100% disagree. If Ukraine win, the West then needs to help rebuild the country and allow them to join NATO while we continue to impose sanctions on Russia. What can Russia do if they lose? They are not going to start an all out war against the West. If however they win, and they occupy Ukraine without retaliation from the West, they will see this as encouragement to continue to expand their borders.
I still really don’t know why this is considered to be a bad idea…this is exactly the type of positive change we need in our democracy.
I’m just waiting on making it compulsory to vote now…
With such high quality politicians I can’t say I’m surprised by the amazing proposals so far.
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Eye roll level 1000
It will never happen in Britain. It should never happen in a democracy anyway. Non participation is absolutely as valid as any other decision in a democracy.
Even in Australia, the “fine” is 20 Australian dollars. I’ll quite happily pay that to retain my choice if I had to. There is literally no chance you can force people to vote.
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I just think everyone has a morale responsibility to vote. Call me old fashioned but people fought and died for this country so we could remain a sovereign nation, so the least we can all do is go out and take 15mins out of our day every few years to participate in a democratic process. Under current process if you don’t like any of the candidates on offer, you can spoil your vote which gets recorded.
Personally, I would make voting compulsory with the introduction of a ‘none of the above’ option on the ballot paper, so disenfranchised voters could express themselves and so this could be recorded on a national level. I’d also introduce a fixed 4 year term parliament, and schedule all other elections at the midway 2 year point, so in most cases (with exception of any by-elections) people would only have to vote once every 2 years.
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The irony is you could only do all of that in a dictatorship. 
Votes at 14!
Any of the political parties could propose this within their manifestos for the general election in July. We had a fixed term parliament act previously in the UK. It would be very easy to reschedule and mandate when all other elections took place. And it would only take a new piece of legislation to make voting in the UK compulsory.
Four words:
First past the post
Yea i know how laws get made.
But none of what you’ve outlined would get near to passing in the current set up.
I’d also change the electoral system! FPTP probably delivers a clear election win this time round, based on the current state of the parties.
Why? The only controversial thing I’ve outlined is making voting compulsory.
You know why. They’re not important enough for anyone to care about to a large degree. Either at voter or party level. The last three elections now have happened outside of the cycle and unless another coalition comes along no PM is going to press ahead with a fixed term policy.
The issues are important enough but take the point that most people wouldn’t have this on their list of issues…i.e. economy, health, education, crime, defence, immigration…but equally you could say this applies to lots of other issues which don’t fall into this category.
Not read whatever was before this post, but did anyone else from the south get a leaflet through the post immediately after the election was announced? Propaganda I call it
Nobody has a moral responsibility to vote. One of the key features of democracy is that people are allowed to express their political beliefs in whatever way they choose.
People fought for this country for many reasons, and it’s absolutely reductive to say that they did so to keep this country a sovereign nation. I have read the army documents from the Second World War that discuss the army’s disappointment that the men were not more ideologically invested in the war, have you?
Here’s a question you always dodge, how would you enforce compulsory voting? What would be the punishment for not voting? As I said, the current fine in Australia is, so far as I can see, 20 Australian dollars, slightly more than a tenner. Are you saying you’d fine people more than that? Send them to prison? Give them a criminal record? What would you do with the people like me who will insist on the right to choose?
National service might be the first thing these Tories have suggested that I actually like.
So, under my suggestion, everyone would have a right to choose, and you could express your dissatisfaction by voting ‘none of the above’ if none of the candidates on the ballot paper were ones you could support.
The issue is your participation in the election. I don’t doubt your views and reasons for not wanting to vote for a particular candidate at the election, however in the majority of cases it is just pure laziness that people don’t participate because they can’t be bothered. That’s not acceptable and it needs to change.
As for the consequences of not voting I think it would have to be a sizeable fine in the first instance. It can’t be tokenistic, so probably needs to be £500+. For a second instance maybe the fine doubles and for a third offence it’s a prosecution on the basis of three strikes and you’re out. Obviously there may be circumstances why you can’t vote on the day but there needs to be consequences for those that can’t be bothered.
A none of the above option doesn’t cover that in a free society, non participation in democracy is a completely legitimate choice.
And if people can’t be bothered I’m afraid that is a challenge to be overcome by better politicians, not fines for being uninterested by uninspiring politicians.
£500 is an unhinged amount of money to suggest fining someone. That’s a level 2 fine in Britain, meaning you think there actual criminals who have done less to harm society than people who don’t vote. For some people a £500 fine would impose serious financial hardship. And I think it’s reasonable to suppose a lot of people who don’t vote may well be in that bracket. That’s completely disproportionate even if you believe people who don’t vote have done something wrong, and they haven’t. You also appear to suggest that if someone doesn’t vote three times they need to be in prison, which is absolute nonsense. I’m not aware of anywhere in the world that has such a policy.
If someone actually tried to implement that policy there would be actual riots, I’m willing to bet.
The irony of all of this is that you want it to be the law that everyone has to do what you want, which shows a real lack of respect for democracy on your part.
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Why is it that most new Tory policies seem to be based on the mad ramblings of old people at a family party? Bring back national service, stop them immigrants coming over here, reopen coal mines, stop people protesting, punish people for being unemployed, the world is a frightening place, World War 3 is just round the corner…
Just waiting for them to suggest bringing back hanging and starting a new British Empire “like the good old days”.
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It’s just funny to see the boomers come out of the woodwork saying it’s 'good for the country’s etc, etc when those cunts have benefited the most out of everyone 
https://x.com/Luiseach/status/1794493782336921775?t=dx8lx45CEODEYGy9bylmMQ&s=19
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