Are you voting in the locals?

[PositronicRay]

Locals have snuck up on me this time around. Usually I have an idea of who and what my candidates are and where they stand. No clue, I didn't even realise we were voting tomorrow.

Is it just me? Or general lethargy?

[ClaphamGT3]

It is an unpardonable national malaise.

I am not an advocate of compulsory voting, even though I consider anyone who does not vote as a dim-witted societal parasite, but I do consider the small and dwindling voter turn-out at elections to be a real weakness in society.

I personally believe that citizenship and constitution should be taught much more seriously in our primary and secondary skills, with heavy focus on the democratic process and the consequences of ignoring it.

[Sheets Tabuer]

ClaphamGT3 said:

It is an unpardonable national malaise.

I am not an advocate of compulsory voting, even though I consider anyone who does not vote as a dim-witted societal parasite, but I do consider the small and dwindling voter turn-out at elections to be a real weakness in society.

I personally believe that citizenship and constitution should be taught much more seriously in our primary and secondary skills, with heavy focus on the democratic process and the consequences of ignoring it.

But nothing changes, the lives of ordinary people isn't made better by voting and certainly not in local elections.

In 50 years on this planet I've not once seen any party do anything that made a difference to my life.

I've been a life long tory voter but what have they done, what promises have they delivered on, I can't think of a single manifesto pledge they have delivered. All I ever see is them enriching themselves and arguing amongst themselves over how they are going to butt fk the nation.

And dont get me started on lets take all your money and give it to someone else Labour.

[PositronicRay]

ClaphamGT3 said:

It is an unpardonable national malaise.

I am not an advocate of compulsory voting, even though I consider anyone who does not vote as a dim-witted societal parasite, but I do consider the small and dwindling voter turn-out at elections to be a real weakness in society.

I personally believe that citizenship and constitution should be taught much more seriously in our primary and secondary skills, with heavy focus on the democratic process and the consequences of ignoring it.

Previously I've seen some presence of a campaign, leaflets, doorstep, posters that sort of thing. This time nothing.

[Rough101]

Sheets Tabuer said:

But nothing changes, the lives of ordinary people isn't made better by voting and certainly not in local elections.

In 50 years on this planet I've not once seen any party do anything that made a difference to my life.

I've been a life long tory voter but what have they done, what promises have they delivered on, I can't think of a single manifesto pledge they have delivered. All I ever see is them enriching themselves and arguing amongst themselves over how they are going to butt fk the nation.

And dont get me started on lets take all your money and give it to someone else Labour.

Labours current policies are very close to the Conservatives, and on the face of it have had less time to get the corruption built up to Tory levels.

Healthcare definitely got better under Labour, but then they dragged us into a war.

Conservative infighting dragged us out of the Worlds largest trading block and then corruption and austerity has made a difference on most people’s lives.

So a vote is sometimes just to stop the rot, rather than to continue with it or turn everything rosy in a couple of years.

[grumbledoak]

Meh. I plan to be a dim-witted societal parasite do something more useful or interesting. Like doom scrolling Twitter.

[bad company]

Mrs BC and I pride ourselves on always voting. This time there’s no local council elections so it’s just a vote for the Police Commissioner. We’ve received no literature nor seen any campaigning. A google search brings up 4 candidates each promising wonderful improvements.

Don’t think I’ll bother this time.

[hammo19]

We have a vote for a new mayoral position. Personally I just see it as another administrator taking taxpayers money and coming up with unwanted ideas.

[Pitre]

Sheets Tabuer said:

.....I've been a life long tory voter but what have they done, what promises have they delivered on, I can't think of a single manifesto pledge they have delivered. All I ever see is them enriching themselves and arguing amongst themselves over how they are going to butt fk the nation...

This, for me too. Can't bring myself to vote red, but certainly can't vote blue either. Yellow or green are a waste, so I'll sit here and post on PH instead.

[Skyedriver]

Rough101 said:

Labours current policies are very close to the Conservatives, and on the face of it have had less time to get the corruption built up to Tory levels.

Healthcare definitely got better under Labour, but then they dragged us into a war.

Conservative infighting dragged us out of the Worlds largest trading block and then corruption and austerity has made a difference on most people’s lives.

So a vote is sometimes just to stop the rot, rather than to continue with it or turn everything rosy in a couple of years.

But you're talking there of national politics rather than local elections.

Experience of local councils when I worked there were that some councillors were honestly interested in their own locality and tried their best often before being beaten down into submission. Others were just there to feel important.

Don't vote, it just encourages them - Billy Connolly.

In all seriousness, we should all take more interest in local politics and vote for the candidate we feel will benefit the area the most. Sadly they all put out their leaflets claiming they've done well/will improve this that and the other and then if/when elected do very little.

[Rough101]

Skyedriver said:

But you're talking there of national politics rather than local elections.

Experience of local councils when I worked there were that some councillors were honestly interested in their own locality and tried their best often before being beaten down into submission. Others were just there to feel important.

Don't vote, it just encourages them - Billy Connolly.

In all seriousness, we should all take more interest in local politics and vote for the candidate we feel will benefit the area the most. Sadly they all put out their leaflets claiming they've done well/will improve this that and the other and then if/when elected do very little.

