There’s an old joke. “Don’t go out and vote for politicians – it only encourages them.” But now, the day after Brexit Betrayal Day, I’m beginning to think that perhaps it’s time to take it at its word.
On the 10th November 2015, the then Prime Minister, David Cameron made his Chatham House speech on Europe. Memorably, and notably, he said, and I quote verbatim:
And ultimately it will be the judgment of the British people in the referendum that I promised and that I will deliver. You will have to judge what is best for you and your family, for your children and grandchildren, for our country, for our future. It will be your decision whether to remain in the EU on the basis of the reforms we secure, or whether we leave. Your decision. Nobody else’s. Not politicians’. Not Parliament’s. Not lobby groups’. Not mine. Just you. You, the British people, will decide. At that moment, you will hold this country’s destiny in your hands. This is a huge decision for our country, perhaps the biggest we will make in our lifetimes. And it will be the final decision.
He went on to say:
When the British people speak, their voice will be respected – not ignored.
If we vote to leave, then we will leave. There will not be another renegotiation and another referendum.
His successor, Prime Minister Theresa May, doubled down on that pledge with her ‘Brexit Means Brexit’, ‘No Deal Is Better Than A Bad Deal’, her ‘Red Lines’ and finally her repetition, one hundred and eight times in the House of Commons, that ‘Britain will leave the European Union on 29th March 2019.’
Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech made in January 2017, promised amongst other things:
- Certainty – especially for Business and the Public Sector
- Control of our own laws
- A strengthening of the Union
- Control of immigration
- New trade agreements with other countries
- A smooth, orderly Brexit
Finally, as has been pointed out many times, both major parties stood on Brexit manifestos during the ill-planned and badly thought-out 2017 General Election. The Conservative one’s title – Forward, Together: Our Plan for a Stronger Britain and a Prosperous Future will meet the great challenges of our time, beyond Brexit – which looks, frankly laughable now, specifically promised ‘the best possible deal for Britain as we leave the European Union delivered by a smooth, orderly Brexit’. The section titled ‘Leaving The European Union’ baldly stated that ‘only the Conservatives under Theresa May’s strong and stable leadership can negotiate the best possible deal for our country’. (How ridiculous that statement looks now!). It reiterated that no deal is better than a bad deal for the UK and re-committed that the UK would no longer be a member of the single market or customs union.
Similarly, Labour stated, in their own manifesto, in the section, ‘Negotiating Brexit’, that, ‘Labour accepts the referendum result and Labour will put the national interest first.’ All 589 Conservative and Labour MPs elected then were elected on those Brexit promises.
All false promises. All lies. All deceits.
And yesterday, Johnson, Mogg, Davis, Raab and Ian Duncan Smith proved themselves to be men of straw, after all, when they voted to commit the UK into never-ending vassalage to the EU. There’s absolutely no point listening to what they have to say any more.
And Nigel Farage’s much-touted ‘Brexit Party’ still, despite all his bluster, and despite having well over one hundred thousand supporters, many of whom, like me, have also signed up to be activists and candidates, and also despite BREXIT now having manifestly been delayed, (at best) – has still failed to launch…
So, with the local elections only a month away – I ask you – is there any point voting at all? Our parliamentarians and public figures have clearly and openly proved to us that there is absolutely no point whatsoever. It doesn’t matter what we vote for – they’ll just carry on and do exactly what’s in their best interests regardless. In Great Britain, the electorate has ceased to matter.
Of course, they want us to vote because then they can pretend that they have a mandate to govern. They’re governing us, with our consent, because we voted them in. Our vote is a comfort blanket for MPs. Nothing more.
So, perhaps the time has come to withdraw it. Perhaps it’s time to see turn-outs for any election so low that no politician can ever pretend again that they are in any way mandated by us, the British people. Perhaps that would be more honest at the end of the day.
After all, what have we got to lose? Our democracy? It’s already gone.
The monster Raving Looney Party…
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Exciting, worthwhile charismatic,a manifesto for us all.. You won’t be disappointed
As the author – my own view is… If there is a UKIP, Brexit Party or a serious Independent Candidate – then they’ll get my vote. This applies for both Local and National Elections (the Tory run Rutland County Council have stumbled from one disaster to another locally). So, on May 2nd – if only Tory, Lib-Dem or Labour Candidates appear on the ballot paper then I won’t waste my time voting for any of them.
