The Forthcoming General Election

[Richard Ruck]

I have been bombarded by leflets, phone calls, more leaflets, etc etc, etc. ----all inviting me to vote Liberal Democrat.


I have been DELIVERING the same leaflets ---------What a waste of money.

I have some grave doubts about who organises these things !

I still don't think I can break 200 years of Whiggery in the Family !!!

No problem here. I too have been delivering, but have received no extra stuff apart form the postal leaflet to which all parties seem to be entitled.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

WHEW !!
I am just having a quick cup of coffe, before returning to sit outside the local Polling Station, and smile sweetly at people I hate !!

Does it occur to anybody that SentenJ --- like Spoonbill , is an expert at winding people up ???

I quite enjoy it --- and the responses !

[sejintenej]

Which half of the civil service will you cut? As one who spent 11 years at the sharp end, ie in a DHSS local office, mainly chasing up people who didn't see why they should pay NI, we could never get enough staff, mainly because the council offices were just round the corner and paid more for clerical staff.

Just had a friend staying who is an erk in a social services / NHS situation in a notorious borough. Until recently she was the erk whilst there were five bosses who simply attended meetings instead of teaching patients. Then they had a shakeup and the top boss got a new title and rise and the other bosses went up a bit. Now they have been given another 5 boss/erks who are constantly in meetings and not seeing patients. In fact they got rid of two erks and removed cover from several places which needed it; the effect of the latter was that the budget was cut because my friend no longer has to drive long distances.

You, Midget, should know which people are not worth keeping in your organisation, which people are the workers who need bureaucracy lifted from their shoulders and what sort of people you need. If the local council were also controlled then perhaps you would get those you need.
As for not paying NI - OK so they have no NI, no NHS, no unemployment benefit, no pension. Yes, there will be uproar but people will get the message. Over here, from the moment kids enter school they are taught good citizenship; they know the results of avoiding responsibilities. The best I have heard of in UK schools are the masters who spent long periods telling pupils that they had to vote .......... because the others were destroying the country. That was between striking because the govt wasn't doing what they wanted.

Neill the Notorious wrote

Does it occur to anybody that SentenJ --- like Spoonbill , is an expert at winding people up ???

Sounds like my alter ego is in honourable company; I note that shyness prevented you from including your own name but we all understand that

[Angela Woodford]

Does it occur to anybody that SentenJ --- like Spoonbill , is an expert at winding people up ???

Of course not! I've never ever felt that David is a wind-up merchant. Smashing guy - the times I've taken his advice! How does one person know so much, I wonder?

AND I've got to meet him - over a chapel cap at the Hertford Museum!

[J.R.]

Well, only four and a half hours to go, and it'll all bne over apart from the tears and accusations.


Jan and I will be sitting upin bed til the early hours, watching all the fun and jollity !

I wonder if there'll be a 'Swingonometer' ?

I fancy a bet on GB to resign with seven days.

[sejintenej]

My experience is very similar , midget, except it was 7 years more, and on "the other side of the house" namely Supp. Ben. / Income Support, dealing with Fraud & all the other delights some of the general public afforded us. And the Council poached our staff on a regular basis; we seemed to run on empty half the time.

and I'll bet you felt under-supported by your employers and unwanted by the great unwashed? And where were the prison cells waiting for the fraudsters provided by your government and enforced by your local peeler and magistrates?
Answers on the back if a 1 millimetre diameter sheet of paper.

Beleive it on not, I do feel for those who do such jobs. I reckon that frequently if convicted criminals were forced to do jobs like that they wouldn't commit crime.

[sejintenej]

I fancy a bet on GB to resign with seven days.

Sorry, John. If he had half the sense of an amoeba he would have resigned long ago; to resign now would be against character thinking that to so so the Scot would be seen as a coward.

[J.R.]

I also wish I'd had a bet 6 months ago when I said we would end up on May 7th. with no over-all majority.

Looks very much like young Nick will hold the whip hand.

Not a bad thing in my book !

[mvgrogan]

question - did anyone here vote whilst at CH? I missed the 2001 election by a few months - turned 18 in sept 01, don't recall anyone voting then but there is a polling station at CH right? Or did people have to vote by post/be shipped off to the nearest polling station?

