Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17548547

Local elections tomorrow, that article gives you 11 reasons why you should vote.

Personally, for the first time in years, I'm not going to bother. Because fuck em, whichever party or bullshit issue they are standing for.

I ought to, but I've received no mailshots at all. I only found out who was standing the other night, and it's a straight Tory/Labour contest - no other parties bothered to put anyone up. And as this is a safe Tory area, I wouldn't be hedging my bets on the outcome.

I might just spoil my paper, or toss a coin.

Wait, what?

Isn't it the case that not all authorities are on the same schedule, so your area might not have any elections this year? Can't remember - this is the kind of nerdy stuff I used to know.

Correct. I think there are 3 cycles, split approximately one third in each with none in the fourth year.

Ah, that's it.
We've the Police Commissioner elections in November to look forward too. I can feel the excitement in the air already.

Remember when most people couldn't be arsed to vote in the European elections and we ended up sending the BNP there? Those were the days, eh?

It's not that I can't be arsed, it's that I actively don't want to.

Most people couldn't really say what powers were held by their district or county councils anyway, and it does defeat the object of the exercise to vote on national issues as what happens tomorrow won't affect the balance of the parties in Westminster.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... meron-posh

Polly is ace.

No. No, she really isn't.

Indeed. In fact, given that her stance on tax and charities are set against one another, and also both wrong, I'm nominating her for Idiot of the Day!

I mean, pasties? Seriously? And cosying herself up to Nadine Dorries, the well known fundamentalist Christian who opposes evidence-based science and medicine? Ad saying that the current government is more pro-Murdoch than any of the previous ones that sucked his cock blindly throughout their entire tenures?

Seriously, I think she just got a 14 year old kid to write this one.

Did the votey-thing. As pleasurable as it always is.

Obligatory polling day post:

North-east Oxfordshire, this morning:

This country desperately needs a "none of the above" option.

True, but the closest equivalent currently is spoiling your ballot, which amounts to much the same thing.

I'll vote this evening, but I've absolutely no idea who for. My choices are Con. (new, and the only one to bother visiting to try and win my vote), LD (no idea beyond what's on the flyer, although local LDs tend to be very good, so I might vote for him, despite the candidate not being arsed to show up and talk), an indie (no idea about them at all) and Lab. (typo-ridden flyer, filled with appalling bullshit spin).

But I'm seriously considering spoiling my ballot for the first time in my voting life, which is really quite depressing.

Not really, spoiled ballots get lumped in with the idiots and illiterates. A "none of the above" option is a clear indicator that people have made a conscious choice to say they are all twats.
Also, regardless of how many spoiled ballots there were, a twat can still win. If the "none of the above" option wins, then they have to start again, and keep starting again until one of them manage to represent what people actually want and get above the line.

It isn't, because deliberately spoilt ballots aren't counted separately from accidentally spoilt ballots by people who can't follow simple instructions. Hence numbers of spoilt ballots are never considered by anyone. The most you can achieve is inconvenience some vote counter for a few seconds.

Edit -- bloody Trooper

Wow, we haven't had a good spoiled ballot discussion for at least 12 months!

If people took the time to read what each of their candidate stood for and then chose based on that rather than some kind of empathy with/antipathy to the parliamentary parties, we'd have better local councils.

Aye. It's why I'm generally in favour of elected mayors, because it personalises local government. Rather than moaning about 'the council' and feeling apathetic, you immediately know who is responsible for the state of your town.

Except for the cost of implementing and maintaining them being huge, of course.

If the candidates took the time to state what local issues they stood for, rather than campaigning based on their national party interests and only ever bashing the opposition, we'd have better local councils.

True, certainly really only something for the large metropolitan areas. It's also important to ensure that the mayor's work is scrutinised by the council, in order to reduce the risks of corruption or abuse of power. But having an easily-identifiable figurehead, elected by all the townsfolk, would revitalise interest in local government. I mean, off the top of your head, do you know the leader of your local council?

