If one thing is certain about UK politics in 2015, it's that there will be a general election, and British nationals living abroad can vote if they want to up to 15 years after leaving the UK, and providing that they were registered to vote in the UK within that 15 year period. Those who left the UK as children can also be registered to vote, again providing that they left the UK within the last 15 years and were under 18 at the time, and as long as a parent was registered to vote in the UK. Anyone to whom these circumstances apply and who wishes to vote in the forthcoming UK general election can register to do so HERE (https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote). JA (http://www.janetanscombe.com/news/do-you-want-to-vote-in-the-uks-general-election.html)
Yes I do!
Just registered. You need your NI number and passport details.
I asked for a postal vote and they are going to email my postal vote application to me, which I must sign and post back.
One vote could make the difference between Millipede or Farage becoming PM. Neither of which I would like to see happen.
If I get to vote for my MP I am voting Boris.
I think you will be able to. I always wondered about foreign voters and how they were assigned to a constituency, and the rule that you must have been registered (as well as resident) not more than 15 years ago makes sense ... foreign voters would appear to be allowed to continue to vote in the constituency in which they were last registered until their 15 years runs out. That must be why the previous registration is a requirement.
So Boris it will be, for you!
I've just registered too!! I don't know what point there is since I'll be voting in the Tatton constituency which is a pretty safe Tory seat (remember the Hamiltons and how all the other parties stepped down so that Martin Bell would get the combined "anti-corruption" vote? We have George Osborne now :-X), but I will be exercising my right to get my bit of paper counted :great:
So, they sent out the ballots before the election as they said they would. Ours arrived yesterday, the 4th. They have to be in the council's hands by 10 p.m. on Thursday the 7th.
So the question was, do we bother?
We decided to and I posted them this morning at a cost of 3.45€ apiece (urgente) to try to get them to the UK in the allotted timeframe.
I feel a letter of complaint should be addressed to the appropriate authorities although I am not sure who they are. Not only do they not send the ballots in time, but you have to pay through the nose to exercise your democratic right. Why can't the vote be exercised online like taxes?
Sure enough Boris will be my next MP, so you could say it was a moot point.
I am delighted to say that one "Jug, Lord Toby" is also running in my constituency. Although I did not vote for Lord Jug I am so pleased to see the British establishment still allows such candidacy. I cannot imagine it anywhere else.
I'd think this is your local electoral office, and it's where I'd start ...
Electoral Registration Office
Civic Centre
High Street
Uxbridge
Middlesex UB8 1UW
or call 01895 250251
or email www.hillingdon.gov.uk/
You are not alone
Torygraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/11584068/Expats-in-uproar-over-missing-ballot-papers.html)
When was the letter posted in the UK Myrtle? My daughter posted a registered letter (copies of her passport and pay slip for the frickin BBVA!!) It was posted in a village post office in the North West of England. 19 hours later it was in Madrid Airport. That was 5 and a half days ago!
I don't know when it was posted from the UK. I have had the experience of posting something regular mail from here, and it has arrived in the UK and been acted on within 3 days. I hope that is the case now; I'd hate to endanger Boris's candidacy.
Forget about slave labour, immigration, NHS etc. etc.
David Cameron eats hot dogs with a knife & fork.
Need I say more? :whistle:
Quote from: MichaelForget about slave labour, immigration, NHS etc. etc.
David Cameron eats hot dogs with a knife & fork.
Need I say more?
The bloody Sun decided that its last campaign day front page was to be dedicated to "do you want a man to manage the country who can't manage a bacon sandwich". That's about the level, I guess, of many of its readers ...
All it managed to do was make the young irate, who took to twitter in their tens of thousands, trending the meme JeSuisEd ... including pictures of them eating "messily". Those pics included mockery of Cameron for his knife and fork attempt to avoid looking an idiot for not having the first idea how to eat a hotdog ... while showing that he had not the first idea of how to eat a hotdog.
Clearly, politics has now been dumbed down to the level where running the country really does depend on no politics as such, just on how well one eats without getting HP sauce or mustard on your tie ... and society equally dumbed down so as to equate a rag's attack on a politician to Islamists machine-gunning cartoon artists to death in their office ...
I'm staying up tonight. I'm hoping to see Farage win Thanet, Clegg lose Sheffield, and the SNP get 55+ seats in Scotland. Any one of those will make my night - and I don't much care overall who wins because it's likely to be hung anyway. "Well hung", as the inimitable Sun rag put it ... ::)
I'll be with you Janet, should be a hoot watching Clegg getting the boot. Sadly he will just be given a job within the Brussels bubble and be as incompetent there as he has been for the past five years. I just can't see Farage winning a seat, don't get me wrong I would love to see it just to throw a spanner in the works but with the SNP Farage's spanner would be one of many so would not be of much use. Either way it's going to be a very interesting and probably the most important election for decades.
