Introducing None of the Above (N.O.T.A.)

This project is aimed at all those people who feel disengaged, alienated, abandoned and betrayed by politicians who take us for granted, feel increasingly remote and irrelevant and plainly don’t care about us ; Nobody cares, vote for nobody. Jasper Carrot once said “Nothing is too much trouble”, how apt when it comes to politicians.

See the General Election results since 1997,

you might be surprised!

Politicians make little effort to hide their contempt for the electorate and Democracy. The rules for conduct of ‘elections’ of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners (PFCC) are, in our view, positively anti-democratic.

Perhaps the ultimate voter suppression?

1. True Democracy starts by rejecting a rotten anti-democratic system

Reject this remote and unaccountable system rooted in outdated ideology and privilege from the distant past rendering it irrelevant and deeply damaging.

The first step towards effective and accountable government is to REJECT a discredited, corrupt, ineffective, incompetent, antiquated, outdated, thoroughly rotten, obsolete and downright dishonest politicians who serve only the narrow interests and selfish needs of a tiny elite to the detriment of the majority.

Time for real change - Reject the broken past

If we choose to ignore the obvious failures and allow the present situation to continue then we must accept full responsibility for our quiet complicity and the consequences of our actions and omissions with a continuation of the present direction of travel:-

•  Increasing deprivation, decay, inequality
•  Declining living standards and
•  Lower life expectancy
•  Significant curb on freedoms
•  Growing levels of civil disorder including crime
•  Extremists fuelling prejudice to feed division and hate
•  Growing numbers of people excluded and alienated

Encourage, Empower, Support people to hold authority to account

The power to Reject, to say NO

Many people believe that over many year’s politicians from all parties have betrayed the trust placed in them to the point where their continuing failures actually pose a very real threat to our future prosperity, health, happiness and freedom and consequently none of the candidates are worth voting for.

At the next General Election we are advocating all those who feel disenfranchised by the existing political parties and candidates to reject them all by voting “None of The Above” (N.O.T.A.) on every ballot paper so anyone who doesn’t feel any of the candidates represent them can reject them all.

Obviously this isn’t an option on the ballot paper (yet) so we are advocating all who share this view to simply write None of the above (NoTa) in pencil or pen across your ballot paper.

True Democracy unites people

in a Common Purpose

Every vote must count

We want everyone to know and feel their vote matters and that it makes a difference, to encourage everyone to vote, it is essential everyone feels empowered, relevant, involved and engaged in a system that brings people together in ultimately building a safe, happy and prosperous future for everyone.

In a truly democratic election voters must have the power to reject all the candidates on offer so that is what we are doing with this project. If none of the candidates represent you then surely the only option is to reject them all.

We want this to be ‘our’ project, if we are going to build a true democracy then it must be built on a solid foundation of which genuine and very real, ownership, empowerment, engagement and inclusion are vital elements.

A place for everyone, own it

We need people in every constituency of the UK, in every community to play your part, spread the word, download and print the design, posters, leaflets and if you need more support please get in touch, share your ideas and activities.

This project is funded by individuals out of our limited income so any financial support is welcome though it is not a pre-requisite, anyone though who is in a position to sponsor the project is most welcome.

Building a True Democracy that

works equally for everyone

• We are interested in your views about what True Democracy looks and feels like to you, we intend to start the process immediately following the next General Election.

• Upload your video tell us why you are voting none of the above, what will a True Democracy mean for you, how can you help to make it happen?

• Please help us by sharing this information on social media

• So sign up now, download the design, template and print your stickers, posters and leaflets and let’s build true democracy that works equally for everyone.

• If enough people join us we will send a powerful message ensuring political reform is not just a dream but a reality we can all shape and influence.
  
  
  
  

2. Divide and Rule

The definition of Democracy is:-

the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves.

How many, if any, of our politicians actually believe in “freedom and equality between people?”

Our politics currently works directly against both these principles in order to sustain and enhance party political control over us, our politics is based on division and inequality and politicians use both to further their own selfish interests.

