Pretty cheesed off about it too,
I can empathise (that is, I am someone who should be allowed to vote, but isn't )
However, We definatley should not make voting compulsory. The whole function of making voting compulsory would be to make things fairer- to make the people be represented more accuratley, to be more democratic. Voting is a right and a freedom not a duty- men have died for that right, and we should most certainly apppreciate it, but it is a right NOT a duty- men have not died to give everyone the 'right' to pay taxes, because that's a tax not a duty. To MAKE everyone excercise a liberty, completley undermines the whole idea of a liberty in the first place: 'because we are liberal we are going to give you the right to having an opinion- but you are not allowed to not have an opinion'..
I cannot say I agree with the idea of not voting, nor do I agree that political ignorance is a good thing (although it may make you happier for the most part) but fair dos- if someone doesn't WANT to care or take pollitical interst they have that right and I agree with them having that right. If someone doesn't know anything about pollotics, then forcing them to vote would be counter productive- it is the
pollitician's duty to educate people about their pollocies and to get people to WANT to vote for them- obviously a duty they are failing to fullfill- but because of their failure to engage people in pollitics and fullfill their duty- does not mean that the people must have a right to choose eliminated and dressed up as a 'duty' in place of the pollitician's duty.[/quote]
''To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in another's.'' Dostoevsky's Razumihin.
Made my day Agecroft, and after spending all of it in hospital with the missus who probably has viral meningitis suffering balls-up after balls-up, that's a true gift!
