Regardless of my view of candidates, or British politics in general, I always turn out to vote even if I spoil my paper.

Not looking to start an argument or any one-upmanship, just stating my position (and I understand the temptation to be apathetic especially with FPTP).

Yes, what a strange coincidence...:rolleyes:

Indeed: I have long wanted a "None of the above" option or some other means of a spolied paper being recorded to reflect that one expressed that view.

This was especially true of the current council elections: I'm never voting for a Tory unless the Tory Party changes into something at least centre left; I still haven't heard the full public apology from the Lib Dems for 2010 which I need to hear, that and the local branch have put out sod all information about what their candidates might do if elected; our sitting Labour councillor is what an uncharitable person might call a lying, duplicitous creep, who has told a whole load of what certainly look like untruths about his knowledge of certain local things and meetings he attended about them while selling the local population down the sodding river. And that's what I have to choose from.

No doubt we'll end up with another hung council, full of the same self-serving, corrupt, but still somehow within the useless rules we have governing councillors' behaviour, bunch of half wits.

Happy days.



PS I did vote Labour, but only to try to avoid the Tory getting in and Johnson claiming some sort of success from that. Which is a piss poor reflection on our local politics.

You're obviously not in the southern USA....

I had a very wide choice of candidates in the Senedd elections.

Ten candidates in the constituency election:

• Abolish the Welsh Assembly
• Conservative
• Freedom Alliance
• Green
• Gwlad
• Independent
• Labour
• Liberal Democrats
• Plaid Cymru
• Reform UK

And a further four parties (fourteen in total) for the regional list

• Communist
• No More Lockdowns
• Propel
• TUSC

Exactly, I'd have had the complete opposite experience:

- No Covid precautions
- A long wait

Though as a white person living in a well-to-do almost exclusively white area, maybe my wait wouldn't have been that long.

The mail and the Express are wanking themselves in to a frenzy over it.

******* great!

Having tired of his Churchillian fantasies, Johnson is now having wet dreams about being Palmerston. Is he going to go full on Napoloeonic Wars and go into Pitt the Younger drag? Or make out he's the Earl of Liverpool?

Is your "Freedom Alliance" like ours? A bunch of anti-mask, anti-lockdown kooks?

Spencer Perceval?

Looks like it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-56942622

We can but hope...

I know that's said in jest but that would be absolutely the worst thing to happen IMO.

I think there'd be an enormous wave of sympathy which would last for at least one election cycle, the assassination of a Prime Minister would be the catalyst for yet another round of losses of civil liberties and any opposition to any of this or the Conservative government would be portrayed as acts of terrorism.

Went and voted this morning (in Scotland) in the local community hall. On my bus ride to work passed another polling place 5 - 10 minutes walk from the one where I voted. No queue, in and out in 5 minutes though my colleague at work said she was delayed maybe 10 minutes because you had to use a specific booth, you couldn't just go up to a free one. That is about the longest delay I ever heard of in an election here.

Always end up having this conversation around election times but I don't believe spoiling my paper has any effect or is worth the petrol to get to the polling station. normally I vote Green as a protest but there is no Green candidate this time apparently as I checked this morning.

I'd be tempted to go and vote least bad option but i've had other things on my plate and haven't looked at the candidates or issues so wouldn't want to just vote at random.

Plus the Tory will win. :(

ETA: Much more interested in what happens in Scotland today anyway.

We went and voted this morning; we had a slightly longer walk than usual since the polling station was in the CoE church hall at the end of the road rather than the Evangelical Church halfway along where it usually is (I've no idea why the change, maybe it wasn't possible to have a safe flow through the latter). We had to queue outside for about 5 minutes.

Yeah, but if one day an assassin came to the door of Number 10, when he pulls out his gun he should at least say, "Let me redecorate your apartment!"

I get that. No Green candidate is surprising. Round here they are asking us to use our second vote for them as they believe that gives them the best chance of seats.

I'm not a huge fan of Drakeford but he at least seemed to be trying to follow the science and, whilst I disagree with some actions (******* nail bars before gyms FFS!) overall he didn't seem to do too bad a job. So probably Labour and Green...will have a final check before walking the couple of hundred yards to the nearest polling station, where they will be little to no queue and everyone will be really friendly... C'mon USA, sort your **** out - this isn't hard.

Oh, on the protest vote / spoiling your paper, we got to vote 'Vampire Hunter' one year...which was....special...

And the Tory candidate in our ward can't even spell the name of it correctly (mis-spelling it in 2 different ways) on a leaflet that no-one could be bothered to deliver to our village (reported in local press).

Like I said before, a piss poor reflection on local politics.

I've had half a dozen leaflets from the Liberal candidate, nothing from the Tory. They're obviously so sure they're going to win that they don't even need to bother. The annoying thing is, they're almost certainly right. :(

Yeah. I do believe you're right there.