As PR is denied to us and we’re stuck with FPTP perhaps another alternative would be to say that any General Election that attracted a turn-out of less than 50% of the electorate would automatically be declared null and void and would have to be rerun. This would force the major parties to actually work to attract voters instead of just assuming that support. The chaos that would result from elections being re-run would soon focus political parties minds on doing their job properly…
Gerry’s article is excellent. But I will vote, only for UKIP and no other Party. All 589 Conservative and Labour MPs who were elected in the 2017 General Election stood on Brexit manifestos. The Labour one stated unequivocally “Labour accepts the referendum result.” The present shambles in the HOC shows how little MPs can be trusted.
Parliament has degenerated into chaos with so many Members following their own ideas without regard to the decision made by the largest public vote in the history of Britain and in denial of the manifesto promises on which they were elected. The danger that they have created for our country by their opposition to democracy cannot be overestimated.
Many people were disillusioned with our political system before, not least having observed the dishonesty of so many MPs revealed by the expenses scandal. That dishonesty has not gone away and may even have increased, and now on top of that we have this enormous political arrogance involved in the wholesale denial of the people’s decision of June 2016.
The obduracy of the European Union was to be expected. They need our money to finance their grandiose dream (a United States of Europe including a European Army) and they fear an avalanche of Exits by other member States thus they seek to protect their house of cards from the winds of democracy from whichever quarter they may blow. They have done this by making Britain’s departure as difficult and expensive as they dare. But our real problem is the enemy within, those who pose as the guardians of our democracy, and are not.
Thank you Neville. That is complete and very accurate assessment of our current situation.
However, as the OP has indicated, the subject of non-voting is ,I think, the wrong option. We need to vote, in vast numbers, against any politician in either the Tories/Liebour/DumLibs or any other party which does not guarantee immediate withdrawal from the EU.
None of those in the current Parliament (with the exception of a VERY few) deserve to ever hold any political position again in their life.
We must never forget that the final result in any popular contest in Politics depends on the Peoples Votes ,because we have the final sanction.
If democracy matters, vote Ukip
That’s the message going up on my posters for the local election and will be similar for the national if and when it happens.
I trust Gérard and don’t disagree with any comments on here save two, not voting is pointless and Farage is ukip’s enemy – witness the Bolton fiasco, AMW splitting the party and now his Brexit Party, ALL designed to draw support away and weaken ukip.
I recently attended a meeting hosted by Tim Martin, wetherspoons, and the clear message I got from that audience was that democracy mattered to them and they were angry.
Hence the posters.
KBO
As far as I’m concerned not voting isn’t the best way to express our frustration.
This website explains things quite well http://www.votenone.org.uk unfortunately it seems to have be been inactive since 2017.
Please have a look. Comments welcome.
My firm view is that Ukip has never blinked once, never flinched from the Brexit fight. We are working very hard, very hard to field candidates in as many wards as possible. There is this may 2nd NO OTHER party to vote for.
Vote UKIP and start the change
Vote. Just don’t vote for the political class. Vote if you must for the Monster Ravers, the Free East Tyrol Party, the Ban Cigarettes Party. Vote to punish, vote to annoy.
They don’t care if you don’t vote, they don’t care if you deface your ballot*. All they care about is that you don’t vote against _them_. If you can’t vote UKIP, vote to make them squirm. Your vote is your only weapon and, fragile steel though it be, you must use it as best you can.
JF
*If you draw a meat and two veg** on the ballot paper the ladies show it to each other and giggle.
**Different menu choices are available.***
***I’ve just walked twenty miles and I am a little light headed.
There’s no false proposition that our politicians can’t pretend is true. Right now, they’re pretending our demand to leave the EU didn’t count.
Remainers will be happy to see pro-British voters stop voting. That way, they can keep their hands on the leavers.
If there’s a genuine pro-independence candidate on the ballot, those who want out of the EU need to vote for that candidate.
Did you mean ‘levers’, not ‘leavers’?