I think I must have cast my first vote at CH. I turned 18 in November 86 and left in Summer 87 but maybe it was a local election... I seem to remember that I was expecting to be inundated with information as a "trapped" first timer but I only got one leaflet... and now, so many years later, I can't remember who it was (or who I voted for ). Isn't Horsham one of those "safe" seats anyway?

Not voting today - missed the deadline for my postal/proxy application - and I'm so out of touch anyway! Sorry!

[sejintenej]

Not voting today - missed the deadline for my postal/proxy application - and I'm so out of touch anyway! Sorry!

I got my paper in time to post it Tuesday morning which is far too late. Despite protest my local council like to do that sort of thing; I'm not sure that they have ever allowed me to get any voting paper in on time. Given all the alledged fraud in the UK I am awaiting a visit from the Gendamerie on behalf of the UK Police requiring proof that I am entitled to a postal vote - the council has refused it in the past. They might even decide (JH please note) that I am a wind-up merchant even if I don't have a cuckoo clock .

As for being out of touch, I got a circular letter from my Con MP today, polling day) warning me against a hung parliament - I don't know whay he bothered. I always thought that a con was a confidence trick.

[englishangel]

Not sure what to make of this.

Student daughter has been registered for a postal vote at home for last 3 years. This year has been the first time it has actually appeared on the electoral roll. However, she also registered in Canterbury and received a card there, and a card at home but no postal vote.

She voted in Canterbury for the record, her polling station was ten yards from her front door so it wasn't too much of an effort for her.

[midget]

Great jollity and some panic in this neck of the woods, because a bunch of polling cards has gone astray (including mine) and now there is a row brewing between the council and Royal as to who or what is responsible. I was half hoping that someone would have used my name, using the missing card, as I intended to report it to everyone I could think of as a case of personation. (Old Irish adage "vote early, vote often"). Alas I was the first to appear, using my name.

[Hannoir]

Interesting night eh? No overall majority - the "Cleggmania" has resulted in the Lib Dems losing seats - hell, some of them were gained by Labour, and the Tories not getting the majority they needed.

I understand that due to Lib Dem party rules the members vote on going into coalition. So will the LD's vote to go into coalition with the Tories? Doubt it - LD's are centre left, Tories are centre right.

I have various theories as to what happens next. But I am going to sit on them for a while and see what happens.....

Though - all three party leaders have "lost" tonight - Clegg for not capitalising on Cleggmania follwing debates, Brown for well, being Brown (coming from a party member) and Cameron for failing to lead the main opposition party to a decisive majority off the back of a recession and one of the supposedly "worst" govts all all time - oh and from a 19 point poll lead from last year. Interesting times.

I need to go to sleep - I just got in from the party at Birmingham Edgbaston which was held by labour - there was even a 0.5% TO labour!!

[Eruresto]

Looks very much like young Nick will hold the whip hand.

Is that the kind of thing they do at Westminster School?

I found the whole thing very interesting, especially with it being my first time. The Labour candidate teaches my sister History, but in spite of this I didn't get personally canvassed once. Loads of leaflets - the Lib Dems seem to be the only party who didn't work out that a house with two voters doesn't need two sets of canvassing leaflets - but I didn't actually see any candidates until I went to vote, where I beheld the local election candidates smiling by the door. Rather disappointing!

Personally, I don't think any government from this will last long. To get a majority, Labour need the Lib Dems AND everyone else who's ever smiled at them. Jeremy Vine put in the SNP but they've categorically said they won't join any kind of coalition. The Tories could do it with just the Lib Dems, but they've clashed over plans for spending cuts in the first year of the government. I reckon we'll see a minority government, with a second election soon after.


On which note, for those who remember 1974 and any other time there's been two general elections in the same year, is the second as highly-publicised as the first?

[sejintenej]

In deepest Surrey this will be surely known as a "bl**dy-well-hung" parliament.
I did show up at the Polling station in the end to find the candidate I would naturally vote for was based in London and the other two major candidates lived the other side of town. Talk about local representation.
I just ticked the London box and gave one cheer for the fact that I won't be seeing any of these clowns again until the next election farce.

I'm fortunate - I saw the polling paper a bit before polling day and I agree with your sentiments. In local elections that element cut out 5 of the 8 contestants.
More seriously, I reckon your post is worthy of the NATIONAL press; why not write it on the web sites of the major dailies? (You could even send a copy to all such parties, the Electoral Commission, 10 Monkey Street et al.)