Hardly anyone bothers to vote in the UK anymore - maybe the Greek system would wake people up! To understand why an idiot like Boris is voted for .. you have to live there lately. My sister wanted to go to the library with her son and was shocked to find it was closed to British and was a Polish only day! Her friend had been waiting for a council house for years and when one was found she lost it to a recently arrived Polish family! My sister also has to queue in the post office - while Polish/Albanians have their own desks with their native speakers! Can you see where racism comes from?
As a Brit living in Greece (20yrs) I would NEVER expect special treatment or think I have the right to tell Greeks how to run their lives or be above Greeks religious/traditional ways - basically if I don’t like it - I can go back to where I came from.

Xenos, I should have said no alcohol served on voting day, as you can’t really stop a person from drinking.

george, I agree that some aspects of greek elections don’t make much sense, but I still think that having elections on a working day makes a lot of people not vote. I can’t see what’s wrong with voting on a sunday. you know, not everything greece does is wrong.

Not allowed to drink alcohol on election days? Is this a joke?

Danilena, that’s why in Greece you have elections on Sunday because the government knows if you have it during the week, that Greeks will just take advantage and make it an extra day off.

well for one thing what on earth were the english thinking having elections on a working day anyway ?
how many people will not go to work, or even worse queue after a day’s work to vote ???
it might not seem important but I think the public holiday and general bruhaha we have in greece mobilises people. of course it also creates tonnes of rubbish, traffic accidents etc, but at least people get into the mood to vote, albeit for the wrong reasons

DD, I got the news by text when we were away at the weekend, and couldn’t quite believe it … I don’t think we (as individuals) get the government we deserve, but we do get the mayor that most people (who voted) want. We voted in our town too, and the turnout in our ward was less than 30%. How depressing, though there has to be a message in that too. Why are people so disenchanted with the government/local democracy that they cannot be bothered to vote, and why do they mind so much in London that they are prepared to elect Boris to replace Mr Livingstone, or give the BNP a voice? I feel ashamed.

FiloXenos,
Is it really necessary to be continually antagonistic towards Xenos?

Nothing to worry about!

I agree with you, rositta. It’s so important to vote otherwise those that can be bothered will have all the say. !

Here’s the thing…after every election here people complain about who won. When I ask them if they voted they hummed and hawed and said, well you know, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome or I was busy! Huh, we get the government we deserve and until everyone goes to vote they really have no right to complain with the outcome…just my two cents…ciao

And it gets a lot worse.

I feel for you, it seems like it was like how Bush got elected (and re-elected) in America. But from what I’ve heard, Boris is on the same level as most U.S. Democrats so…I guess London is turning into the U.S. Sorry.