So what was that all about then?

Judging by the emails we've been getting. The "reform" in the electoral system isn't quite what people were hoping for, and the way the Government has been formed has caused a lot of people to question the alternative voting systems.

If you were one of the hundreds of people who is unhappy with how its all turned out then put pen to paper, devise an alternative system and send it to us for inclusion on the site and in the future exhibition. While you are no longer elligible for the main competition prize there will probably be a future public prize to tie in with any exhibition. Show us what you've got and show the politicians what real reform can be.

Also there is a really nice article about the competition on the Drum's website, see here.

Polling Day

So it is polling day, which the newspapers tell us promises to be the most exciting for a generation. Though due to the current electoral system its really only exciting for a few key marginal seats and the rest of us are acting out our fundamental but currently empty civic duty. If a party holds an 11000 majority in your area and has done for over fifty years it does make voting rather problematic and with a high percentage of the votes being cast to keep another party out rather to get a party in and with voting numbers low its seems there are huge problems with our system.

The main parties are saying that the reason voting attendance is so low is because of a lack of "connection" to the youth. They say that these "young folks" just aren't engaged with the idea of voting, but thats obviously not true - I think the current society is extremely engaged with the idea of voting. As the huge numbers of votes for X-factor, Big Brother and Stricly come dancing show, people like the idea of voting and are keen to do so where they know that their own vote actually matters. What puts people off voting is the thought that their vote doesn't matter.

Imagine if X-factor was run by the same means as the national election. Two or three of the acts get to sing for 90 mins and then the other ten get one minute each at the end, to show what they can do. The country is then divided up into a series of voting zones and instead of the act who achives the highest percentage of the overall national vote winning, its the person who gains the most of these voting zones. You'd soon see people complaining that the system wasn't fair and losing interest in voting. What's going on in the world when Simon Cowel has a better system that the national election??