We the people have precious little influence and are treated with barely disguised contempt

A fig leaf conveying respectability where none is warranted.

The ‘right’ to vote is a mirage hiding a grim reality

It is your duty to vote so it goes

Being allowed to vote, when, how and for whom the politicians allow, gives a veneer of undeserved respectability to hide the reality that we, the people are but pawns in someone else’s game.

Elections are only considered to be free and fair when the outcome is in doubt, in other words where every vote counts and can make a difference to the outcome.

Voting is supposedly the core of Democracy, some countries make it compulsory to vote while many, including the UK have introduced measures intended to stop certain groups from voting, blatant manipulation is ever present making it incredibly hard to know what is actually true among the lies and dishonesty.

What is the relationship between the act of voting and a Democracy, is there one?

A lot of people are looking at the state of the country, the politicians and political party’s and the yawning chasm between what they are doing, what they are saying and the experiences people have and seriously wondering why they should bother voting at all – when any political system reaches this point it is in crisis.

In the UK at the moment voters who don’t support any of the main political parties have only three real options:-

Don’t vote

Vote for one of the approved candidates on offer, a selection reduced by draconian financial penalties intended to exclude genuine local alternatives

Spoil your ballot paper

Cross out all the candidates or write a message, these positive acts are not recognised as being a legitimate part of the supposedly democratic system by politicians whereas clearly they must count, None of the Above (N.O.T.A.) will empower everyone to reject the choice presented to them although politicians will try to ignore it.

Vote for a party or candidate you do not support

(a Protest Vote)

Being allowed to endorse candidates we don’t want, who don’t represent us or act in our best interests once every 4 – 5 years can in no way be called democracy. As one prominent landowner said to me, “we vote for the people we hate the least”, this is not Democracy.

Empower and Engage Electors

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to vote for a local person who would work tirelessly for your whole community, who would be accessible, accountable and effective. A person who would put the needs of the Community and the Country first.

3. Lack of Accountability always leads to Corruption

The UK Parliament website sets out the role of MP’s, the following is an extract:-

•  The UK public elects Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent their interests and concerns in the House of Commons.
•  MPs consider and can propose new laws as well as raising issues that matter to you in the House.
•  This includes asking government ministers questions about current issues including those which affect local constituents.
•  MPs split their time between working in Parliament itself, working in the constituency that elected them and working for their political party.

The above is not a statutory duty, MP’s can’t be held to account for failing to act as above and there is no mention of the ‘second jobs,’ ‘directorships’, paid for lobbying or the plethora of ‘freebies’ so readily accepted by MP’s using their office in the search for personal enrichment. In reality once elected an MP can pretty much do as they like with total impunity, voters are powerless to hold them to account except in very rare circumstances or at a General Election when we are back to an awful choice.

Party Politics is destroying Democracy and Public Services

There is no secret that MP’s represent the needs of themselves and their party first and foremost, and will tell you they put those needs before the needs of the Country, the same can apply to many of those elected under a political banner?

Surely on a local level democracy should represent the needs of communities rather than the rotten bankrupt ideology of political parties?

Too many elected under a party political banner represent the needs and interests of the party to whom they owe allegiance rather than the community, this, in our opinion, is destroying local democracy and rendering local services ineffective, inefficient and unaccountable.

We should never underestimate the damage caused by rotten ideology whichever side it comes from, it acts like a cancer, opportunities are lost, lives are wasted, communities and all of us are so much poorer both materially and spiritually as a result.

Community Forums offer genuine opportunity

Bringing people together to serve the needs of our

communities in the best possible way, adaptable, creative,

inclusive and highly effective!

Have you got the courage to make it work for your community?

Incompetent and ineffective politicians quite rightly see widespread public engagement as a

Direct Threat to their very existence.

As our system of governance increasingly alienates and discards a significant and growing proportion of the electorate politicians are entrenching their position using a variety of measures to reduce accountability and enhance their control over an electorate whose very limited ability to influence the democratic process is being increasingly and steadily eroded without many people fully understanding the implications for us all?

