2024 local elections

[Tony L]

Perhaps choose the one you’d prefer not to lose their deposit then?

That’s basically what I do, and always vote for PR-supporting progressive parties so my vote is at least counted as an anti-establishment/gerrymandering protest on the national figure. In reality that’s Green or LD. There’s nothing else on the ballots round here that I’d touch.

PS If I was still living in That London I’d be strongly considering voting for Khan as the thought of the far-right racist conspiracy theorist nutter Tory Susan Hall is just too awful to consider.

 

[matt j]

You can criticize anyone you want but if you can`t be arsed to vote why would anyone care about your opinion?

Why would anyone care about it if I did vote?

 

[paulfromcamden]

Why would anyone care about it if I did vote?

"You can have maggots on toast or a razor blade sandwich. If you can't be arsed to pick one don't start moaning that you're hungry."

 

[Enfield boy]

^^^Very much this. If the only choice I have at the next GE (we only have the PPC up for local election) is for 3 candidates who support genocide, stopping all "legal" ways to claim asylum and cracking down on peaceful protest I will spoil the voting paper. I cannot lend my support to murder, the corruption and lies have been bad enough but I will not be an accessory.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

^^^Very much this. If the only choice I have at the next GE (we only have the PPC up for local election) is for 3 candidates who support genocide, stopping all "legal" ways to claim asylum and cracking down on peaceful protest I will spoil the voting paper. I cannot lend my support to murder, the corruption and lies have been bad enough but I will not be an accessory.

Indeed. And I would argue that spoiling one’s ballot paper is just as much active participation in the voting process as actually casting a ballot.

Not participating at all is ignoring a civic duty we should all take seriously, but it’s not as bad as voting tribally without engaging with the issues, or making any attempt to understand what is at stake. Why should somebody who blindly and habitually votes for the same party, have any more moral right to criticise than someone who doesn’t vote at all?

 

[kensalriser]

Spoiling your ballot does nothing except perhaps where inscriptions are involved, to provide the counters with fleeting light relief.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I understood spoiled ballots were counted, albeit the numbers not usually published?

 

[Chops54]

Ours won’t be spoilt as we can’t be bothered to waste our time walking to the polling station tomorrow.

 

[ff1d1l]

If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, would a good use of the wood pulp be to make the paper for a spoiled ballot?

 

[tuga]

I helped elect a Green councillor last time around but I was living in another circle.

Political make-up​

The current political composition of the Council is:

• Labour Group - 20 seats
• Liberal Democrat Group - 9 seats
• Green Group - 6 seats
• Oxford Socialist Independents Group - 6 seats
• Independent Group - 3 seats
• Independent (non-grouped) - 2 seats
• Vacant - 2 seat

 

[droodzilla]

I understood spoiled ballots were counted, albeit the numbers not usually published?

Number of spoiled papers is definitely announced at the count. They even divide the number into sub-categories (no official mark, voting for more candidates than is allowed, writing something that allows the voter to be identified... maybe others).

 

[Nick_G]

I got an email from the Green Party this morning:

"If you have elections in your area, remember to Vote Green today."

Well, I would do, but you're not fielding a candidate in this area.

My wife & I have already voted by post anyway. I ended up voting Lib Dem as they were the least objectionable out of the main parties, and I didn't know enough about the indepedents.

 

[Dave H.]

We have mayor and commissioner votes .just recently the mayor wanted to grab both roles but he failed . Very very little info in media here on it so not sure how ordinary folks will bother to vote

Having met Andy Street briefly as he gets about all over the place i shall continue to support him

Reading through the thread a bit late.

In years gone by (not saying anything about the current incarnation) you’d have been a Conservative-leaning voter by inclination wouldn’t you?

I couldn’t help but notice that in the leaflet delivered the other day, Street was overtly saying ‘people tell me there’s no way they’ll vote for the Conservative candidate because of national reasons, but please vote for me anyway because I’m effectively not one of them’. In a leaflet bearing (as low-key as possible, on a leaflet coloured green not blue, on the back at the bottom) the party name and presumably produced/delivered with party support.

In that case he should stand as an independent. I might even consider listening to him if he did. But trying to to disavow the party when it’s a millstone while happily receiving its support when it’s positive (as has happened in the past) is really dishonest. If by some miracle the party’s fortunes turned around it seems clear he’d be back to being a ‘proud Conservative’ in the blink of an eye.

 

[Barrymagrec]

Job done - Susan Hall`s toast now.*

*Hopefully.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Reading through the thread a bit late.

In years gone by (not saying anything about the current incarnation) you’d have been a Conservative-leaning voter by inclination wouldn’t you?

I couldn’t help but notice that in the leaflet delivered the other day, Street was overtly saying ‘people tell me there’s no way they’ll vote for the Conservative candidate because of national reasons, but please vote for me anyway because I’m effectively not one of them’. In a leaflet bearing (as low-key as possible, on a leaflet coloured green not blue, on the back at the bottom) the party name and presumably produced/delivered with party support.

In that case he should stand as an independent. I might even consider listening to him if he did. But trying to to disavow the party when it’s a millstone while happily receiving its support when it’s positive (as has happened in the past) is really dishonest. If by some miracle the party’s fortunes turned around it seems clear he’d be back to being a ‘proud Conservative’ in the blink of an eye.

I was surprised to learn that Street, who had led the country’s biggest workers’ cooperative (JLP) was a tory.

 

[Tony L]

Job done - Susan Hall`s toast now.*

*Hopefully.

To be honest that’s the only one I care about today. The idea of London falling to a NF/QAnon/Trump nutter just beggars belief. The damage it would do to the UK would be vast and wide-reaching. Her mere existence as a candidate shows just how far the Tory Party has fallen. An older dumber Marjorie Taylor Green wannabe.

 

[paulfromcamden]

I was surprised to learn that Street, who had led the country’s biggest workers’ cooperative (JLP) was a tory.

I was surprised to learn that his partner is comedian and wig modeller Michael Fabricant.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

 

[Kirk]

There's some data on spoiled ballots on the national level (up to 2017) - peak spoil was 1979. There was petition to get Parliament to count and publish all spoiled ballots in all elections in 2012. It got 2 votes. That said, there are a lot of people outside Britain who would like to be given the option to vote and for their votes to matter. We should embrace our privilege and vote.

 

[Tony L]

Just got back from the polling station; as of ten minutes ago I was the second person to have voted!

PS FWIW I went LD locally as they may just be in with a shout, and Green for Manc Mayor (as far as Labour go I don’t dislike Burnham, but he doesn’t need any help, and I couldn’t vote for a genocide-adjacent party anyway).