The kid's spot on...

DLL: spot on, kid

DLL thinks that we shouldn't vote for people.

DLL's idea is that we should vote on issues. Issue by issue.

That, I think would be democracy, and that, I think, would be entirely achievable, if someone in power admitted that we're no longer living in the dark, pre-Internet, ages.

You can't get me...

...I'm part of the union.

A good union works like this:

A local group, a branch, organises itself and elects a representative. That's someone to represent them. To work on their behalf.

The representatives meet regularly, work to a set agenda, and while they're free to speak their minds, each has a mandate from their branch on how to vote on any particular issue. The debate is at the local level.

Compare that with our system:

People are organised, by others, into geographical groups. Every so often they get the chance to elect someone.

That someone then goes off and does what he wants. The agenda is set by others, and not followed to any great extent in any case. The elected person votes according to the will and the whim of others than the people he fails to represent, usually that of his political party, as they tend to be ambitious and compliant to the party lines.

That isn't democracy.

DLL is right, 100%, and the system's 100% wrong, and it's little wonder that with those miserable little toads running things, the lessons of history go by the board and the mess never gets cleaned up.

Don't vote – it only encourages them

It was one of those moments. Parked opposite the local polling station. One man outside, a tall, skinny, puny-looking dude, about sixty-ish, wearing a UKIP rosette. I'd just been to the library expecting to pay a massive fine, drop off an unfinished book (among others) and pick up one reserved book. Instead, the fine was waived (the library near the office has been closed for refurbishment, hence I'd been unable to return the books in working hours).

The bonus reserved collection was Irvine Welsh's The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins. Naturally, I opened that first. After the dedication, on the next page:

I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's.

William Blake.

That's it, right there. We're told how to live, by others, few, or none of who seem to have a clue about how to live.

The dream ticket: DLL and William Blake. Your MP posts the agenda, you hit the buttons, and he has to vote according to the majority view. Until such times, well, wonder over to the polling station, or continue reading Welsh's latest. Hardly a dilemma. A billionth of a microsecond required for that decision.