Bipartisan politics is nothing but two sides of the same coin flipped to decide our fate.
There is an undeniable urgency for an alternative voting system in the UK. In response to the May 8th Tory victory, Northern Englanders have filed an official Change.org petition to secede from the Westminster-dominated South.
The initiative, titled #TakeUsWithYouScotland, was a humorous Twitter hashtag that gained significant momentum, Huffington Post highlights. Supporters are fed up with the bipartisan rule over UK politics, and feel closer, culturally and politically, to Edinburgh, now ruled by the Scottish National Party (SNP).
This reopens the wound of the unsuccessful 2014 Scottish Referendum and failed Devo Max compromise with the Tories. The English proletariat are now faced with another 5 years of Thatcherism (aka war on the working class) crippling austerity and social programme cuts, excessive securitization, and runaway lobbying.
FIRST PAST THE POST
The First Pass the Post (FPTP) voting system, which favours voting leaning to Tory or Labour constituencies, is squarely to blame. Activist Peter Tatchell explained that the current system, formerly favouring a Labour constituency, recently swung to the Tories, and requires far more Green, LD, or UKIP votes for them to gain seats in Parliament.
He added, “Without FPTP, we might never have had the Thatcher and Major governments and, as a result, possibly never had New Labour and the ditching of socialism under Blair and Brown. No poll tax and no Iraq war?” A Konbini article cited Green MP John Bartley, who saliently highlighted, “You look at the long term trends over 30/40 years – fewer people are voting for the two biggest parties and the FPTP system was set up for a two-party vote. It’s no longer fit for purpose.”
VOTER TURNOUT
Regarding overall voter morale, since 1979, Western Europeans have been voting with historically low numbers; the organisation Open Europe notes that voter participation has plummeted from 62 pc to 42.54 pc in a little less than 35 years. Furthermore, the European Commission holds 28 unelected technocrats, completely bypassing democracy and passing egregious laws like the bloody Period Tampon Tax and bans on vacuums.
Kobani continues that the Electoral Commission has not provided a ‘None of the Above” option, and simply dismisses spoilt ballots. “You can draw a penis on the card or tick all or none of them to ‘spoil’ it, but in the counts, often the spoilt ballots are lumped in with the ‘no vote’ and ‘undetectable vote’ sections,” the article asserted.
CONCLUSION
We at ALLRIOT believe that it is time for a None of the Above option, recognising that bipartisan politics are simply two sides of the same coin flipped to decide our fate. Voting NOTA will validate Europe’s dissatisfaction with every political clusterfuck elitist technocrats have orchestrated behind closed doors, including the TTIP and perpetual warfare.
We want it so that, each year, citizens choose nothing but that which really matters; an end to endless political snafus. Make sure that NOTA is on every ballot to express the miserable failures of our unrepresentative government, and every 4-5 years, fill their offices with cards of good tidings as a reminder.
