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Small delay

Comments

1. At 02:51 PM on 30 Apr 2007, Aperitif wrote:

   Blimey -- apologies in advance! How surprising and pleasant.

2. At 03:17 PM on 30 Apr 2007, wrote:

   Don't worry, you will survive.

3. At 03:19 PM on 30 Apr 2007, The New Blog Prince aka Marc wrote:

   The small delay *does* though give you lovely froggers more time to dig out photos from May 1997 and now ;-)

4. At 03:20 PM on 30 Apr 2007, witchiwoman wrote:

   Is it the Sony's tonight??
   

5. At 03:28 PM on 30 Apr 2007, The Reverend Green wrote:

   There's usually a delay before the bongs.

6. At 03:46 PM on 30 Apr 2007, witchiwoman wrote:

   1997 - first general election I ever voted in! Ah the joy of naivety and trust in politicians; I'm now thinking of voting strategically as opposed to who I really want to run the country. How sad is that?

7. At 03:52 PM on 30 Apr 2007, wrote:

   WW;
   You're quite right, of course.

   Good luck to the PM team for a win or ten tonight!

   Si.

8. At 04:45 PM on 30 Apr 2007, wrote:

   ww (6) You've highlighted something I've ranted about in the past, namely the inability of our First Past The Post system to reflect the actual breakdown of votes across the country. If you looked at the total number of votes cast in the last election, then no one party would have been in a majority. This has been the case for years. Our system does notr elect a house that reflects the views of the people. We need a new system of voting, particularly one that removes "safe" seats for any one party. Here where I live, there's almost no way it would cease to be a Tory seat, even though more than 50% of the local electorate voted against the Conservative party....

   GRRRRRRR!!!!!! (Sorry, rant over...)
   FFred

9. At 07:07 PM on 30 Apr 2007, Perry Savill wrote:

   When is this going out?
   

10. At 10:40 PM on 30 Apr 2007, wrote:

    Hope the sonys go well tonight. As for voting, just posted off the old scottish parliament ballott today. My my how the PR system makes westminster look like a really out of date voting system. For the scottish endorsed one using both FPP and PR to ensure overall equality. What then occurs is that a coaltion is likely brought, ensuring that a wider range of the electorates views are in government.

    Regards
    John

11. At 11:14 PM on 30 Apr 2007, Val P wrote:

    John C - I spent quite some time this morning gathering together all the many leaflets we've had delivered re forthcoming Scottish elections. Plenty candidates and parties to choose from. Delighted to find amongst them, a handy guide to how we actually cast our votes on Thursday. We have a newly-turned 18yr old in the household, so I was pleased to have this 'idiot's guide' because in this case I needed to have it all explained to me before I could pass it on to her.....

    For those who don't know, but do care, we'll be faced with two separate voting papers. The white paper is for electing Councillors, we don't use a cross but enter numbers in the boxes from 1 onwards, depending on whom we like from best to least. We may number as many or as few candidates as we wish, and they can be from the same political party, different parties or independent. This voting system is STV - Single Transferable Vote.

    Then we come to the second paper and it's bi-coloured (brown and lilac, this will be immaterial to my son, voting away from home, he's 'colour blind' and sees no difference between those particular colours). So we have two votes on this paper: Regional, for a political party or individual candidate to be an MSP, then Constituency, for the constituency candidate we want to be an MSP. Both of these will be awarded the traditional X. This voting system is AMS - Additional Member System.

    If you're still with me, our last instruction is that we must not fold either paper, merely post them in the ballot box.

    Phew! - the first time I voted was shortly after the voting age had been reduced to 18 and it was not in an election, but a referendum. This week's democratic opportunity may have moved on apace, but it seems infinitely complicated and I have no conviction that I will end up being any more influential in the process than I was all those years ago.

12. At 10:04 AM on 01 May 2007, witchiwoman wrote:

    FF - I do find it very frustrating. I'm all for a partyless system - a member of parliment is elected to represnt they're constituency and whats best for those that live there (as well as deciding wider matters). I feel Party Politics dissipates the political energy; they are all so caught up with point scoring or trying to differentiate their views/strategies they forget what their roles are.

    Disillusioned, me?

13. At 03:22 PM on 02 May 2007, wrote:

    For those who haven't seen my views on political parties - the bane of democracy and integrity:
    
    xx
    ed

14. At 04:07 PM on 02 May 2007, Vyle Hernia wrote:

    Ed I (13)

    I don't think I'd better read it - it'd just get my hackles up. I know I'd find myself in complete agreement with you.