UK Polls Open - Local, Mayoral and Referenda

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Not that the current broken system and sparsity of decent candidates / parties is gonna make for much of an election day, but still find these events oddly exciting and fascinating. I'll be pouring over the data when the results are announced tommorow morning.

(Wish I still lived in town, would be more candidates for local and there's a mayoral election for the first time)

[Manic Impressive]

We're standing as The Socialist Party in Merton and Wandsworth and Lambeth and Southwark. We got a fairly good review and interview here (http://www.bigsmoke.org.uk/?p=77382).

I've also been trying to start a wider debate on election techniques which may interest you.
http://www.revleft.com/vb/london-mayoral-election-t170934/index.html

[Left Leanings]

I was attending a function at one of the local town halls today, and the usual suspects were hanging about like a bad smell, their rosettes attached to their jackets.

Thankfully they were all downstairs, my associates and I were upstairs, away from all the rubbish lol.

Taking the bus home, I did actually drop off in town, and attend the local polling station. I drew a vertical line passing through all the three candidates' boxes, and wrote on in capitals: Vote of no confidence.

So I have exercised my 'democratic right'. And told the reformists and moderates to fuck the hell off.

[brigadista]

didn't bother.....

[LeftAtheist]

I spoiled my ballot paper. Wrote "NO" next to all the candidates with "Anarcho-Communism" above. There were only 3 candidates at all in my ward, Labour, Tory and UKIP. *spit*

[kuriousoranj]

You're free to choose this boss, this boss, or this boss. Democracy!

[Quail]

I kind of feel that I should have spoiled my ballot as opposed to just not turning up, because not turning up because you don't believe in voting is indistinguishable to anyone else from not turning up because you don't give a shit about politics.

Either way, I think that we're going through dark times at the moment and with the funding cuts to advice charities and local services, the only solution I see is self-organisation. We need things like claimants unions and mutual aid groups to take the place of the services that are being cut and organising in that way is far more important than voting for a candidate who won't make a blind bit of difference to all the bullshit.

[Tim Finnegan]

I was going to go and spoil my ballot out of spite, but I had stuff to do, and then I couldn't be arsed.

Model citizen, me.

[RedAnarchist]

Sometimes the overnight programme on the BBC about these elections can be interesting, especially when it's a General Election. We weren't pandering to the egos of any politicians in my constituency this time around, though.

Apparently, UKIP and Labour seem to be doing well so far.

[LeftAtheist]

Sometimes the overnight programme on the BBC about these elections can be interesting, especially when it's a General Election. We weren't pandering to the egos of any politicians in my constituency this time around, though.

Apparently, UKIP and Labour seem to be doing well so far.

I'm watching it now. Speaking of UKIP, they had more candidates than the Lib-Dems in my city. I've been seeing a fair bit of their promotional material around as well.

[Krano]

I have always wondered, who elected the queen? :rolleyes:

[kuriousoranj]

I'm watching it now. Speaking of UKIP, they had more candidates than the Lib-Dems in my city. I've been seeing a fair bit of their promotional material around as well.

I work in a home in which 6 young adults with learning disabilities live. As I was sat outside smoking a fag the other day, a little blokie from UKIP came over, handed me a leaflet, and asked if I'd give him my vote. I told him I was a communist, and have since savoured the thought of the images of a twisted marxist disabled commune that must have conjured in his confused mind.

[LeftAtheist]

I have always wondered, who elected the queen? :rolleyes:

The serendipity of birth.

[RedAnarchist]

I see the Great Socialist People's Republic of Red Knowsley has wiped out the Liberal Democrats for the Glory of the Labour Party. This truly is a victory for the working classes of Knowsley!


(:rolleyes:)

[MotherCossack]

well... i'm gonna say it folks... and i dont care what you lot say...
i would definitely rather have labour than the tories....and i voted accordingly.....
that does not mean i am not a socialist/communist... i most certainly am.
i also notice when food prices go sky high and everything starts to get shit....
and believe me... since the tories got in... my life has gone from fair and bearable to a bloody nightmare.
and it will get worse.
basically you vote labour and things pretty much carry on as usual.......
you vote tory and it gets worse and worse quickly....

trust me.... i will be the first to support, help establish any signs of radical move for real change... if and when it ever comes.
but in the meantime.... i aint ashamed of voting labour...... as a disenfranchised socialist i have no choice.
way i see it...... if you dont vote/ spoil your ballot/make a stand then you are giving up your right to an opinion....better to vote tory than not vote at all.....

