Barry Gardiner Quotes

[Citizens] have the political liberty to direct the governmental process to make decisions that might be wrong in the ideal sense, subject to correction in the ordinary political process.

Democracy is about voting and it's about a majority vote. And it's time that we started exercising the Democratic process.

Everything, everywhere, shall be decided by majority vote.

In a democracy, if the people don’t vote, the policies are made by others….The major decisions of our society are going to be made by our elected officials, like it or not.

I have never seen a poll elect anyone

I can't influence how other parties choose to vote.

The one sure way of participating in the process of nation-building is to vote on the election day.

As long as we're in a democracy, I have to give what I think the majority of people will enjoy.

If we had a consensus we wouldn't have to go to a referendum.

Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.

Politics in a democracy is transactional: Politicians seek votes by promising to do things for voters, who seek promises in exchange for their votes.

The conception of political equality can mean only one thing—one person–one vote.

Elections, like economic competition, produce winners, but these are not necessarily the best candidates, morally speaking.

Voters do not decide issues. They decide who will decide issues.

Voting should be the right of the great body of the society…an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.

You can not reduce issues to simple yes or no answers in a plebiscite.

One man shall have one vote.

We have voted. The people have spoken. It’s just going to take a little while to figure out what we said.

That a majority of people can vote against a government, and yet that government still remains in power does not raise confidence in our democracy.

the only vehicle through which we can get a clear-cut and unequivocal decision of the people.]

Polling can undermine the ability of officials to lay out, debate, analyze, and implement their plans. By turning to instant [electronic] polls we would eliminate the captain and the officers and leave every shipboard decision to the passengers.

The U. S. Presidency could be decided by a system Americans would find unacceptable abroad…. U. S. officials, working in newly democratic countries don’t spend much time encouraging laws that would allow the second place candidate for national office to triumph.

If you vote no, you don't go. [The compromise passed.]

In a democracy we assume that people can define their own interest and vote that way.

Democratic processes require time.