Don't forget to vote

[Steve Crook]

Lots of people fought long an hard to give you the right to vote - don't throw it away

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17927125

Even if you don't like any of them, at least go along and spoil your ballot so that you'll be counted

Steve

[golightly]

You can go online now and check all the details of the candidates and see where they live on Google Earth, our Tory candidate lives in a simple ex council house and is a council manual worker while the Labour bloke lives in a swish flat and owns another house and is a director owner of a solar energy firm, strange times we live in, I plumped for the UKIP woman.

[didi-5]

Not being sure who to vote for this time, or even what the London Assembly does, I did go out and put my crosses down.

[Sleepin_Dragon]

OOOh which crook to vote for :-) Like choosing to share a cell with Manson, Crippen or Count Dracula

[captainhaddock]

it is important to vote particularly in the london area
what with the age of livingtone you can be sure if he loses this one thats the finish of him
he will be too old to turn up again in 4 years
so do your duty and vote for boris

[sidney bliss]

didn't have the opportunity. no election in this part of uk

[Tonch]

didn't have the opportunity. no election in this part of uk

Ditto. Apparently only 4 in 10 voters in England were involved this time around.

But I'll still be interested to see how things pan out.

[didi-5]

it is important to vote particularly in the london area what with the age of livingtone you can be sure if he loses this one thats the finish of him he will be too old to turn up again in 4 years so do your duty and vote for boris

The day I ever vote Blue or Boris will be a dark day.

[Dame Starry]

There's no elections where I live - not everybody has them!

Those who are voting for the Mayor of London today might like to consider that Livingstone has more children to support since the last time he was in office - so he'll be looking for even more ways to line his own pockets this time.......and please remember that the second vote you get on that ballot is equally as important as the first - so don't just 'tick any box' on your second vote!

[paul kersey]

I was lucky enough not to have an election to vote in this year. What strikes me about the local elections is the fact that they now seem to be used as an opinion poll on the way the parties perform in national government, rather than a vote to decide which party will run local services.

[Moor Larkin]

I was lucky enough not to have an election to vote in this year. What strikes me about the local elections is the fact that they now seem to be used as an opinion poll on the way the parties perform in national government, rather than a vote to decide which party will run local services.

With less than a third of the electorate that could vote, bothering to do so, it seems England continues to sleepwalk towards minority government in the truest sense of the term.
Turnout is projected at 32% - the lowest in English local elections since 2000
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17946745

I wonder if the turnout is higher in Scotland, where there is a more nationalist agenda.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vo...council/gb.stm

[Dame Starry]

What strikes me about the local elections is the fact that they now seem to be used as an opinion poll on the way the parties perform in national government, rather than a vote to decide which party will run local services.

Yes, I agree - they are two completely different elections; I always hope that the rest of the locals who are voting realise that too!

[narabdela]

so do your duty and vote for boris

If I lived in London, and hell had frozen over, I'd be more than happy to oblige.

[michaelmace]

I've noted in another thread that, even as a life-long socialist, I voted Green as a wasted, protest vote because I could never vote Tory or Liberal Democrat but NuLabour are nothing to do with my political sentiments and are certainly not aligned with my social agendas. NuLabour have betrayed both the working class and the sons and daughters of those ordinary people who have become the new middle class.

We need another political party which promises to do what the Labour Party used to do: represent the working and the new middle classes; and, by that, I mean decent, law-abiding, compassionate people of every stripe.

I'm off to watch 'A Very British Coup' once again; one can only dream

[paul kersey]

I was listening to BBC Radio Norfolk today. Norwich City council is once again a Labour controlled council and one caller was asked why he did not vote Tory this time around. He replied that it was due to the fact that the Government has not withdrawn our troops from Afghanistan. If he is typical, I rest my case.

[michaelmace]

I was listening to BBC Radio Norfolk today. Norwich City council is once again a Labour controlled council and one caller was asked why he did not vote Tory this time around. He replied that it was due to the fact that the Government has not withdrawn our troops from Afghanistan. If he is typical, I rest my case.

A moral imperative is a perfectly valid reason to register a protest vote against the government of the day since, as someone has already pointed out, that is what these local elections now really represent rather than local democracy.

Again, for all we know, that (humane, IMHO) Tory voter may have asked his local Tory councillor to explain his or her position on British Troops in Afghanistan and have been unhappy with the answer he received or the manner in which the answer was delivered. That's a local political response to a national and global issue.

Maybe you need to expand upon your 'case' so that we all have a better idea of what it is?

[paul kersey]

A moral imperative is a perfectly valid reason to register a protest vote against the government of the day since, as someone has already pointed out, that is what these local elections now really represent rather than local democracy.

Again, for all we know, that (humane, IMHO) Tory voter may have asked his local Tory councillor to explain his or her position on British Troops in Afghanistan and have been unhappy with the answer he received or the manner in which the answer was delivered. That's a local political response to a national and global issue.

Maybe you need to expand upon your 'case' so that we all have a better idea of what it is?

I happen to believe that we really should choose who we vote for based on local issues and past performances and the perceived quality of the candidate, rather than making the decision based on how the party performs on a national basis. Now Norwich is once more a Labour run council, will the troops be pulled from Afghanistan?
The qualities of a minority Labour run Council are very arguable based on past performances. To be voted in as a majority Labour run council because the troops are still in Afghanistan is astonishing.
Had there been a general election yesterday, I would have voted against the Tories.
Had there been a local election in my ward, I would have voted for the Tories as I like the way they run my local council (Broadland).

[Steve Crook]

What strikes me about the local elections is the fact that they now seem to be used as an opinion poll on the way the parties perform in national government, rather than a vote to decide which party will run local services.

It's been happening for decades, or longer.

Local government shouldn't really have anything to do with the parties involved in national government. The parties have too much influence anyway

Steve

[sidney bliss]

As the british public is divorcing itself with politics and in love with reality contests perhaps an x factor/ Big brother approach is called for. At least you would get more people voting. Probably.

[golightly]

Dodgy dealings going on in Murkyside with the Mayoral elections when it was decided by the Labour led council and its leader Joe Anderson to forgo a public referendum, guess who won, yes it was Joe himself, there's a TV script for Alan Bleasdale there.