Democratic backsliding is recognised internationally as the process by which states become gradually less democratic over time. It tends to manifest through increasing concentration of power in the hands of the executive, and erosion of political and constitutional norms.

Various commentators, civil society institutions and experts are expressing concerns about the risk of democratic backsliding in the UK. The internationally recognised features of backsliding have been evident in the UK to some degree in recent years, suggesting that vigilance is needed.

Over the past 30 – 40 years significant changes have taken place under the radar as increasingly individuals have been gradually and deliberately excluded from ever more unaccountable public services and democratic institutions and the democratic process and procedures.

Voter suppression

Prevent, discourage people from voting who support your opposition. In this context alienation and disengagement are seen as vital tools.

Low Turnout is great for politicians, bad for democracy

Politicians don’t care how few people vote so long as they ‘win’. How ridiculous is it that there is no minimum turnout for an election to be considered valid? A basic element of any democracy must be voter engagement and participation, without this the veneer of democracy loses any credibility.

The law

Enact laws that target those who oppose the outright corruption and greed that enables the tiny elite to cling to power, turn people fighting for democracy into criminals.

What exactly is Extremism?

Potentially anyone wanting to build a true democracy that challenges the political party control of our outdated politics could be charged with Treason?

Government officials have drawn up deeply controversial proposals to broaden the definition of extremism to include anyone who “undermines” the country’s institutions and its values, according to documents seen by the Observer.

Political parties may well try to convince us they are vital National ‘institutions’ while the reality may well be the polar opposite?

4. Lack of transparency spells DANGER

Not necessarily what they appear to be

For example there are groups, often well funded by rich individuals or entities, who may not be what they appear to be?

Is social disruption really in support of a cause or is there are a hidden agenda? When the actions of a group raging against climate change are used by politicians to justify clampdowns on freedom, supported by the general population fed up with the disruption, were the actions of the group actually intended to move the country towards becoming an authoritarian state using the climate as an excuse?

The UK is exposed to interference and influence from a wide range of potentially malign influences including rich individuals, large companies, foreign governments and agents and we, as electors, have no knowledge of just what is really going on ‘behind the scenes’.

Politics has long been corrupted by a range of malign actors pedaling cash and lucrative ‘jobs’ in return for influence/

We don’t even know who really ‘controls’ the political parties and how they are open to ‘undue influences’:-

• It isn’t long ago that senior politicians were desperate to hand control of our vital infrastructure to China.
• Foreign owned water company’s allowed to ever increasingly pollute our rivers and sea while paying huge bonuses and dividends to foreign shareholders.
• Barely functioning Rail service pays out £millions to ‘investors’, the gravy train just keeps on rolling
• Politicians have overseen the demise of:-
• Royal Mail treats staff appallingly and provides a shocking service, paying out huge sums to foreign shareholders, while politicians and the regulator watch on and do nothing
• Post Office Horizon scandal allowed to grow and continue for more than 20 years while the service is withdrawn from countless communities
• Power grid close to capacity, failure to invest exposes country to very real risk of blackouts with insufficient infrastructure to cope with expected volume of electric cars

Our current political system enshrines unaccountability and failure:-

• Politicians failing in their first duty to protect citizens
• Many candidates unfit for public office
• Extreme candidates threaten cohesive society
• Dishonesty has become entrenched
• Politicians lie so regularly, like the boy who cried wolf
• An enormous chasm separates governed and governors
• They all offer only managed decline
• Lack of investment enhances division and decay
• Who really controls the political parties?
• Governments in the UK are elected with a significant minority of the votes cast
• Of 24 million electors, only
• Around 500,000 votes actually make a difference at present
• Power is with the politicians and political parties who are controlled, funded and maybe corrupted by a very small (hidden) group whose views and purpose does not serve the needs and best interests of the country?
• Politicians never accept responsibility for their actions and omissions
• Relationship between politicians and people has irretrievably collapsed
• Trust has gone
• Belief has gone

Politicians use scapegoats to divert attention from the truth:-

Some deliberately promote and foster hatred and division

Some deliberately foster and feed prejudice against vulnerable groups

Disabled people physically attacked after being labelled as scroungers by politicians

Managed Decline destroys Hope

Deprivation, inequality, homelessness, poverty, dereliction all increasing, the only thing that’s decreasing is life expectancy for the poorest and investment across the board.

