Three times in three days I have had a conversation about the failings of voters.Admittedly, our FPTP voting system lends itself to peculiarities and bizarre outcomes - not least of which that governments can be elected on achieving fewer votes than the party which comes second!
Nonetheless, what is inexcusable is to vote for what you do not want or out of ignorance. Very large amounts of Liberal Democrat voters do not know what the party - certainly on the national level - actually supports. If they did ....
There is a perception that "The Lib Dems are the middle ground between Labour and the Tories, well aren't they?" - Er, no! They are currently the most leftwing of the three principal parties.
Many voters - and yes even some members - do not truly grasp what they are getting.
The people for whom this party really is 'the promised land' nationally are the head-in-the-clouds, ivory tower, leftwing, angst-driven academics and trendy lawyers whose grasp on political realities is restricted to bourgeois, dinner party solutions to complex problems.
Surprisingly,on the local level they have some very good councillors - although admittedly these are only a small minority.
In Sheffield, voting Labour is like an illness which passes genetically through the generations.
The Labour vote for many tens of thousands in the city is simply automatic. Such people can hardly find a policy to agree with and it matters not what else is on offer, Labour will get that vote come what may. Opinions are ingrained - entrenched even.
Converse with a local Labour voter over the fence and you will agree on nearly everything you talk about. That same person will then cast their vote for a party which offers them virtually nothing as a matter of course.
The traditional Conservative voter however has simply been disenfranchised. The tories have moved so far to the left, they can reasonably be represented as a party of the centre left under Cameron.
This has the merit of appealing to the guardianistas who infest the media - particularly in broadcasting. Consequently, they get 'a better press' than before.
Tory voters either stay at home on election day or continue to vote Conservative in the vain hope that 'something will change'.
The average tory MP could move to become Labour or Lib Dem and from a policy point of view, would hardly notice the difference!
The electorate get a raw deal from their politicians, certainly, but if we are honest, a massive amount of our troubles are self inflicted. It is rightly said that "A nation gets the politicians it deserves." If we do not vote against the immoral, the grabbers, the politically correct and the parties they represent - we do get all we deserve. the same can be said if we do not engage our brains before voting.
How many people vote Green in the belief that they are a group of 'nice folks who are perhaps a bit soft but they do care for the planet'?
How many know that the Greens are a party which attracts the rejects of marxism?
How many people have actually studied their policies, I wonder? It would be interesting how many would vote for them if they were to read up on their crime policies alone. Believe me - their vote would plummet.
At one point they actually advocated disenfranchising voters for disagreeing with them on certain policies!
UKIP is a very ordinary party with plenty of failings - but most of those are down to simple human weaknesses.
On the policy front, they will appeal to all who are not philosophically left of centre and yet many of leftwing persuasions join the party as the best means to try to combat the excesses of the European Union - which sadly, so many voters are yet to recognise as the biggest issue in modern politics. Why, you ask? - Because its insidious influence underpins action on all the other policies which are dear to people's hearts.
http://www.ukip.org/ukip/index.php
