socialist youth triumph

[jugglermatt1]

Wey hey , the now not so popular party popular or PP have been kicked out of government here in Spain . And it all happened because of a massive youth turnout of voters all angry with the nasty capitalists .Hey ho , these youths are changing the world

[jester]

And the message is. "If you bomb us you can change the way we vote."

Or is it... "If you bastards hadn't been in power we wouldn't have been bombed in the first place."

Not a very nice business at all.

[jugglermatt1]

Its not so simple as all this .PP were under lots of pressure after the prestige scandal (the huge crude oil slick in case youve forgotten ) , lots of lies and lots of money made during the cleanup operation . When entering the Gulf war 2 , 90% of the Spanish population voted against . If you are in power then you atre in power because poeple vote for you , and not to listen to 90% of them is a bit silly .And then 3 hours after the bomb went off in Madrid , PP held a conference , and full forcedly blamed ETA ( Basque independants ) even while world opinion was pointing the blame in another direction . They were cought lying at a very critical time .We all know that politics is not a nice buisiness , but its a reflection of human kind . My point was that due to the unprecedented turnout of young people , for the first time in European politics , young people changed a government , and thats a reason for optimism , No ?

[jester]

yes I see your point

Yes it is. And it goes to show that young people can make a difference.

I am pleased to find some optimism in this. Thank You. Maybe this can be an example to the youth in Britain.

I hate it when young people say "I voted with my feet, I'm not voting for any of them, they're all liars anyway, it's all shit, it's all fixed anyway."

I say that if that's how you feel then you should turn up and spoil your ballot paper. They count spoilt papers as spoilt papers. A spoilt paper cannot be interpreted as satisfaction with the status quo, which is how a non vote is counted.

[Thom]

Spoil your ballot?

I need an English to English translation on this one, please.

What is "spoil your ballot?"

Thanks,

[jester]

In Britain there are no pregnant chads, no binary pings or new fangled technology. We vote on slips of paper and you are supposed to tick the box you are voting for.

If however you scribble poetry, write "None of the Above" or any other obscenity you have spoiled your ballot paper. Once it has gone in the box you have wasted your vote. You cannot change your mind.

The Spoilt Ballot papers are counted. There is normally say 30 to a hundred. Some of them have stupid slogans on.

One day the spoilt ballot papers may actually outnumber the winning candidate. Then they will know that people actually voted against them rather than in favour of another candidate.

[charlatan_mudo]

Two in one

Write obscenities all over the ballot paper??? Been there, done that. Once. Something else now. Apparently, during the Generals of 2.000 approximately one million socialist voters didn´t bother with turning up because someone called Joaquín Almunia was top of the list (amongst other reasons undoubtedly) and it is said this was the main reason why Pepe and PP got absolute majority that year