UK GENERAL ELECTION THURSDAY MAY 6th 2010

S

scottdisco

rip this joint please
i'm just grateful that instead of that Home Counties posho Prescott w his suspiciously smooth, blue-chip lobbying background & elite education, we finally have in Nick Clegg a decent working class Deputy PM w a solid trades union background who can reach out to the people of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the urban north and midlands, inner and exurban London, and marginal parts of the southwest and south coast.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
matt b said:
Going to Eton "not a handicap" shocker

"The success of David Cameron in becoming Conservative leader and now prime minister would suggest [fears that having been to Eton was a handicap] were premature.

In fact, when Mr Cameron unveiled his first front-bench team, it included 13 people from his old school.

[...]present-day pupils, he says, are well aware of this.

"There's a renewed confidence that there is no reason that having been here, we should suffer thereby.

"We can do what we want to do in life. Etonians are back on the scene." "
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Needs more Obama comparisons.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
mistersloane said:
Given that some people were denied their constitutional right to vote, why hasn't the entire election been declared void? Genuine question.
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Because this country thinks it's above that...

That picture of the Queen and Cameron yesterday made me feel physically sick.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
craner said:
Also, Mandelson has gone from pantomine villian to coolest cat in British politics. How deft was this?
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My wife couldn't believe me when i started making approving noises about Mandelson but I think he has come across well - less sharp, less machiavellian - has he become more camp or have I just not noticed it before?

As i posted some where else - that careers' teacher at Eton must be pretty good;)
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
"In his Sheffield Hallam constituency, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg went to offer his apologies to frustrated voters at a polling station in Ranmoor after they queued for more than three hours."

Lots of people going along to vote at about 9-ish, after getting back from work, got turned away...
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Wasn't it a bunch of students in Sheffield who all decided, in the pub at about 7pm, to pile down the polling station for a vote? Buttheads.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
People who have kids and other responsibilities, or who don't live round the corner from polling stations! They should probably run from 10am til midnight, ot something like that - who goes to vote at 7am?
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
craner said:
At 9-ish, after work? Who was that, then? After work is 5-ish.
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People doing shift work? Doctors and nurses, for a start. Or students with evening bar jobs. Mature students taking evening classes. Loads of people could be busy for pretty much most of the day until 9ish.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Presumably, if they finish work at 9, they could get down the polling station before work then? People not getting to polling station on time does not = void election, banana republic.
 
S

scottdisco

rip this joint please
craner said:
At 9-ish, after work? Who was that, then? After work is 5-ish.
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at least two of my mates worked 12 hour shifts on election day. they managed to vote.

stations were open 7a-10p (well, in theory at least).

a, say, 14 hour shift would be problematic, granted, but you can apply for a postal vote beforehand, as people obviously know shift patterns in advance as a rule, don't they (often very far in advance, certainly in my experience in call centres, factories, etc, though i have quite a lot of shift mates who tend to know a week or two or so, which is not much).

there are ways around it. a few constituencies that were overwhelmed by the turnout is very sad and a huge pain, but given the relatively low numbers involved, kicking off w this new unity govt is the only way forward (viz. k-punk's Capitalist Realism, etc). to contemplate voiding it all for, what, hundreds (i saw one report that said it could be into the thousands which sadly i can well believe) of missed voters is, unfortunately, not going to happen.

(i'd like it to, heck, if only so i can dream on a Labour landslide in a new election, w TUSC picking up a decent vote, but i don't think that will happen...)

if liberals can join up w the Tories in at least 18 local authorities (as i said upthread), even when Labour was the biggest local party, to eagerly carry out a Tory agenda, they are not going to spoil any chance they have of voting reform nationally because some students in Hallam and Withington * (which are LD seats, tbf) sadly, didn't get to use their democratic right to vote.

i see this new cabinet's looking very 'Lib Dem' template, ie white and male.

* i know they were hardly the only constituencies affected, sadly, but my memories are the most vivid of seeing TV reports from those two seats, tbf

craner said:
Presumably, if they finish work at 9, they could get down the polling station before work then? People not getting to polling station on time does not = void election, banana republic.
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ah.
Oliver just said everything i said, except better and quicker.

if there's one thing it may do, it may bring about some nimble thinking about extended hours, or better use of technology, or whatever, next time. onwards and upwards and all that...
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
craner said:
Presumably, if they finish work at 9, they could get down the polling station before work then? People not getting to polling station on time does not = void election, banana republic.
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They did get to the polling station on time though. Go back to bed and come back a nice person.
 
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