That sums up our Lab. candidate perfectly. Also, as I noted earlier, precisely one candidate bothered to show up here: a Tory, who actually seemed like he gave a shit. Everyone else has just shoved "Sorry you were out!" leaflets through the door, when I wasn't out, and the candidates weren't there either, because the things were distributed by other people. Still, I'd prefer our council to be back on NoC rather than Tory-led, and so, in short: gah.

I think that all we have are London Assembly elections today. I say I think, because aside from a pamphlet covering the mayoral contenders, I've received nothing whatsoever. The mayoral pamphlet is also so small that there is no area to seperately detail policies, and goes no further than

BORIS - "I'm Brilliant and have an ill conceived plan to keep council tax low! New Routemaster"
KEN - "Boris is a dick, and I have an ill conceived plan to cut tube fares and bring back EMA which I can't. Routemaster is expensive"
Paddick - "They're both dicks. I'd bother with highlighting policies if there was a chance of being elected"
Green - No planes.
UKIP/BNP - Usual twaddle.

I'm actually tempted to vote Ken, as although I side with Boris's policies (such that they are) more, the whole Ken Tax thing really pissed me off as bullshit, so I feel sympathy to the whining cunt.

:this: so very much

although the lib dem is standing on the platform of "we're not the tories, we'd be better than them" labour are standing on a ticket of "we're not wasting our time" (that is, they're not standing at all here) ukip are standing on a platform of "we're shit" and conservatives are standing on a platform of "look at what we've done. Yay us"

I wish they weren't affiliated with Westminster to block a lot if the crap that gets chucked around.

Our Lib Dems seems to be standing on the platform of "Labour can't win here, therefore we're your only alternative".

Amusingly, our LDs are standing on the platform of "we're nothing like those fuckheads in government—we hate them just as much as you do and want to kick their faces off".

I don't see her actually doing that, though.

It was part of the whole abortion is bad and everyone who does it gets cancer and dies furore.

Sorry I wasn't clear, should have snipped my quote earlier, I don't see Polly cosying up to Nadine

A good half of what you posted is her saying that Nadine Dorries is right. Maybe not cosying, but akin to saying Charles Manson had some good ideas about music.

I would like to know his ideas. Music is rubbish right now.

Unless he had an idea for a new guitar using taunt pubic hair stretched over a box with a mouse inside.

EDIT: bloody autocorrect. *waves fist*

Actually, no, scratch that, I'd still like to know how that sounds.

Its kind of funny. Most people typo pubic/public the other way around.

I'm not voting. Partly because I didn't eat til 8:30, partly because I'm flirting with a girl at the moment, and partly because I'd only vote for the Labour person on account of I liked how her butt looked in those salmon trousers and that's not what 'our' grandparents died for.

Oof.

Hart's declared as NoC—woo! Not sure what people will have voted for, though. That means fewer Tories, but I've no idea what they've been replaced by—I'm hoping local LDs and not Lab candidates.

Looks like people don't want mayors, too. Which is a relief. RESPECT have gotten 5 councillors into Bradford.

About a decade ago I was one of the six or so people to vote in favour of an elected mayor for Oxford. I suppose I'm in a hell of a minority on this one.

How does an elected mayor differ to a council leader, other than the selection process, natch?

Visibility. People would know both who the mayor is, who their opponents are, and how they can be removed. That provides a direct link between the citizens and the officeholder, which whilst wouldn't be ideal at a national or regional scale, for the kind of questions local government deals with it makes the system engaging.

Thank fuck for that.

A resounding NO in Nottingham last night.

Sale has a mayor, there was no choice about that. It was a mental coin toss for me that came down in favour of the Greens. Helen picked Tories because she had no idea and just picked one. Sigh.

Trafford, the jurisdiction I'm in, came out only slightly less Tory (and slightly more Labour) than last time. Boo!

It seems that people have exceedingly short memories and are yearning for the glory days of super awesome Gordon Brown!

It seems that people are voting on their local issues based on national sentiment. What a surprise...

Apparently in Brizzle, the residents were asked to vote for a Mayor except they didn't know what powers they got to have until the council/Government decided in November.

The BNP have lost all of their council seats in England, so yay for that.

I bet they left them at Dimrills.