Election today - please vote

[starrymarkb]

This morning,, I partook in possibly the most fatuous exercise ever. I voted SNP. In the safest Labour seat in the country. Indeed, in the safest seat in the country.

I've had very little in my constituency (unsurprisingly), but on my way into Uni (Glasgow North constituency) the Trade Union/Socialists have been shouting at me about banks and privatised railways and a few Green people have stopped me to try and get my support. Quite sad that these people on my commute are trying to get my vote, yet in my home constituency I've seen no one and had three leaflets through the door.

It was the same where I grew up, very safe Tory Seat (East Devon) - now I've moved to the marginal Exeter there has been loads of campaigning (well relative to East Devon)

In both cases I went Lib Dem

 

[Greenback]

I have just been to cast my vote. My first time in a general election although i have voted in the locals before

I remember my first general election vote twenty odd years ago, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the whole process. I don;t know what sort of thing I expected, but I did think 'Is that it?' afterwards!

 

[transportphoto]

2 hours 'till polls close

 

[Dai.]

2 hours 'till polls close

2 Hours for us now,

7AM - 10PM where I am.

 

[me123]

Is Gordon your local Labour candidate then?

No; Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill. Tom Clarke is our Labour candidate and will soon be our MP once again without a shadow of a doubt. (Despite being in the safest seat, Tom Clarke has done very little to make himself "famous". He was in the cabinet once as minister for culture or something equally minor.)

Interestingly, Gordon's "safe" seat in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath was rumoured at one point to be under threat, although I'm pretty sure he'll win no bother.

Me123, do you remember stalins granny herself, helen liddel? Now the ambassador to austrailia.

I recognise the name, and a quick google search reveals that she was MP for our next-door neighbours Airdrie and Shotts, so that's probably why I recognise the name. (John Reid has since been the MP for that seat, and is now standing down). Didn't really follow politics when I was ten, though.

 

[transportphoto]

2 Hours for us now,

7AM - 10PM where I am.

Its 7 - 10 everywhere!

It must be very cold in those polling stations where they have to 'turn left at the land-rover and the polling stations in the caravan in front of you' or even worse 'locate the Community Bus on XX Road' & in those places which are hard to keep the heat in but have to keep the door open (due to the electronics & the ramp out on the bus for example) !


I'm now going to start a thread about odd polling stations.


EDIT
Find it at:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32617

 

[Pumbaa]

I did meet Clegg in Wavertree on Tuesday, had a quick chat. Brown was also up here in Skelmersdale yesterday but I sadly didn't get the chance to pop across.

 

[transportphoto]

BBC 'Election 2010' TONIGHT.

06 May into 07 May

Program - ELECTION 2010
TIME 21:55
BBC ONE

Program - ELECTION 2010
TIME 00:00
BBC ONE

Program - ELECTION 2010
TIME 02:00
BBC ONE

Program - ELECTION 2010
TIME 04:00
BBC ONE

Program - Breakfast - Election Special
TIME 06:00
BBC ONE

Program - ELECTION 2010
TIME 10:00
BBC ONE

Program - ELECTION 2010
TIME 12:00
BBC ONE

from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/programmes/schedules/london/2010/05/06
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/programmes/schedules/london/2010/05/07

EDIT 2107 - 53mins till Poll close Nationwide.

 

[37401]

Headache pills required then, nowt good on the beeb tonight then

 

[142094]

First general election vote here as well. Should be an interesting day tomorrow. Anyone on here every counted the votes before? What is the procedure, count, check and double check? Don't want another Florida type thing again over here...

 

[ladydsm]

I remember my first general election vote twenty odd years ago, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the whole process. I don;t know what sort of thing I expected, but I did think 'Is that it?' afterwards!

I know what you mean Greenback you looked forward to it so much and it was over in no time at all

 

[90019]

No more Vote Now Show

 

[ladydsm]

Time to sit back and watch the winners and losers

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I know what you mean Greenback you looked forward to it so much and it was over in no time at all

I've usually managed to enjoy it by making a point of turning up just seconds before 10pm. That always led to the chance of having a joke with the staff, making my vote and posting it in the box with a flourish as they closed the box behind me. And that was my little way of enjoying it.

But not this time! I got home about 8pm and saw the queue - its like the queue outside a big gig when the doors can't be opened until the overrunning soundcheck is sorted!. The queue went round the corner and over another road!
Usually, I've just walked straight in. No queue - I'd be lucky if I saw any other voter at all!

So I abandoned my turning up at 10pm melarkey!
I queued alongside my (outgoing) MP. We had plenty of time to reflect on past elections. For him, this would be the first time in many years when his own name would not have been on the ballot paper. It took a good 30 minutes queuing before we got in to vote.

What really struck me was that the demographics of that queue were not an even distribution over age but very clearly predominantly voters in their late teens or very early 20's.
I'm used to noticing an disinterest in voting by yong people - so this is one reason for this election to produce a result which is not predicted by historic evidence.

If I guess this exeptionally high level of turnout is occurring elsewhere, then its going to be interesting to see if polling stations actually close at 10pm, or wait until everyone who's arrived outside can be brought in to vote. In marginal seats, this could just become an argument!

- - - - - EDIT - - - -
I forgot to mention . . . Of course I discussed transport with my (outgoing) MP while in that queue. I often had done in the past. But I wasn't going to go into detail with you all at this late stage!

 

[Mojo]

I've been out leafleting since 5am this morning, and spent time telling at my local polling station. Not going to the count as I'm tired and sore from all that walking and I couldn't cope standing up for hours!

 

[TGV]

Conservatives have significant lead in exit polls, but just short of what's needed for all-out majority. Time will tell.

