The upcoming elections

[Rave]

I suppose if you genuinely don't know who to vote for you're a bit stuck. I've never been in that situation, but if I was, I'd probably either vote for the party currently in power if I was happy with the way things are going, or for any other non-extremist party if I wasn't. If you vote against the government then you can turn around and have every right to protest against any of their policies; after all, you didn't vote for them.

I know exactly what you mean about the parties not bothering to campaign at all in areas where they know they won't get any votes; I used to live in a dodgy run-down estate in the corner of Southampton which just happened to be part of the Romsey consituency (Romsey is a leafy market town next to Southampton). The MP was killed in a house fire, but I didn't even realise he had been my MP until the campaigning started for the by-election. I think I got one leaftet from Labour, none from the Conservatives and about thirty from the Liberal Democrats; I also spoke to the Lib-Dem candidate who was canvassing as I came back from work one day. In a famous victory she overturned a big Tory majority to win the seat.

Rich :¬)

[RVF500]

Well. I'm moving away from the mainstream for this and voting for one of the anti-European parties. In this case the UKIP. Not that I think they will win but because if they get enough seats they may be able to force some balance into the whole thing and slow down or even deviate the course of a small group of people who appear to have hijacked the original concept of common market and either harnessed it to their own political ambition or used it as a goose to lay golden eggs. After all, where else could Neil Kinnock get a job?

[PanzerKnight]

heard on radio 1 yesterday (i think) that the UKIP is gonna wiin about 20% of the vote which is a fair amount.

Dont see the problem of joining europe..but then again havent looked at the pro's and con's too closely. got a few mates who live in european countries and they don't see why we don't join. If i get the postal vote thingy will do that

[Devilbod]

<RANT>
I just can't be bothered to vote anymore, it not that it wont make a difference every vote counts, it's just I dont think either of the main parties are any good and the rest of the small parties tend to be one policy types or extremeists who it would be a bad thing to vote in.

On Europe I have mixed feelings, there appears to be more corruption in the european governments, but on the other side of the coin I do see a fair amount of growth and oportunity in a lot of areas of industry, growth and oportunity that we haven't got here. Take the computer games industry, all I keep hearing about is all the emerging developers in europe and all the small developers in the UK dissapearing or being taken over by the big fish so they have a chance to stay afloat.
But it seems a mute point - parties like the UKIP and BNP have stired up the UK's public hatred for Europe by telling us well loose our sovereignty and what makes us British which is utter bs (I'm always staring at a pound coin at the German Queens head and shouting for all to hear 'I'm Glad I'm British'), but the general public beleive it so even if there is a possibility that things might improve here after joining with Europe the general public will probably vote the other way.
</RANT>

on a side note: if people would look at history a bit closer you would soon discover that only 10% of the population can claim to be 100% British, most of us our a mix of German, Swedish, French, Italian....
Roast dinner and the Money system where bought over here by the Romans...
Fish and Chips is Spanish...
The Queen is German...
LOL