dannyh once got bummed by a Nigerian - does that count?

Swampy off his t1ts on skunk would be a better spokesman/leader.

Good to see that continual reminders of how frail minor parties like the Greens are hasn't deterred or diminished your support in the same way UKIP's continual media battering doesn't deter me!

Right on brother........

Make manifesto pledges legally binding (no, I have no idea how that would work).

At the moment, there's nothing to stop me creating the npn party, promising hot and cold running hookers for all, with a 7 figure salary, no tax, world leading public services, free transport, and a daily cupcake to make everyone feel better. The fact that I couldn't actually deliver any of it and it would all be completely unfunded is neither here nor there.

They all do it "we'll do this, that, and the other" and then they do none of it, or change it beyond all recognition and claim that's what they meant all along and we just misunderstood. It's all a load of smoke and mirrors to get and/or retain power, and just one big confidence trick. Although it seems that nobody has any confidence in any of them any more!

I think she may have single handedly scuppered the Greens' chances of being taken seriously with that one interview, and all the coverage it got (which is a shame, as at least they bring something a little different to the party whether you agree with them or not).

Party politics is all b0llocks anyway - your local MP is frankly irrelevant as he is told which way to vote on all the important issues. I'd rather 600 completely independant MPs, with their own thoughts and ideas, and voting as they see fit on all issues. You then vote for the local candidate with the best match to your own opinions on the issues that concern you. Of course the down side is that nothing would ever get done. Ever.

Party politics is all b0llocks anyway - your local MP is frankly irrelevant as he is told which way to vote on all the important issues. I'd rather 600 completely independant MPs, with their own thoughts and ideas, and voting as they see fit on all issues. You then vote for the local candidate with the best match to your own opinions on the issues that concern you. Of course the down side is that nothing would ever get done. Ever.

That's kind of the whole point of *representative* democracy (as opposed to just having everything decided by referendum). It's also, supposedly, the one good thing about the FPTP system.

That is, go to a hustings, check out what the peeps have to say, and vote for the person rather than the party. The party is then a secondary thing, a necessary evil to get votes through parliament.

At least that's how it's supposed to work.

But since Blair - well, Thatcher started it actually, he just perfected it - most voters want to vote for "the leader". And - even more worryingly - they increasingly want parliament to be "representative" as in it should be demographically the same as the country. Which is just insane. OBVIOUSLY it attracts more lawyers than dustbinmen, It's a legislative body!

Anyway, I'm rambling. Basically, I agree with you. And we actually have the structures in place for it to work well. The problem is the lazy voters who vote on some vague basis that Cameron is more "statesmanlike" (whatever the f*ck that means) than Miliband and don't even KNOW who their local MP is!

They should whack the voting age back up to about 30 and bring back property qualifications. I'd let women keep the vote though.