Philip John

Tag: voting

  • Why I voted in a safe seat

    A little while ago I posited the argument that not voting is a proxy vote for the winner. Now I’m going to suggest that it’s worth voting even in a safe seat where you’re voting against the incumbent. In Lichfield I’ve voted for Rob Pass, the Green Party candidate. He won’t get anywhere close to…

  • It’s down to politicians to persuade non-voters otherwise, not to force them to vote.

    It’s down to politicians to persuade non-voters otherwise, not to force them to vote. http://leftfootforward.org/2015/01/compulsory-voting-no-sweeping-intervention-can-fix-our-electoral-system/

  • Why I’m voting Green, and why you should definitely vote today.

    After using the excellent Vote Match website, I reviewed my answers and the comparisons to the policies of the various political parties and decided that I agreed with it’s assessment that I should vote for the Green Party. There are a few things I do disagree with the Greens on, such as their stance on Nuclear…

  • The case for lowering the voting age is NOT less persuasive now than at any point in the last 50 years

    Re: The case for lowering the voting age is less persuasive now than at any point in the last 50 years While I don’t fundamentally disagree with the points made (some are very valid), this argument misses a key point. At 16, often for the first time, young people are making big decisions that will…

  • Idea: A re-usable framework for “Who Should I Vote For?” tests

    Those “Who Should I Vote For?” sites are, I think, a great idea. Many of them fail though. They; often miss out huge policy areas (e.g. Europe) often just copy/paste from manifestos making it easy to see which party is which over simplify questions or provide limited answer choices that don’t always match views become…

  • UK may have no say on EU top job, frontrunner warns

    Re: UK may have no say on EU top job, frontrunner warns European Commission President hopeful Jean-Claude Juncker suggests British people aren’t getting a vote on who becomes President but ignores one fundamental problem: the British people never get a vote and neither do the rest of Europe’s citizens. Ridiculously, this is the first time that the Commission…

  • Estonia publishes its e-voting source code on GitHub

    Good on Estonia for leading on this, and let’s hope others follow suit soon too. This is certainly one reason why the principal of ID cards isn’t a bad idea. Read Estonia publishes its e-voting source code on GitHub

  • One Vote Every Four Years is All We Get

    A while ago I signed a petition on the Prime Ministers website asking for the government to introduce legislation that would empower ordinary citizens to call a referendum on important matters. According to the petition details a system, called Citizens’ Initiatives, exists in Switzerland, New Zealand, Hungary and 24 states in America. The petition asks…