Could we sue our MPs for not representing us. ? Do courts still do breach of promise. ?
I fully understand why people would now consider abstaining from voting. However, I do feel that politicians have become as arrogant and abusive of the electorate (as they most certainly have done) because the electorate has largely left them to get on with it unopposed and unchallenged! Therefore, over time they have changed the system in diverse ways in order to make themselves more secure in their constituencies. The gerrymandered boundaries have not helped and the apathy that most voters feel towards all politics has been disastrous!
I do feel that it is short sighted to abstain from voting, My reason for so thinking is that Universal Suffrage was very hard to win. Ceasing to vote will simply open the door for politicians to suggest that perhaps voting is not necessary after all! The EU has already considered whether they could stop voting for the European Parliament and instead, have ‘appointed members’ allocated by individual governing bodies. Just imagine where that would take the system!
So, my feeling is that however much we feel that politicians are ignoring us, we should not passively give up on voting. It will give them undesirable ideas that perhaps they could finally make voting obsolete! Vote for a NON-Lib/Lab/Con/Green/SDP candidate at every opportunity. Preferably UKIP or independent. Questions are being raised about Nigel’s real intentions. Until he makes such intentions clear, to be considering his new party is superfluous and we might well decide to discount him. If all else fails write on the ballot paper ‘None of the above’. Yes it will be a wasted vote but….your electoral role number will have been noted and your presence at the polling station will have been recorded. Thus they cannot say that “people are not voting….let’s remove their votes altogether”!
Isn’t the SDP a Brexit party, though? Why include them on the list along with Lab/Con/Lib/Greens?
I believe you are correct, just replace SDP with SNP and it’s sorted.
It is a dangerous foolishness not to vote ! Some years ago a distant family member went on at length about no point in voting, and then after a General Election, again went off on the wrongness of that Party being our Government. ”How did you vote mate” ? – ”I didn’t” ! – ”Well then, you should shut up as you have what you deserve” !
Utter dissatisfaction with our Parliament should never be met with non involvement, in fact just the opposite is required, but examine all options, and vote differently. – UKIP is available, and will welcome all votes, and if successful will bring much needed change to the Commons. Of course it will be necessary to find out for yourself what UKIP is standing for, by reading their manifesto. You will not be spoon fed by the Media, as with Lib/Lab/Con ! – It will require you to check this Party out, and by so doing, will blow away the nonsense of ‘Far Right’, which comes from the old Parties, and parroted by the MSM !
Just remember that useless Government comes from disinterested lazy voters ! Get a grip and make your change now !
Very true, Mike. My sentiments exactly.
Get out there and vote AGAINST any politician and/or any party that does not honestly support and implement the decision of the majority of voters.
The voting majority is the absolute basis of democracy. Lose that…………and lose everything that matters.
My feelings exactly I am very disappointed in Nigel’s behaviour which has caused a lot of grief. He needs UKIP we at least understand what loyalty means
I expect Nigel is finding out that without Lisa Duffy, Liz Phillips, and everyone else plus all the loyal HQ team who kept UKIP afloat and did all the admin on a shoestring, it is a difficult task to launch a party let alone run an election campaign.
Agreed, UKIP are lucky to have the HQ team.
Well said. HQ admin are doing an Herculean job, doing it very professionally and deserve all the help and support we can give them.
“We at least understand what loyalty means”. Yeah, right. I gave many hours of my time and thousands of pounds of my own money 2011-2017 to UKIP. Towards the end I could see for myself that the people at the top of the party didn’t deserve my loyalty, as our regional chairman and RO came back to us and said that the people in London couldn’t give a damn what we thought. I realised the regional committee was a Potemkin village whose only function was to fool the branch members into thinking the centre was listening to them. That’s still the same today.
Then Nigel, Henry Bolton and many of those who are still MEPs today denounced me and all AMW’s supporters as racists and Nazis for voting for her in the leadership election. What the people at the centre really thought of me and 2,744 other UKIP members became crystal clear.
Now I’m helping For Britain. A party that does actually understand what loyalty means, going both ways. Unlike UKIP, where they’re happy to take your time and money but couldn’t care less what you think about the people at the centre and their policies.