although i hate the lack of any real choice.... i still vote... and would do more if there was anything more inspired and inspiring that i could support

[Bronco]

well... i'm gonna say it folks... and i dont care what you lot say...
i would definitely rather have labour than the tories....and i voted accordingly.....
that does not mean i am not a socialist/communist... i most certainly am.
i also notice when food prices go sky high and everything starts to get shit....
and believe me... since the tories got in... my life has gone from fair and bearable to a bloody nightmare.
and it will get worse.
basically you vote labour and things pretty much carry on as usual.......
you vote tory and it gets worse and worse quickly....

trust me.... i will be the first to support, help establish any signs of radical move for real change... if and when it ever comes.
but in the meantime.... i aint ashamed of voting labour...... as a disenfranchised socialist i have no choice.
way i see it...... if you dont vote/ spoil your ballot/make a stand then you are giving up your right to an opinion....better to vote tory than not vote at all.....

although i hate the lack of any real choice.... i still vote... and would do more if there was anything more inspired and inspiring that i could support

If you vote, you can't complain

And you really think it's better to vote Tory than not vote?

[ed miliband]

i am genuinely sorry to hear that you are finding times difficult but your position is completely irrational and ill-founded

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

You should vote as right-wing as possible, so people can see how bad that is and revolution will come earlier.

[RedAnarchist]

You should vote as right-wing as possible, so people can see how bad that is and revolution will come earlier.

If you're serious, how does this work? It didn't work when Reagan had a huge victory in the 1980 US election, and I doubt it would work if people started to vote for the BNP and the other degenerates on the far right.

[LeftAtheist]

better to vote tory than not vote at all.....

Sorry, what?

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

If you're serious, how does this work? It didn't work when Reagan had a huge victory in the 1980 US election, and I doubt it would work if people started to vote for the BNP and the other degenerates on the far right.

I wasn't serious.

[RedAnarchist]

I'm watching the election programme via the BBC site, and there's a lot of people commenting via Twitter about how nothing changes, not to mention some very low turnouts for the even more worthless than normal elections, such as the mayoral election in Nottingham, with a turnout of just under 24%, with one ward having a turnout of around 11%.

A few of the comments -


My daughter who just turned 18 voted for the first time and was very excited - she felt she also belonged! Poor thing, it won't be too long before she realises all her excitement and hopes have no value. They only make promises to break. It's only a power game, and we are the puppets.


I feel really bad but I didn't vote today. I'm not disillusioned with any one party, but what's to choose between them? Vote for the guys that broke it first time around? Or vote for the headless/directionless coalition? Or throw your vote away on an independent? It's all so disheartening.


Instead of moaning about low turnouts, our politicians should actually show some real leadership for a change and inspire the electorate. I fear though this will be beyond them. More of the same, stale debate from professional politicians who wouldn't know real life and the difficulties real people have if it hit them in the face!


I voted and I am proud that I have. I don't believe that by not voting you're protesting. There's a reason why we have the right to vote and that's because our ancestors fought for our voice to be heard through voting. This may not be the general election but it's just as important if not more to shape our local communities.

(I'm hoping that last one, from South Wales, is sarcastic).

[ed miliband]

i've had some of my labour-type friends give me that spiel

[MotherCossack]

If you vote, you can't complain

And you really think it's better to vote Tory than not vote?

actually.... nah...
that was a fucking stupid thing to say and i am a fucking stupid cow for saying it!
so... no ... it is definitely better to stay at home and count your blessings than to toddle along with all and sundry and cross the blue box.

note to self.... think before you post... mother bloody wazzock

[Blake's Baby]

I kind of feel that I should have spoiled my ballot as opposed to just not turning up, because not turning up because you don't believe in voting is indistinguishable to anyone else from not turning up because you don't give a shit about politics.
...

That kinda only makes sense if you see the bit where you are in the booth as constituting what 'politics' is. Otherwise what you're saying is, '...not turning up because you don't believe in voting is indistinguishable to anyone else from not turning up because you don't give a shit about the political circus'. And I'd agree, it is indistinguishable, because it's the same thing; the recognition that 'democracy' is pretty much meaningless and voting doesn't change things.