Nothing works anymore, roads are little better than farm tracks in places, public services across the board are deteriorating.

5. Unaccountable, remote, incompetent and too often corrupt Public services refuse to learn from mistakes while rewarding failure.

Lack of accountability and transparency enables incredible waste and corruption and creates a vacuum, a metaphorical black hole, in which the original sense of purpose and direction is replaced with a need to self -perpetuate, the purpose is simply to exist for its own sake and, like a whirlpool, their existence consumes ever greater resources, to the detriment of their original purpose and the communities they were created to serve.

Speaking about John Le Carre following his death, Gavin Jacobson writing in the New Statesman says “Le Carre’s novels are about the moral price Britain has paid for its deference to its institutions and the elite who manage them. It is the ruthless exposure of English cynicism that will make Le Carre an enduring force in modern literature”.

Our quiet complicity allows the scandalous waste and suffering to continue!

Councils have scrapped so many services and cut back others while management costs spiral out of control and their main efforts all too often seem to be ripping off their own communities through any means they can come up with, car parking, fines for anything you can imagine and more, anything and anyone is fair game, are ULEZ and LEZ zones really anything more than a cash grab?

In the world of public services failure is valued and rewarded:-

• The Chief Executive of an NHS Trust where some 12 babies died was rewarded with a £500,000 pay out and a new NHS job,
• Another failed NHS Trust Chief Executive was given a new non-role specifically created for them on a salary of £300,000.
• A District Council authorised the Chief Executive, themselves previously sacked from a similar role, to make redundant any member of staff they wanted rid of and to pay out up to £100,000 without needing council approval, anyone who threatened this individual, for example by uncovering corruption and/or incompetence was promptly dismissed without question or scrutiny.

Be careful what you wish for

Many people are calling for the law to be changed with regard to assisted dying, to allow doctors to administer life ending drugs, genuine people acting in good faith and with good will, seeking a better way to alleviate suffering and to die with dignity, who could possibly object?

Many people with experience of companion animals will have experienced the truly sad and yet wonderful support vets provide to allow their companion to end their life without suffering at the right time for them.

To die at the time of your choosing, with dignity should be a fundamental human expectation but sadly, at the moment, some politicians would view it as an economic opportunity.

People are already assisted to die

Many people may not realise we already have a system whereby doctors speed the deaths of certain groups of people, not by what they do but by what they fail to do.

It is well known that people with a mental health issue or a learning disability die on average around 16 – 20 years sooner than the general population. The regular horror stories of abuse allowed to continue in ‘care homes’ is very telling of the callous inhuman attitude towards older and disabled people.

As the covid pandemic arrived a couple of reports extolled the positive economic benefits to the country of a large number of older and disabled people dying from the virus, no longer human beings they had become a ‘drain on society’.

My friend was diagnosed with breast cancer after reporting a lump, she qualified for a screening program that could have picked it up sooner but her GP’s had declined to put her forward. Her surgeon was wonderful, a mastectomy was performed, her breast was full of cancerous cells, after complications necessitating a stay in hospital during which staff told her they didn’t want ‘people like her’ on ‘their ward’.  Her treatment had a devastating impact on her mental health and her life descended into chaos as a direct result.

Follow ups annually when they should have been six monthly, her concerns were dismissed. The cancer had returned and chemotherapy was offered, the full course would take three months. After the first dose the hospital cancelled the treatment for no medical reasons and without telling her, I intervened and the second dose was delivered, once again the follow up was cancelled, again I intervened and the course was completed after a year. My friend died soon after at the age of 53, she had a learning disability and only started to get any sort of ‘appropriate’ medical care after I intervened and accompanied her to appointments. This experience broke my heart.

