Which is the best protest vote?

[modeller]

I've read negative reports about all the minority parties and none of them come out very well.
I hate to just waste a vote by spoiling the ballot paper but what is the alternative. ?
Which minority party should I vote for to express my disgust at the present bunch. ?

[123everton]

Which is the best protest vote?
Your conscience.
This democracy would be much better served if people voted for the parties they believed in, rather than the ones they think will win.

[Gromit]

It depends where you live and what you are protesting about. And not all parties field candidates everywhere, so it also depends on what is available in your constituency.

[Justincider]

Best protest vote, no vote.

[suzie1]

green party

[olddutch]

The top issue for me is genuine electoral reform which gets politicians to do what WE want - issue by issue - instead of them acting as blue and red elected dictatorships under the present system - meaningful electoral reform is the key to us (the much ignored and frustrated voter) having a chance to truly influence all political matters - inc.Immigration, Europe,War,MPs expenses,NHS,Tax.

Suggest you vote for whoever in your constituency would be most likely produce a hung parliament. Hopefully, a hung parliament would bring meaningful electoral reform into existence or closer at least .

If the above idea doesnt grab you then a protest vote for BNP or UKIP would be most likely to get up the noses of and send a message to the big two !

[modeller]

susie On the continent especially in Germany the Greens have quite a strong voice and have achieved some success but we don't hear much about them them in this country. Do they have much clout here ?

Gromit My protest is mainly about the corruption and the expense scandal.
The other point is there seems little difference in substance between the main parties so I don't care which of them forms the next government but I would like to shake them up.
old dutch I'm in favour of electoal reform but there are so many alternatives and some countries like NZ, Italy,and Germany have considered dropping PR. in in its present form.
Israel is a case where PR has kept that country in a state of semi-war for decades because the extremists prevent any agreements with the Arabs.

[Androcles]

I don't think it matters. There is little we can do about it, since modern government is a complex matter, but politics has become a career rather than a representative activity. In this case, all politicians must have career and personal ambition first and representation of the electorate second. Changing the model by which that works through so-called electoral reform, merely means that it will be easier to service a differnt kind of political career that happens at present, i.e. re-arranging the deck chairs etc.

Unfortunately, I don't see a simple solution to this, given as I said above that modern government has become so complex, with large state machines to operate.

We also have to take into account that people tend to vote against things rather than for them. Added to which, opinion is often very polarised, which you can easily see in some of the debates on this section of AB. If any of us produces and argument which says Brown or Cameron has got it wrong, there will be an immediate reaction from those who says they have got it right and logic will not come into it, however much it is passed of as such.

You could argue that the best protest vote is that every time there is an election, vote the opposite way to the way you did last time!

[rov1200]

In the Times this week there was a large 2 column advert requesting readers to sign up for a temporary party that would only exist for 6 weeks and then disappear. During that time a policy could be put forward to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and put into law.

I wonder how many signed up to it?

[olddutch]

modeller

No way forward is going to be easy. You and I are agreed, I think, that PR - in some form to be determined - is necessary and better than the current voting system where we have too little say or no say at all about government policy.

Electoral reform that includes regular referenda, Initiatives, mass public petitions and voter responsive PR is, I believe, something to be hoped for and worked towards. It may take years and years - it may well never happen - but to give us any hope of real democracy such reform needs to be pursued.

[Coldicote]

I don't agree with the protest idea of not voting or spoiling the ballot paper - and then probably moaning about the government that follows! It may be a case of voting for the 'lesser evil' or for a minority party, even if they don't 'come out very well' as the questioner says. If no-one voted there would be no government, What then...?

[jno]

not voting isn't a protest vote, it's just laziness. But spoiling your ballot paper is much more explicit: you do care, you've gone along, you've registered your disapproval of the lot of them. But rather than voting for a party at all, why not just vote for the individual who best represents your point of view?

[waterboatman]

I like it Lucy. I'm voting UKIP

[modeller]

I like that Lucy because it would then have to be officially recorded. At the moment all spoilt votes go in together which doesn't show the voters intent.

[123everton]

It's not a bad idea at all, but, I'd imagine the new candidates would only have to be sourced in the constitutiencies where none of the above was prevalent.
Furthermore, in the constituencies were there was an overall majority then that candidate should remain, otherwise a whole election would have to be re-run because of an issue in the Isle of Wight.
Which would be unfair.