Rocking the vote

[j4]

Not for any ulterior motives, but because I am interested to know:

[Poll #1559379]

That's it. Just scratching an informational itch.

If you want to see some more interesting and contentful political tickyboxery (and I know how much LiveJournallers love the tickyboxen, even if they don't love the politics!), have a look at how your local candidates answered the TheyWorkForYou survey - here's examples for the constituencies with (probably) the biggest representation in my readership (though they've probably all seen them already):

* Cambridge
* Oxford East

Or find your constituency by postcode [link edited to go somewhere more useful]. They're also linked from YourNextMP.

That's it. In other news, I aten't dead. We now return you to your scheduled tumbleweed.

Comments

[kjaneway.livejournal.com]

Due to being a postal voter, I've actually already voted. :-)

[scat0324.livejournal.com]

Yep, me too. Now, since the world revolves around me, I do wish we could have a media blackout on the issue until the results.

[djw.livejournal.com]

I'm "definitely not going to vote" because I found out about a business trip after the postal vote deadline, and then spent every waking second between finding out and leaving trying to finish bits of work off, and therefore couldn't get a proxy vote.

D'oh. It isn't apathy, FWIW. I'm really annoyed at myself for getting myself into this situation.

[fanf]

Shouldn't it be a "crossybox"?

[j4.livejournal.com]

No no, a "crossybox" is one of those vertical letterboxes that's the opposite way round from what you think when you're delivering leaflets. Grr. :-}

[lnr]

That pick your constituency link seems to just tell you who your candidates are, what they were asked, and *whether* they answered, couldn't find a link there to the results. But you can get them by putting your postcode in here:

http://election.theyworkforyou.com

[j4.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry! Thank you for the better link, I will edit the post.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

Having just seen a picture of what my Conservative candidate looks like, I am a little concerned he might actually be a host for a Slitheen.

[j4.livejournal.com]

That figures. Charlie Brooker thinks Cameron is a replicant (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/03/charlie-brooker-cameron-brown-clegg).

[camellia-uk.livejournal.com]

I'm still undecided, and not because of tactical voting. It comes down to whether I decide to vote for the party I most want to be in power, or the candidate I most want as my MP. Both are valid reasons for voting, but they both lead to different choices.

For parties, I mostly side with the Lib Dems, and would love to see them gain power. However, our local Lib Dem candidate is the biggest knob ever, he leads the local council and is responsible for some of the worst decisions, basically ruining the city. Not a man you really want as your representative. The Green candidate on the other hand is by all accounts a great person, she's been campaigning for the city tirelessly, and instituting some great policies. She has a lot of support and apparently stands a good chance of being the first Green MP. And the Greens aren't all bad by any means, I'd support them getting more say in things, although their non-environmental policies are often a bit crazy and I wouldn't want to see them run the country.

So, it's a difficult decision. It's also a non-safe seat due to changing boundaries (Lancaster's been lumped in with Fleetwood which we have nothing in common with, several of the candidates are from there and have no plans to do anything for Lancaster if they get in) so you'd think we'd have had a lot of electioneering. We've had a couple of leaflets from some of the candidates, not all of them, and no-one's come to the door. Basically just have to accept that no politicians really care about the North West, even those that live there :-(

[htfb.livejournal.com]

The Victorians (at least, those in the Palliser novels) had the maxim for these situations, "Men not measures". Meaning that you should vote for the person you want as your MP, not their party or manifesto.

If you elect a reasonable person as an MP he or (now we're not quite so Victorian, thank goodness) she may well change their mind towards more reasonable policies. But if you elect a knob you're stuck with a knob.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'm with htfb on this: a knob will carry on being a knob (unless he's the sort of knob who just toes the party line, which it doesn't sound like he is). I'm fairly firmly Lib Dem but I wouldn't be able to bring myself to vote for e.g. this idiot (http://skeptical-voter.org/wiki/index.php?title=David_Ord) unless the only alternative was a loony party like UKIP. Fortunately our Lib Dem candidate seems to be a decent chap, even if he isn't quite as awesome as Dr Evan Harris over in Oxford West. ;)

I totally know what you mean about the Greens, but their non-environmental policies seem to be getting better - their science policies (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/apr/29/green-party-science-policy) are a lot more convincing than they have been in the past, and I like some of their other ideas (eg the Citizens' Income [PDF, sorry] (http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/policypointers/ppcitizensincome.pdf) sounds great in theory).

If you want to see leaflets that have been delivered in your constituency, have a look on The Straight Choice (http://www.thestraightchoice.org/constituencies/lancaster_and_fleetwood) (and if you get any that aren't already there, please scan them and add them to the site if you can!).