May 2008 Voting

[ScienceGeek]

Did you vote yesterday? Personally there wasn't an election in my ward. I stood last year for the Green Party but have become disillusioned with them as they very much feel like a one issue party. I have seriously been considering changing over to Lib Dem, at least they have a remote chance of being in a position to make any kind of real change. I don't really trust the two big parties because they both have had their chances and both have screwed it up. They haven't exactly proven themselves trustworthy and gone back on a lot of election promises.

 

Anyway that is my view on the state of politics. Some major losses for Labour though, Gordon Brown is not going to be a happy man tonight. I'm really hoping that this isn't an indication of what is to come.

[sarahponari]

i didnt vote, i have never voted. i think if i did i would vote lib dem but whats the point they will never beat labour and conservs anyway

[ScienceGeek]

i didnt vote, i have never voted. i think if i did i would vote lib dem but whats the point they will never beat labour and conservs anyway

 

I dunno about that... If all the people who thought that way voted it would certainly make a difference!

[Canopus]

I don't think the discussion of politics is allowed here unless it is directly related to AS and ASD.

 

I might have considered voting for the English Democrats if they convinced me they would provide better services and support for people with AS and ASD. After checking the persons nominated, I found my ward only had boring Lib-Lab-Con so I didn't vote and the winner was predictable anyway.

[justamum]

a friend of mine won her place yesterday by a big majority

[hev]

i didnt even realise there was voting on

[David Matthew Baker]

I voted. Mum would kill us if we didn't. Everytime my bro talks about not voting he gets reminded how much people gave up to get everyone the vote. Personaly voted 1x Lib Dem & 1x Independent. Our 2 Libs got in for our local seats once they were counted. I do wonder what would happen if everyone who wonders about voting Lib Dem did.

[ScienceGeek]

I don't think the discussion of politics is allowed here unless it is directly related to AS and ASD.

 

That's why it is in the Off topic board. There are plenty of topics that have nothing to do with AS/ASD on here so this shouldn't be any different.

[Kathryn]

That's why it is in the Off topic board. There are plenty of topics that have nothing to do with AS/ASD on here so this shouldn't be any different.

 

Just to clarify - mod hat on - there's no ban on the discussion of politics as a topic in itself. It can be a sensitive subject though, and so individual threads may be moderated or removed if they are likely to cause offence. The usual forum guidelines and rules apply, especially no. 4.

 

K

Edited May 3, 2008 by Kathryn

[ScienceGeek]

Just to clarify - mod hat on - there's no ban on the discussion of politics as a topic in itself. It can be a sensitive subject though, and so individual threads may be moderated or removed if they are likely to cause offence. The usual forum guidelines and rules apply, especially no. 4.

 

K

 

Thanks K,

 

It doesn't seem to be causing too much of a stir. I don't want to cause a riot or anything like that, just a civil discussion.

 

SG

[baddad]

i didnt even realise there was voting on

 

 

Well that MP you were phoning about Steve/school etc will be really pleased to hear that!

 

[Kathryn]

It doesn't seem to be causing too much of a stir. I don't want to cause a riot or anything like that, just a civil discussion.

 

Which it is .

 

Our council was one mentioned in the news as having changed from NOC to Lib Dem.

 

I voted - even though I felt really tired after work and didn't really want to bother. My daughter puts me to shame - she's 19 and takes her civic responsibilities very seriously. This is the second time she's been able to vote in local elections. I noted though, when she became a new voter last year, that apart from her polling card she received no information or encouragement to vote. She didn't know much about the parties and what they stood for, or anything about local government. She had to do her own research. And politicians go on about voter apathy, especially among young people.

 

K x

Edited May 3, 2008 by Kathryn

[Canopus]

I voted. Mum would kill us if we didn't. Everytime my bro talks about not voting he gets reminded how much people gave up to get everyone the vote.

 

I don't regard voting as a civic responsibility.

 

My stance on the British system of representative democracy is that it is a racket and a scam - and this is before the issue of vote fraud and tampering with cardboard ballot boxes in London. Representative democracy in practice is electoral dictatorship. You get a vote every few years and a limited choice of candidates which may not represent your views. The elected representatives then go and break their promises; U-turn; or reveal their hidden manifestos, and there is naff all the general public can do about it because "it's the will of the government" to do X and not do Y.

