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At every election, you get told a lot "It doesn't matter how you vote, so long as you do", usually by someone who then goes on to explain why you should vote in a manner of which they approve. The reason for this is simple - people fought and died to give you the vote and ensure you keep it, and if nothing else it is an insult to their memory not to respect that.
The problem with voting, of course, is that politicians lie to get elected and on that basis your vote can easily be wasted on a sharp-talking shyster spinning a convincing line which they have no intention of ever following up on. They get elected, don't bother fulfilling any of their promises, people complain, and the complaints are ignored. So clearly there is no effective moral sanction against a politician who lies convincingly.
Anyway, the other day I was rather depressed to learn of a legal ruling in 2008 which established that a political party putting pledges in their manifesto did not create a 'legitimate expectation' that those pledges would be upheld or enacted. As there is neither a moral nor a legal obligation upon elected politicians to fulfil their pledges, it becomes impossible to make an informed decision when casting one's vote. That's no fun at all.
At that point, it's difficult not to become disillusioned with the political process - yes, I know the moral obligation upon me to cast my vote created by the fighting and dying and all that, but on the other hand as it's impossible to make an informed decision it does rather take the point out of the whole process. So I started to look at it in a different way: in strict cash terms, how much is my vote worth?
One thing that political parties try to do is buy elections by promising economic policies which benefit their support base at the expense of the public purse. Looking at the two main parties' economic policies at the last election and their public spending pledges, the difference between them was, over the course of this parliament, about £25bn per year. That's quite a bit of moolah. As there are 44m registered voters in the UK, however, that suggests that the parties consider my vote to be worth £568,181 per year.
That also just underlines that they were lying, unless there's an unexpected cheque coming my way sometime soon.
But going down this route has made me think; as there is no sanction - beyond withdrawing my vote at the next opporuntity - I can place on political parties who actively deceive, and the financial value they place on my vote is also nonsensical, the only real value in voting is in personal short-term advantage. As such, I'm offering my vote at the next election up to the highest bidder. I'll open the bidding at a tenner, which is what I consider the five minutes of my time walking to the polling station to be worth, and I won't vote for any dangerous extremists like the BNP or the Greens. Aside from that, I'm open to offers. You name the party and, if you make the highest cash offer, I'll vote for them.
I'll even film me filling in the voting slip on my phone so you can see me do it.
Any takers?
[Edit] I am correctly informed that I'm several orders of magnitude out on the valuationof my vote above. It's worth £568 instead. Oh, woe is me for my poor state-provided mathematical education!
The problem with voting, of course, is that politicians lie to get elected and on that basis your vote can easily be wasted on a sharp-talking shyster spinning a convincing line which they have no intention of ever following up on. They get elected, don't bother fulfilling any of their promises, people complain, and the complaints are ignored. So clearly there is no effective moral sanction against a politician who lies convincingly.
Anyway, the other day I was rather depressed to learn of a legal ruling in 2008 which established that a political party putting pledges in their manifesto did not create a 'legitimate expectation' that those pledges would be upheld or enacted. As there is neither a moral nor a legal obligation upon elected politicians to fulfil their pledges, it becomes impossible to make an informed decision when casting one's vote. That's no fun at all.
At that point, it's difficult not to become disillusioned with the political process - yes, I know the moral obligation upon me to cast my vote created by the fighting and dying and all that, but on the other hand as it's impossible to make an informed decision it does rather take the point out of the whole process. So I started to look at it in a different way: in strict cash terms, how much is my vote worth?
One thing that political parties try to do is buy elections by promising economic policies which benefit their support base at the expense of the public purse. Looking at the two main parties' economic policies at the last election and their public spending pledges, the difference between them was, over the course of this parliament, about £25bn per year. That's quite a bit of moolah. As there are 44m registered voters in the UK, however, that suggests that the parties consider my vote to be worth £568,181 per year.
That also just underlines that they were lying, unless there's an unexpected cheque coming my way sometime soon.
But going down this route has made me think; as there is no sanction - beyond withdrawing my vote at the next opporuntity - I can place on political parties who actively deceive, and the financial value they place on my vote is also nonsensical, the only real value in voting is in personal short-term advantage. As such, I'm offering my vote at the next election up to the highest bidder. I'll open the bidding at a tenner, which is what I consider the five minutes of my time walking to the polling station to be worth, and I won't vote for any dangerous extremists like the BNP or the Greens. Aside from that, I'm open to offers. You name the party and, if you make the highest cash offer, I'll vote for them.
I'll even film me filling in the voting slip on my phone so you can see me do it.
Any takers?
[Edit] I am correctly informed that I'm several orders of magnitude out on the valuationof my vote above. It's worth £568 instead. Oh, woe is me for my poor state-provided mathematical education!