[MotherCossack]

what can i say......
i open my mouth and shit comes out.....

i know i'm a bit of a twit,
and i do talk a whole lot of shit
but sometimes i'm funny
and care about more than just money
and clearly am a bit of a git

[RedAnarchist]

Nottingham have decided not to stroke the ego of some career politician by saying no to a mayor.

Also -


0131: Isabel Hardman from PoliticsHome tweets: new meaning to "bruising at the polls" as Lib Dem leader in St Helen's is thrown out of the count for trying to punch someone!

[ed miliband]

apparently it got nasty in bradford with labour attacking respect and respect attacking the lib dems - physically

[RebelDog]

You can change things by voting. There are many examples of this. X Factor, Britains Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing,............

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

You can change things by voting. There are many examples of this. X Factor, Britains Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing,............

The people, united, will help that little girl realise her dream of singing for the queen, or whatever it is...

Labour are taking alot of Tory scalps so far, BNP have nil, Respect have a few and have ousted the Bradford Labour leader...quite interesting (tho I geneiunely find this shit fascinating and lok up results in my old home towns and compare data to previous ones...all very sad)

[MotherCossack]

there is not a lot of sweeping or radical change by the ballot box... i grant you..... barely a change of underpants.. in fact... but i still wish that more people had voted to keep out the damn tory coalition..... i hate them...

in fact i am starting to wonder if there aint some truth in what a certain ex- snooker commentator preaches.... he of the wobbly church: ' its us against that there reptile ruling class' david icke.

well ... but they are so vile...
in a political contest i would always vote for the most vocally marxist candidate..it wont do any harm and i certainly wont stop hoping for something more ....and doing whatever i can to support any move to the left

[MotherCossack]

nice one respect .... at least bradford knows what to do at the ballot box

[ed miliband]

the 68% of people who didn't vote know what to do with the ballot box

[Manic Impressive]

anyone know what time the London results are due in?

[Blake's Baby]

Not till this afternoon I think.

You hoping your man's... kept his deposit?

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

anyone know what time the London results are due in?

11pm tonight

[Manic Impressive]

Not till this afternoon I think.

You hoping your man's... kept his deposit?
I'm not sure how many votes we need or what % or whatever but no not worried about that. We can afford to lose a deposit or two. Just wondering if our votes will go up from last time. I did a bit of leafleting for the election so I want to see if my hard work paid off at all. Had a really good response from the people we met. Apart from two guys one old fella who told me a story about when he was a teenager after the war and his dear old dad gave some money to the communist party (CPB) and he went round and threatened to kick the shit out of them if they didn't give the money back, I didn't get the impression that we were going to get his vote. The only other negative response was this one guy who came out of his house to chase after me up the road only to hand the leaflet back to me timidly and said "no thank you".

Anyway we got about 1500 votes last time so anything better than that would be good any worse would be extremely disappointing.

[bricolage]

where in lambeth did you campaign?

[Quail]

That kinda only makes sense if you see the bit where you are in the booth as constituting what 'politics' is. Otherwise what you're saying is, '...not turning up because you don't believe in voting is indistinguishable to anyone else from not turning up because you don't give a shit about the political circus'. And I'd agree, it is indistinguishable, because it's the same thing; the recognition that 'democracy' is pretty much meaningless and voting doesn't change things.

Yeah that is true.

My boyfriend told me by text that by not voting I'm accepting the cuts... We're going to have to have a proper conversation about that one later :lol:

[Manic Impressive]

I did about 1000 or so in Southwark. I'm not sure who did Lambeth, I wasn't really that involved just did a bit of donkey work and talking to people and stuff. `

[RedAnarchist]

Bristol, or more accurately a tiny portion of the Bristolian populace, have decided to have an elected mayor. From the BBC site -


1415: Kirsty Gardner news editor, BBC South West tweets: The result in the Bristol mayor vote. Yes 41032. No 35880. Turnout only 24pc and in one ward just 6!

(To give some perspective, Bristol has a population of over 430,000 and the surrounding outskirts has a population of over 1 million).

A man dressed as a penguin got more votes than the Lib Dems in Edinburgh - http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/98159-candidate-dressed-as-a-penguin-receives-more-votes-than-two-major-parties/.

[ed miliband]

bnp have lost all the seats they contested

[RedAnarchist]

The counts in London are being updated here - http://www.londonelects.org.uk/im-voter/results-and-past-elections/live-results-2012?contest=25 - if anyone is interested.