Keith
Don’t you think that things have changed and are changing under Gerard Batten? You don’t mention him and the ones you do are gone. I for one look forward to the day when the various, so called right groups ( I would prefer patriot) come together and form a much more formidable force.
Gerry – You have written what I wanted to write but you wrote it better. Gathering dust somewhere on Vivien’s editorial spike is an article too long for publication here. It is based on Ben Greene’s small book entitled The British Constitution and the Corruption of Parliament (The Candour writings of Ben Greene). ISBN 978-0-9932885-8-6. Available from http://www.candour.org.uk . I recommend it to all readers here. The subject matter is bigger than Brexit – if such a thing is possible. Certainly bigger than pied piper politicians of the day who – as Sir Robin Day put it so succinctly at the time of the Falklands War – are here today and gone tomorrow.
Well said Gerry.
That suggestion can also be found on http://www.cravenfreedom.com not only can the INDIVIDUAL refuse to vote at all BUT if there is a trustworthy INDEPENDENT then there is somewhere else to go.
The reasoning behind all this is in my article on that website.
regards
Martin Cruttwell
PS Not forgetting David Allen’s Coalitiion of Independents but ABOVE ALL DITCH THE PARTY SYSTEM. There will still be government.
I think we should still all turn up at the Polling Station but if there isn’t an acceptable candidate to vote for we should just put a big cross right across the ballot paper. This would be an active statement of how we feel rather than a sullen refusal to vote. The ‘spoiled ballot papers’ figure would be a stronger message than ‘turnout’
Ted Wildey
Regarding ‘local elections’, its time to break the public’s ‘perception’ that how they vote at local council elections will have any bearing on the national government and national policies, such as Brexit.
This is why we end up with so many Labour controlled local councils that run roughshod over the local populace, despite so many scandals and corruption being exposed.
Candidates campaigning locally on the subject of Brexit are wasting their time. By all means do bring up the subject, but make sure you keep it secondary to what can be done differently with the local council.
Apathetic voters help to maintain the status quo. There will always be a number of ‘dedicated’ Labour or Tory voters who will turn up at the polling stations regardless. The people need someone different to vote for.
Sad to look at those promises and see where we are just now. I find myself nontheless optimistic because although Gerry says our democracy is now a sham, it is not completely gone and is worth fighting for and we will.
The enemies are now in plain sight, the traitors are now revealed. The big problem is tribal voting which seems set to persist at least for a while if the current opinion polls are to be believed, and abstaining merely means nothing changes and I cannot see the main parties being bothered by that.
The main problem with abstaining is that there is no indication or differentiation between dissatisfaction with the candidates as a whole and apathy.
It would be a different matter if there was a specific box to tick to show rejection of all candidates especially if the results were declared void if the rejections outnumbered the “winning” votes.
To be more specific – it is a waste of time voting for LIB/LAB/CON/GREEN as these parties most definitely cannot be trusted.
Despite the chaotic UKIP leadership succession programme (mostly brought about by Nigel’s shennanigans) at least we have consistenly been the only party to be trusted 100% on Brexit.
Yes, the author is correct we must not split the Brexit vote when a GE is called. We must work together. Let UKIP put forward candidates where it already has a PPC in place with an active and supportive Branch and let the Brexit Party put up its candidates in other constituencies so we have Brexit candidates in place in every constituency in the UK.
If Nigel cannot live with this reasonable accomodation then it really is time he buggered off into retirement.
Exactly. If NF cannot live with it then I would question where his loyalties lie. No need to spell out my suspicions.
Farage has been the platform performer without equal.
However, as a party leader, he is poison. He brought into the party a succession of damaging no-entities, Kilroy Silk, Amjad Bashir, Carswell, Reckless, Bolton, each of whom he said were good brexiters when wiser heads in the party counselled against them, but would he listen? No, he regarded those wiser heads as against him, just as he has kept Batten at a distance in the party .
Now he has a hundred thousand new adherents jumping on his latest band waggon. How will he check and verify their credentials. The Tories are quite capable of sending their plants to join him and then sabotage the new party’s intentions. And splitting the anti-EU vote is in their interests, and not ours. We can see that but Farage refuses to.