My personal opinion is that local councils should be formed of independent representatives of their area and not political parties desperately trying mirror national policy, I know this has a lot of challenges of its own, but only because of the way it’s developed.

Too many will only vote Conservative because ‘anything else is communism’

[Type R Tom]

We only have a police commissioner locally, so I may stop by after taking my daughter to the nursery, but there have been no materials or info on candidates, so I will be guessing.

[Snubs]

I'll be voting for sure. The opportunity doesn't come along often and I quite enjoy it.

Lots of people saying 'politics doesn't do anything for them' so they're not voting, but that's a self fulfilling prophecy. The main political parties are well aware of voting demographics and create policies accordingly. The most obvious one being that older people are much more likely to vote than younger people (see here for example: https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-findings/... hence the triple lock on pensions. So if everyone under 25 took the 'there's nothing in it for me' approach there will indeed continue to be little in it for them. If everyone under 25 voted in the local and national elections this year, then you can absolutely bet that there'll be a better deal for them in subsequent elections.

If none of the parties appeal, which is understandable, then just vote against whoever currently holds office in your area. Nothing focuses minds on actually serving your community than the threat of being ousted. Any government of any kind across the globe does an increasing bad job of things if they feel they can take power for granted. So vote against them, whoever they are.

[Zetec-S]

We have county council, town council and police this time round, try to vote independent if possible but have chucked a vote to one of the Tory candidates in the county election as he did play a small part in promoting my wife's small business last year.

Local town councillor has been pretty awesome the last few years, pushing the developer of our local new build estate to finish off the road surfacing, various amenities and pushing back on some road closures or vehicle restrictions which would cut off part of the area from the rest of the town, so he'll definitely get a vote.

Another has emerged from the woodwork the last few weeks aggressively pushing his credentials on the local facebook groups, slating the local and county councils and how he's much better and all his wonderful achievements in the past. Up until now we never hear anything from him, so not impressed, plus I don't have time for negative "deflection" politics (yes, looking at you, SNP).

[WyrleyD]

Couldn't vote because we are out of the country and there was no other option available to us:

Postal Vote - Nope, papers only sent out seven days before polling day and we were already out of the country
Proxy Vote - Nope, person who would do this for us is also out of the country.

[snuffy]

ClaphamGT3 said:

It is an unpardonable national malaise.

I am not an advocate of compulsory voting, even though I consider anyone who does not vote as a dim-witted societal parasite

After 40 odd years of voting I've finally grasped that it's a total waste of time, you don't get what you voted for, what candidates and parties say they are going to do if you elect them, and what they actually do once elected, bear no resemblance to each other (since there's no legal obligation to enact anything you promise), and also nothing will change.

I actually feel quite dim-witted myself in falling for the lie of "if you don't vote, you can't complain' line for so many years.

So I shall be abstaining on Thursday.

[SpidersWeb]

Rough101 said:

My personal opinion is that local councils should be formed of independent representatives of their area and not political parties desperately trying mirror national policy

Where I live used to be split 50/50 Conservative / LibDem in the town and district council, with only a rare independent. However in the council elections in the years following 2010 the LibDems were annihilated and lost every single seat as they came up for re-election.

What did the former LibDem councillors do - that's right they stood as independents and people felt they could vote for someone as an independent even though the campaign literature was exactly the same as when they were LibDems and as individuals they still campaigned for the LibDems in the GEs.

And when they were elected they formed an 'Independent Group' with exactly the same councillors as used to be in the LibDem group.

So all that would happen if you prohibited political parties in local councils would be independents standing as part of groups that were not officially affiliated with the party but still followed that party's line, but without any of the oversight that comes from the party.

[snuffy]

People often say you should not judge the local candidates by their respective national parties.

But clearly said candidates do, because if they did not think that, they would not stand on a party ticket.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

i'm quite into local elections this year, even though there isn't one for my town ( other than the PCC vote)
I subscribed to a lot of twitter councillors and councils ( Oxford) to see what is going on and who is doing what.

It's the usual active travel, LTN, bus gates, 'declaring a climate emergency' bks, topped off with a layer of blanket 20 mph'ers and war of cars propaganda.

Very little about stuff that really matters, like health, welfare, refuse collection and that sort of bread and butter stuff that I think bores the pants off the councillors.Most of whom think that if you haven't voted you are happy with their policies and have a mandate, rather than the reality of being so apathetic towards the parties very similar manifestos, that it won't make a different anyway

However as I want to try and disrupt the climate doomers currently sitting on the council, ruining Oxford, I am hoping that the IOA ( Independent Oxford Alliance) essentially independent candidates that have agreed to work together if elected, ( and have alternative - read sensible) traffic policies, can make some sort of impact and win a few seats. maybe a lot of seats and then perhaps OCC will start to listen to it's residents a bit more.

That then would mean that there might be some change to Oxford's absolutely ludicrous transport policy.

Edited by Dynion Araf Uchaf on Wednesday 1st May 09:17

[tangerine_sedge]

Type R Tom said:

We only have a police commissioner locally, so I may stop by after taking my daughter to the nursery, but there have been no materials or info on candidates, so I will be guessing.

Same here, but I'll be going out of my way to spoil my ballot paper.