[ed miliband]

is there owt worse in the world than young, enthusiastic labour politicos? http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/04/local-elections-2012-schoolgirl-councillor_n_1477093.html

possibly them geeky tory boy types you get, who seem to exclusively have big ears and wear badly cut suits

but no the two are both as bad as eachother tbh

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

..man the turnout is the lowest for over a decade...that depresses me for some reason

[Left Leanings]

..man the turnout is the lowest for over a decade...that depresses me for some reason

It shouldn't depress you.

It's a very positive sign, cos it would appear that people are losing faith in the electoral process. Fuck voting and electing politicians, cos nothing changes.

So maybe they look for ways of effecting change via other ways...;)

[ed miliband]

..man the turnout is the lowest for over a decade...that depresses me for some reason

it delights me bb

celebrating with some expensive beers

[LeftAtheist]

Boris Johnson has officially won the London Mayoral election.

[RedAnarchist]

Boris just made the "may the fourth" joke. Surely that should disqualify him from office?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It shouldn't depress you.

It's a very positive sign, cos it would appear that people are losing faith in the electoral process. Fuck voting and electing politicians, cos nothing changes.

So maybe they look for ways of effecting change via other ways...;)

Was having this discussion earlier. I'm not sure about your last sentence, I think there is clearly (very clearly, in fact) a lot of genuine apathy and ignorance amongst the general populace. But when you have a general election where roughly 60% bother to vote, turnout of 20-30% does suggest something beyond generalised apathy, and I would hypothesise that, in these cases, 'not voting' actually corresponds to a vote, a vote of no confidence - not in individual politicians or parties, but in the electoral (and perhaps wider political) system itself.

You can of course agree/disagree with this as you will, and draw your own conclusions from the evidence, but in council wards where 75%+ are not voting, i'd say that there is some sort of mix between genuine apathy/ignorance and deliberate non-voting as a 'vote' of sorts.

[Blake's Baby]

Well, I think you have to be careful about comparing council elections to general elections. Council elections typically have very low turnouts. Typically 30-40% I think, so this doesn't seem so unusual. I rather think that's it's because people realise that at a local level voting doesn't relaly change anything, even if they think that it does at a national level. An entirely coherent position, in line with bourgeois-democratic ideology, could be: 'I don't care who's in the Town Hall, Westminster is where the power is, I won't vote in the local election but I'll still vote in the general election, our grandparents fought hard for the right to vote you know/my dad fought in the war to keep the vote you know etc'.

So you have to compare general elections to each other and local elections to each other. I haven't done that, but I'm not aware the turnout is significantly down on 2008 for instance.

Incidently, I do know (I think I know) that all elections were showing decreased turnouts until the early 00s when they started going up again.

[Left Leanings]

It shouldn't depress you.

It's a very positive sign, cos it would appear that people are losing faith in the electoral process. Fuck voting and electing politicians, cos nothing changes.

So maybe they look for ways of effecting change via other ways...;)


Was having this discussion earlier. I'm not sure about your last sentence, I think there is clearly (very clearly, in fact) a lot of genuine apathy and ignorance amongst the general populace. But when you have a general election where roughly 60% bother to vote, turnout of 20-30% does suggest something beyond generalised apathy, and I would hypothesise that, in these cases, 'not voting' actually corresponds to a vote, a vote of no confidence - not in individual politicians or parties, but in the electoral (and perhaps wider political) system itself.

You can of course agree/disagree with this as you will, and draw your own conclusions from the evidence, but in council wards where 75%+ are not voting, i'd say that there is some sort of mix between genuine apathy/ignorance and deliberate non-voting as a 'vote' of sorts.

It is a mixture of things, I'm sure. Apathy and ignorance are part of the picture. But I am coming across more and more people, who express the same criticism fairly frequently: they (the elected politicians), are all the same, and nothing changes. So often I hear people remark that Labour are now no different from the the Tories. Of cos, they never really were. We know that. But many workers identified with it as their party. This is becoming less and less so in my experience.

The old Class War adage Labour Tory Same Old Story would appear to be taking a much firmer root out there.

As for my last sentence, regarding people looking for other ways of effecting change. Well, maybe that's wishful thinking on my part. But I'm an optimistic revolutionary at heart.

And this is where we come in, is it not? Our function is to agitate.

There is work to be done, and a world to win :)