Politicians know this goes on and do nothing.

The regulator knows this goes on and does nothing.

Nobody cares, Why do we allow this suffering to continue?

Policing by Consent?

Many people may not be aware the police have had a huge increase in resources at the same time as many duties were removed, more money, less responsibilities equals a rapidly deteriorating performance to a point where many people have lost faith and trust in the Police whose main response is to come up with lame excuses for their failures.

Isn’t it incredible the Police have no ‘prime purpose’ duties and responsibilities set out for us to monitor and hold them to account against?

Many crimes are never investigated, detection rates are abysmal, the police are rarely seen in public, they are all but impossible to contact, the very essence of unaccountability that has been entrenched through party political bureaucratic control of Mayors and Police Fire & Crime Commissioners.

Senior officers regularly site “lack of resources” or the “burden of paper work” as the main reasons for their abject performance, we had an example of this:-

The police were asked to provide an officer to see primary school children across a busy road, they refused citing “lack of resources” yet at the time children were struggling to cross the road safely, a police vehicle drove past containing three to four officers going to pick up their breakfast sandwiches. The person who challenged the police received a ‘visit’ and the reason for refusal changed to “not our responsibility”.

Corruption is a cancer

The Criminal Legal System is highly corrupt and incompetent, more concerned with appearance and targets than any notion of criminal justice. The CPS has time and again proved to be ‘unfit for purpose’ as the jargon goes.

Did you know that innocent people who provide evidence of corruption are imprisoned on fabricated evidence, and without a trial to “protect the integrity of the criminal legal system”?

What is truly amazing:-

We so readily, almost eagerly accept the failures and lame excuses

In any other walk of life those charged with running such ineffective organisations would be sacked, and the business would go bust.

And all of this is overseen by indifferent politicians who do nothing to address the failures and actually entrench the lack of accountability.

He who pays the piper calls the tune?

The one group who have no voice in how we are treated are us, the public, our communities, the people who pay for services we are not getting and who suffer the consequences.

A constructive way forward

Time to build, develop and maintain a partnership of equals based on accountability through local community forums, true democracy in action.

6. United we stand, Divided we Fall

Politicians must represent the wishes and best interests of all the people

We strongly believe ordinary people the world over are pretty united in our common humanity and that far too many seemingly intractable issues, violence and wars have politics and politicians behind them too often working directly against the common good for their own ends while people die and suffer?

Politicians take their privileged role and our subordination for granted, while far too many of us have done the same, we have meekly accepted our lot and as we have been increasingly squeezed out of the democratic processes far too many of us have given up, where has the bulldog spirit gone?

Respective governments have all taken measures to restrict freedom in various ways and the practice of blaming certain sections of Society for problems goes directly against equality, in fact governments have done their best to foster inequality and enmity thereby actively working against the core principle of Democracy.

Politicians are terrified of people uniting against their incompetence and corruption and so use the standard tactic of diversion by creating bogey men and women using all their power and influence to promote and maintain the division that is so harmful to our society and so essential for their survival.

7. True Democracy can and must work equally for everyone

Happy, safe, prosperous

Built on:-

Personal Responsibility

Shared Human Values

Definition of Democracy

the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves

As elected representatives have increasingly failed us, we clearly need a system of democracy in which power is held by the people – the power to decide who will govern us and the power to hold the executive to account.

Inclusive, Imaginative, Effective and Accountable

We believe it is possible to build a True Democracy by building on our shared Human Values, a strong sense of common purpose, focusing on solutions and opportunities that will benefit everyone either directly or indirectly in the short, medium and long term free from ideology, free thinking, anything that can be imagined can be achieved.

Celebrate and embrace diversity, engage in constructive arguments that ultimately produce a broad consensus not of mediocrity but of excellence, always striving for improvement and investing heavily to achieve a level of prosperity in which everyone shares and benefits and our natural environment is enhanced, working in harmony with each other and the natural world.

Adopt the Community Code

Building and maintaining happy, safe, healthy, prosperous, inclusive, accountable and sustainable communities, benefits everyone.