 

I support a system of direct democracy that really puts power in the hands of the people and not career politicians.

[ScienceGeek]

I agree with you Kathryn. When I first started voting the only parties that bothered doing any campaign work was conservative and labour when I lived back in Kent. In Brighton the only ones were Greens and Lib Dems. Here it was Lib Dems, Conservatives and Labour. In the defense of Green Party who I stood for there wasn't enough funds for all the candidates to have leaflets, as a minority party the budget is very low, we had something around �300 for everything last year. For me the alarming thing is the rise in the votes for parties like the BNP.

 

Part of the reason why standing for Greens really sucks, they don't have a common enough appeal to get any serious amount of votes. They have a few councillors but that is about it, they don't have the political clout of the major 3. I would like to see the Lib Dems have a shot at government to see what they could make of it. I'm pretty fed up of the cycles of conservative/new labour spinning. I can't believe Boris Johnson won the London Mayor!

[Tally]

Historically, the Tories and the Liberals were major parties. It's only during the last century (or so) that Labour have overtaken them.

[Kathryn]

I don't regard voting as a civic responsibility.

 

My stance on the British system of representative democracy is that it is a racket and a scam - and this is before the issue of vote fraud and tampering with cardboard ballot boxes in London. Representative democracy in practice is electoral dictatorship. You get a vote every few years and a limited choice of candidates which may not represent your views. The elected representatives then go and break their promises; U-turn; or reveal their hidden manifestos, and there is naff all the general public can do about it because "it's the will of the government" to do X and not do Y.

 

I support a system of direct democracy that really puts power in the hands of the people and not career politicians.

 

Try living in Zimbabwe.

[Canopus]

Try living in Zimbabwe.

 

Try living in Switzerland. The Swiss have a system of direct democracy that I find impressive.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy

[David Matthew Baker]

I didn't have to wait for polling day to vote. Me, my mum and my bro are all registered to vote through the postal system. It does make it very easy to vote and you don't have to find time to squeeze in a visit to the polling station. That said my dad still goes to the polling station. Our postal system gets you to put your vote in one enverlope then you put your identification details and that first enverlope in a second one. Seems to work well in my opinion. I'd be interested to know if more people vote because of it.

[Mumble]

I didn't have to wait for polling day to vote. Me, my mum and my bro are all registered to vote through the postal system. It does make it very easy to vote

I would have liked to have done that. I didn't vote - this is the first year I've been resident in one place long enough to be eligible to vote - because I didn't know what would happen at the polling place (nor did the map on the polling card match my A-Z) and had too many what ifs I could have done it by post, but to register I had to ring the people up - there was no option to do it by post or email - hardly disabled friendly - if one of the parties addresses that, they can have my vote.

[David Matthew Baker]

From memory we had a letter sent out when they first introduced the system that asked us in the future how we wanted to vote. I'd try writing a letter to them explaining that you'd like to vote via the postal system but due to autism you find it difficult to talk to people over the phone hence please can you change how I will vote in the future. I would have thought they'd change it for you even though they don't mention it as a way it can be altered.

[Tally]

I tried to register for a postal vote, but couldn't understand how to do it. That was for a General Election though, so maybe the procedure is different.

 

There was no local election here though, as far as I know.

[Kathryn]

I would have liked to have done that. I didn't vote - this is the first year I've been resident in one place long enough to be eligible to vote - because I didn't know what would happen at the polling place (nor did the map on the polling card match my A-Z) and had too many what ifs I could have done it by post, but to register I had to ring the people up - there was no option to do it by post or email - hardly disabled friendly - if one of the parties addresses that, they can have my vote.

 

Might be worth writing to your MP about it.

 

The system is really archaic - they have to make it easier. Weekend voting and online voting would make it so much more convenient for a lot of people. Even having polling booths in supermarkets and railway stations would help - places where people normally go. Our polling booth is a primary school which I have to go out of my way to get to.

 

K x

[pearl]

I like the old fashioned way - going to the school or wherever, seeing neighbours, I like the feeling of community.

There was no voting near us. Maybe there wasn't near you, hev.