Dont forget to VOTE

A nice young man approached me in the street, said he'd save me the
trouble of going to the polling station and gave me a fiver for my
polling card.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

"I'd like to help you son, but you're a ****."

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

And then you go and spoil it.

 

After today's "fun" re: Soylent Green, I'm not taking any chances.

 

**** Off.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..66073../..15556.../..3157./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^' RBR-Visited:35 Pts: 705 Miles:2429

 

OK. What is the name of local MP?


U all ride safely, now ;-)

 

Oh! That is not very nice.

U all ride safely, now ;-)

 

I asked for (and got) a postal vote. Which was nicely convenient, but
lost all the 'significance' of going to the polling station and
voting.

heh. Same here. Not much point in voting Labour in Cheltenham, so I
voted Lib Dem for the council (tho it looks like the LDs still lost
overall control). Voted Labour for the Euro elections, tho.

Didn't have them on my form, but the BNP were there.

 

I didn't vote in the first SA election (too young) but I voted in the
second.

Had to stand in a 30 minute queue just to register several weeks before the
election.

On election day the queues stretched out the doors of the church, round it,
and up the road. I queued for over an hour as I recall.
The mood however was jubilant, both young and old, black and white -
possibly because it was all still a novel experience.

Strolling in to an empty school hall, with totally disinterested election
officials vaguely waving in the direction of a box in the corner isn't quite
the same.

 

AOL. Couldn't wait.

 

Obviously I can't speak for anyone else, but I really wondered what all
the fuss was about when I first voted. One mark on a piece of paper,
considered alone, seems utterly futile. Of course, that's not the
point; one voice on its own is quiet, but many voices shouting the same
thing can make themselves heard. At least that is the principle as I
understand it. Ultimately, however, I just can't see that it makes any
difference; whoever's in power, they don't care about me, or you, or
anyone else. They say whatever they think will get them elected, then
they do what they want/are told by the Party, and I'd truly love to
believe otherwise.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, I was quite proud and couldn't wait. And then I
walked into the dusty hall, took the piece of paper, wandered over to
the wooden cubicle with the pencil on a bit of string, made my mark,
popped it in the ballot box and walked home.

And thought "well, that was a rather crushing anti-climax"

 

That really, really isn't true for most backbench MPs. They *are*
interested in making people's lives better. And they honestly believe
that their parties policies will achieve that.

That's not true, either /in most cases/.

Heard of Tam Dalyell? There are *hundreds* of other examples.

Well why don't you find out a bit more about it? Go to a local
council meeting, turn up at your MP's surgery, read some political
diaries and biographies, listen to Today in Parliament on R4, watch
Question Time - that sort of stuff.

I honestly think you'd be surprised if you knew more about it.

 

Good grief.

 

1969

 

On reflection, I'm sure they do. I can't say that about the front bench
though, and they're the ones to whom I refer. They seem so remote, I
really feel no "connection" with them. It seems as if they can do
whatever they want in terms of policy, with no fear of serious personal
repercussion.

Oh yes, and Dennis Skinner, George Galloway, Tony Benn and any number of
others, who have admirably allowed their conscience to over-ride the
Party Line, and been slapped down for it. Majority rule and the whip
system keeps such individuals under control for the most part, which
when you think about it isn't that bad a thing. It's just a shame that
it's the ones who want to do good and dare to speak out that stand out
against the crowd.

Maybe. To be honest, Ben, although I respect your interest and belief
in the political system, and your obvious depth of knowledge, I don't
share it, and feel discouraged from learning more - I don't want to be
drawn into something for which I have no love. I'm sure we've had this
discussion before.

 

It's a good job democracy doesn't bother with this sort of nonsense.

(whips being the 'police' behind the enforcement of decisions of the
majority)

 

It's not so much my belief in the system, but the people in it.
Really.

I know. I just think that you're too smart a guy to fall for that
popularist "all politicians are liars" bullshit. And I'm sure your
cynicism is unhealthily prevalent - unhealthy in the sense that it'll
not make you happy.

 

Well, yes, but you can't on the one hand say "all politicians are
liars and only out for themselves" and simultaneously say that your
not interested in learning that this isn't the case.

 

Well I was too. And I had been quite interested in politics for the 4
years previous because we had the Winter of discontent, then Maggie
winning and recessions and all sorts of stuff. That's why all the stuff
about the 25th anniversary of her victory has been quite interesting as
it took me back to all those events that helped frame part of my
political thinking.