections people don’t think of as important?
The only reason that this is, is that the people who supported Labour, and Conservatives, could not be bothered to vote. They mustn’t have thought it was important enough
Surely the argument can now show that a postal vote is probably the best way forward for any election. 353000 more people voted in 2004, when it was a postal vote!
Or, isn’t about time we got some kind of electronic system in. It’s not as if the security at the polling stations is high. You can just walk in, tell them your name and where you live, and they’ll give you a form! You don’t need the polling card, and I’m sure they don’t check everyones ID.
So, on those polling cards, why can’t there be a code in the corner. We’re all just a number anyway when we vote, so why not log into a website with our number, and enter our address, and then the code, and we can vote online. Links could be added to the parties website, so people might actually be able to educate themselves before they click submit.
The voting could be open longer with the online system, and also, it would save the 10000 or so spoiled papers, because it could be verified before final submission.
It’s 1am. I should get to sleep, I just needed to rant about the awful result in Yorkshire and probably the North West.
So, if you agree with me, can I urge you to go along to this website - http://tinyurl.com/n6jw39 – and sign the petition.
Thanks for reading!
M4RKM