• Everyone is equal

• Collaboration not competition

• Develop local partnerships

• Create and develop opportunities

• Support local businesses and services

• Invest in your community

• Be accountable to the community

• Serve the best interests of the community

• Address local needs

• Work to bring the community together

• Care for the environment

• Don’t accept failure

• An inclusive Community is a happy and prosperous Community

• Engage and empower the community

Ensure everyone has equal opportunity to:-

• Influence decisions,

• Be as involved as they wish

• Shape the future of their community

• Hold those in authority to account

Join the discussion,

What do you think?

In a true Democracy

• Everyone must have the right to participate to the best of their ability to:-
• Stand as a candidate for election
• Vote for a candidate of their choosing, or
• If none of the candidates are suitable, to
• Register a positive vote rejecting all candidates - None of the Above

Evolution not Revolution

All living things have to adapt to survive, those that fail to do so face extinction, this is where our political system is now, its failure is evident everywhere, affecting everyone except the privileged few invested heavily in protecting their own interests, at our expense?

A good start:-

• giving real power to the people, the electorate,
• achieving a means of exercising that power, until we can exercise power we are powerless, helpless,
• Encouraging and enabling those who have become disengaged to get involved and exercise their democratic rights.
• we can’t leave such important matters to the extremes, we need the vast majority of decent, honest, caring, supportive people to become actively involved, and to achieve that we need to make it constructive, worthwhile, attractive, enjoyable, maybe even a career.

Empower the electorate to:-

•  Reject all candidates with “none of the above” to be included on all ballot papers for all elections, if more than an agreed percentage of votes cast choose this option then the election will be called null and void and will have to be run again with new candidates.
• Make an election lawful and valid only if a majority of electors take part by casting a vote, this will help to counter voter suppression and compel candidates to engage with the electorate.

We need to elect a legislature, a parliament to represent and act on our interests but it doesn’t have to be dominated by divisive political parties who tend to allow some people to achieve positions way beyond their ability.

Why can’t each community elect a member who is highly capable and those duly elected form a government from their number and ensure that Parliament represents and acts for and in the best interests of all the people?

Establishing local Community Forums is a great place to begin the journey to true democracy that works equally for everyone.

A new system of governance, with strict, enforceable rules for those holding public office including MP’s:-

Surely it should be a criminal offence for:-

Politicians, particularly Government Ministers to lie and mislead the public.

To do anything that impedes the ability of voters to fully engage in the democratic process.

To enable, allow, encourage or facilitate anything that harms the public for political gain.

Working together there is nothing we cannot achieve

We will use the none of the above votes to signal our rejection of politics as usual

And send a clear message:-

• The need to develop a new system based on Democratic Principles
• Empowerment and engagement of the electorate
• Accountability built in at all levels
• All those elected to office take an oath committing them to always:-
• Act in the best interests of their community/country
• To always speak the truth
• Reject any form of corruption,
• Reform of political advertising
• End outside influences and corruption
• Reform funding of politicians and political parties
• Transparency and openness at every level
• Spreading of false information in any election to be punishable by prison
• Rotten ideology has no place in modern Britain.
• Transgressors face serious penalties: prison, disqualification, severe financial penalties
• Everyone must abide by the community code, and:-
• No lobbying
• A system allowing everyone to put their ideas forward to be established in a way which is open and accountable
• No freebies of any kind
• Must work for the Constituency and Country, they are not paid to promote or work for their party during ‘office hours’.
• No rewarding anyone - family, friends, party members
• Must always prevent negligence, fraud, incompetence
• Must not use their public office for personal gain

These are just some of our ideas,

What do you think?

The perfect vehicle to support local, non political, candidates for public office from the Parish Council to Parliament.

We need the power to Reject

None of the Above - NoTa

This will be classed as a ‘spoiled ballot’ but it does register and we will be able to calculate the total number of votes, approximately, so all the votes will count and send a powerful signal to the complacent politicians, a powerful signal we can build on to bring real change.