My preferred fate for Johnson would be something like solitary confinement somewhere like St Helena with only an audio book of George Galloway's autobiography (is there such a thing?) read by Galloway himself for entertainment, so that he'e essentially left with the sound of the emptiness of the inside of his skull...

ETA Carrot Flower Queen has just suggested that Cameron's autobiography being read by Cameron might be better: wadda y'think?

Don't forget Robert Walpole - renowned for being corrupt.

I'd go with Carrot Flower Queen's suggestion with a 24/7 screening of George Galloway's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother on several screens in every room.

Make him live in Hartlepool.
He was keen to visit a few days ago to browbeat the locals.

Now I am one of Johnson's hardest critics and wish him ill but Hartlepool. I don't think he deserves anything as harsh as that.

I took my daughter (who's 10) with me so she could see what voting was all about. She walked straight up to the person on the door checking our address and announced "I'm here to watch my dad vote and LEARN ABOUT DEMOCRACY!". He was very attentive (her autism makes her difficult to understand sometimes) and told her she was very welcome. She then gave the same speech to the ladies handing me my voting papers (I had four). She accompanied me to the voting booth and watched me stick crosses next to Labour four times. I had a spare vote for London Mayor (you get a first and second preference in that election) and she asked me to give that one to the Women's Equality Party as she liked their name, though she was also drawn to the name "Count Binface". I confess I was also tempted to give him my second vote just to make sure he beats Laurence Fox, but I acceded to her initial request.

There was no queue and we were in and out inside five minutes.

Damnit, a young supporter lost for the Count....
:(

Just looking at the Scottish Election results coming in.... amusing that given all the 'Scotland and England aren't that different politically' nonsense we hear that with 25 out of 129 seats declared there is not a single Labour or Tory win as yet.

And the overall control of my county council was decided by drawing lots...Which the Berk in Downing Street will no doubt claim as a victory (the Tories gained one ward which gave them overall control and one ward they won was decided by lots...).

Somehow I'm still required to take local politics seriously.

Jesus what a choice! Ignoring the big 4 and PC though not exactly a great selection.

Let's see...

Abolish the Welsh Assembly- Single issue wonk/neo-fascist populist party

Freedom Alliance - Single issue COVID conspiracy party

Gwlad - make PC look like unionists. Even if you supported them no chance of winning.

Reform UK - Right wing populists led by possibly the single biggest grifter in uk politics.

Communist - just no.

TUSC - See- Communist

No More Lockdowns - see - Freedom Alliance

Propel - how are there three welsh nationalist parties?

In fact the tories and Labour have both lost a seat each to the SNP so far.

So far in Wales, the Conservatives are making gains but at the expense of Plaid and the LibDems. Labour haven't done so badly.......yet

Looks like the SNP will be just short of an overall majority... a bit of tactical voting between Lab and Tory in a few key seats by the looks of things.

Proving once again that those are two cheeks of the same backside in Scotland.

A Liberal Party member who confronted the SNP MSP Humza Yousaf at a Glasgow election count has been suspended.

Derek Jackson and others, who are not affiliated with the Liberal Democrats, questioned Mr Yousaf about how women and children in Pakistan are treated.

Police arrived at the scene and asked them to leave. Mr Yousaf has accused them of targeting ethnic minorities.

A spokesman for the Liberal Party said they were not aware Mr Jackson was going to confront Mr Yousaf.

The spokesman added that Mr Jackson "had used the party for his own ends and has a long history of this behaviour in the past".

He added: "NAC member Stephen Graham who vetted him was not aware of this.

"We weren't aware whatsoever of what he intended to do today."

The Liberal Party are one of the smallest in Scotland, standing one candidate in the Holyrood election.

The men were seen at the Emirates Arena count wearing yellow stars with the phrase "unvax", as well as repeatedly making saluting gestures.

Police Scotland said they escorted six people from the venue following "complaints about their behaviour" and that inquiries were ongoing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...itics-57025065

Humza Yousaf was born in Glasgow.

It turns out Derek Jackson is a serial election self-publicist: https://metro.co.uk/2010/05/07/gener...ok-hit-289325/

I would say I don’t think this went as he planned, but really, what other result could he have expected from wearing a Star of David, making a nazi salute, and ranting at a man from Scotland about Pakistan?

Reform UK leader Richard Tice on Talk Radio says he is opening a pub with actor Laurence Fox.

"It will be the home of free speech and right-wing comedy. It'll only be British food, no vaccine passports, no masks".

Can't wait to enjoy a boiled turnip listening to the comedy stylings of Andrew Lawrence in the company of Richard Tice!

Don't you remember Hitler's old standup routine? "My brother brought down three aircraft in the Battle of Britain. Two Heinkels and a Messchersmitt He was undoubtedly the worst mechanic in the Luftwaffe"

It will only serve bitter I suppose

Johnson will be unbearably smug after this. Is it possible to die of smugness? Smug overload syndrome?