 

[Mojo]

Surprised to see about the queues; where I was both voting and telling it was dead! Going by past elections (both local and national) my constituency has above average turnouts so maybe we are better prepared?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

And now, at 10:48pm, and despite what the media were reporting (along the lines of "the ballot boxes are sealed" at 10pm), the last vote here was taken.

The queues were unprecedented. The Police hand Press had been called out. A local Academic suggested that the staff bring everyone queuing inside to wait. And it took some people over an hour to get to the booth.
Stupidly, many of the first-time voters had turned up to the wrong Polling Station!

But they all got to make their mark - after 10pm!

 

[Donny Dave]

I'm just having a look at the BBC election coverage quickly before I go to bed, and a few things have stood out ....

1. Generally, turnout does seem to be up. I've noticed several high turnouts of over 75%, with most in the 55-60% range.

2. BNP are doing extremely well I think they had 1 candidate with about 800 votes.

3. Labour are on their way out. Several huge swings towards the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Mind you, it's early yet, only 23 results have been declared.

 

[Matt Taylor]

Things not looking so clear now, an overall swing of 5% to the tories so far which leaves us with no overall winner.

Labour get first call on forming a government and I understand they have said they would do a deal with the Lib-Dems, but that still may not be enough.

 

[Mojo]

Absolutely over the moon. The candidate I've been supporting and campaigning for for several years now won. Some disgraceful behaviour from the Lib Dems who embarked on a personal smear campaign against the candidate and had a general smug attitude about himself. As the Labour candidate said "the Lib Dems prefer to involve themselves in personal attacks and smear, whilst Labour and the Tories prefer to debate the issues."

I'm also glad that local liar Susan Kramer also lost to Zac Goldsmith.

 

[me123]

Swing to Tories in England, but no seats changed hands at all in Scotland (except Labour regained by-election loses in Glasgow East and Dunfermline). The interesting implication is that Conservatives once again have a single Scottish seat and therefore may be seen not to have a mandate to govern Scotland. Lib Dems look set to hold the final Scottish seat of Argyle & Bute, to be announced later on today.

 

[transportphoto]

My local area is still counting - estimating that their finish time will be 12:45pm (as stared on BBC Website NOW)!:roll:

Thats surprising for such a small Constituency.

 

[wintonian]

A quick one or two thoughts from me while I go to bed after my election night party!

Turn out defiantly up, really good to see lots of first time voters at the polls.

If people have arrived at the polling station before 10 then there are some serious constitutional issues.

I notice there are a few 1st time voters on here, could I ask what made you vote this year - did the TV debates have any influence – will you vote in the next election?

I wonder if I can gatecrash the count for the local elections later (I am a party activist so it might be possible)?

 

[Nick W]

I'm slightly disappointed that we lost some safe Lib Dem seats, but thrilled that we kept Cambridge with such a high majority, even if not as high as before. Ipswich is a slight disappointment in that Labour lost the seat to Conservatives.


I'm thrilled that we have managed to hang parliament though. The people have spoken and have told us that while many with for change, they don't necessarily want it from a Conservative government. It looks like a Lib-Con coalition or agreement is now likely, and it's just a case of ramping electoral reform down Cameron's throat, to secure us more victories in the future.

 

[ChrisCooper]

An interesting thing from this that has only slightly been touched upon is the potential impact for UK unity. If we get a Conservative Government, the Scots and Welsh are going turn around and say that they didn't vote for them, so they have no mandate for Scotland or Wales. On the other hand if we get a Lab-Lib coalition, the English should point out that the Conservatives do have a clear majority in England. However things go I think it's going to be damaging for the union, and possibly damaging for England.

 

[Oswyntail]

..... If we get a Conservative Government, the Scots and Welsh are going turn around and say that they didn't vote for them, so they have no mandate for Scotland or Wales. ....

Let us hope that the seat-holding parties in those areas show a little political maturity. The general Election is for the UK Parliament, not the devolved organisations, and, while we continue to have partial devolution, they must accept the overall result. Otherwise, taken to extremes, we could have individual constituencies who did not vote for the leading party denying that party the right to legislate for that constituency.
What I have not seen being stated is that our form of democracy is a representative democracy, and that the MPs are meant to represent their constituents - not their party, not just the ones who voted for them, but all of them. So a Labour MP with a majority of 300 must be expected to vote in Parliament differently from one with a majority of 3,000 or 13,000. IMHO, the major impediment to democracy in the UK is not the electoral system, but the idea of Whips and Parties within Parliament. Every Parliamentary vote should be a free vote. (Again IMHO, reform of the electoral system without reforming this aspect would simply create more entrenched little groups not talking properly with each other)

 

[Greenback]

I have long thought that the party and whip system is an impediment to true representative democracy, and one reason why I would not go so far as to state that we currently have a representative democracy. However, it's nice to see that at least one person agrees with this view on here!

On the subject of the SNP and PC, of course all of the different points of justification will be put forward, including the English views if any sort of deal is done with either or both parties mentioned. I don;t see this as necessarily a bad thing! Perhaps the Union is irretreviably damaged anyway? Some might say this is a natrual consequence of devolution in 1999!

 

[Mojo]

I've always feared that the losers of a hung parliament would be England if the nationalist parties or others would push for even greater influence in return for support from either Labour or the Conservatives.

 

[Greenback]

In this case, the nationalists alone don't have enough seats to make up a coalition with soemone else without help from the Lib Dems. If PC or SNP could prop up a government on their own, that could potentially be bad news for England in terms of th eprice for that support. On the other hand, Thatcher's government was particularly bad news for Wales and Scotland so we should get something back...OK, I'm getting my coat!!!