Quote from: Janet on Thu 7 May 2015, 11:21I'm staying up tonight.
I'm not. I'll wait and get depressed tomorrow. I can wait. Not like some.
Janet, please keep the hooting and hollering down. I'll be asleep. :giggle:
Quote from: Perikles on Thu 7 May 2015, 12:19I'll wait and get depressed tomorrow.
Agreed on that point P.
@Janet (http://chalkcat.com/index.php?action=profile;u=2), have a good night. I am going to sleep now; leaving the PC on so I can check in if insomnia strikes.
:thanx:
Looking like my prediction will be right about the Tories winning but not getting a majority. Clegg looks to be safe, but the LibDems to be effectively wiped out ... I'll take that!
Scotland exit polls are suggesting 58 seats for the SNP, which would be bloody unbelievable!
Agreed about the SNP Janet. I just can't see it. I think the exit poll could be very way out as nobody in Scotland would admit to voting anything other than SNP.
I'm watching the ITV as the BBC is getting on my nerves!
The good news is that Ian Paisley Jnr. got back in again. :rofl: :sofa:
we're watching Sky for the same reason, P, BBC was hopeless!
I see three LibDem lost deposits already ... out of only three declarations ... serve the buggers right :P
Quote from: Michael on Thu 7 May 2015, 23:23
The good news is that Ian Paisley Jnr. got back in again. :rofl: :sofa:
I checked that one; my former colleague's daughter who ran against him got a whopping 368 votes.
Boris is my new MP with over 50% of the vote.
Lord Toby Jug only got 50 votes but I see that Howling Laud Hope pulled in 72. What are the people in Hillingdon smoking?
Photo of Ed Balls face . . . . priceless. :clap:
I thought it was only me . . . but it seems everyone hates him.
Guess who fell asleep!! :-[ I knew I shouldn't have watched it in bed. All I can say is thankfully we seem to have a government. Ok it's the con's which to some is a loss. But looking at the bigger picture, if there had been a hung parliament it would have been a lose lose lose lose situation for the country and that's whats important not bloody self interested MP's and Parliament.
The most worrying thing is Scotland, it's now a one party state and that can't be good. 'Mini Me' and her army will be a corrosive presence in Westminster disrupting the other three nations in the union for their own ends which of course is Scotland and only Scotland.
Lib Dems what can one say the writing was on the wall five years ago wrong polices wrong leader wrong collation wrong wrong wrong!
Labour .... much the same as the Lib Dems wrong leader wrong faces in power that vile Harman woman and Ball's to name but two The fact they couldn't see that shows their incompetence.
UKIP for me they are the party of Europe and a protest vote party that's where they will stay.... I mean UKIP in Parliament! they were having a laugh the public may seem stupid but not that stupid!
The rest are just silly and not worth a mention.... well for me anyway.
I forgot one of the best pieces of news that vile man Galloway got the boot! :clap:
Quote from: Prof on Fri 8 May 2015, 08:51
Photo of Ed Balls face . . . . priceless. :clap:
I thought it was only me . . . but it seems everyone hates him.
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Milipede is expected to resign too.
Glad Pelinor brought up Shall-I-be-the-cat-Galloway. Glad he lost.
For me the funniest one is Mhairi Black's victory over Douglas Alexander. She's 20 and will be the youngest MP since 1667. Likes a drink too as she likes to tweet about it.
Here's an article about the losers and a few winners from the Graun. :link: (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/08/general-election-2015-the-winners-and-losers)
There's great analysis in the Guardian, esp HERE (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/labour-vote-party), about Labour being two parties really - the wannabe responsible capitalists and outright socialists - which no-one could navigate to victory without looking like they were trying to stage-manage the papering over the cracks. That act of stage-management could not begin to look other than disingenuous ... which is what Miliband suffered from, in addition to being seen as a Union-supported brother-backstabber.
The wannabe responsible capitalists wil blame the outright socialists saying that a lurch to the left cost them votes. The socialists will say that this didn't stop the clearly socialist SNP wiping the board in Scotland. The socialists will retaliate that the country doesn't want a wet middle government, but a centre-right hamstrung parliament is exactly what the country did vote for!
The reality is that Labour now is nothing. It is two parties which have failed to unite. One, on the left, is too tied to the unions, which is a millstone that Sturgeon doesn't have around her neck, and which will mean the Labour left cannot succeed ever again. The other, on the right, is just a weak and disingenuous version of the Tories, and cannot succeed unless the Tories actually start jackbooting around in black shirts.
How utterly fucking depressing. But the analysis sounds spot on.
And on a lighter note.......... :D
(https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11193239_983135688393161_9046760767974576754_n.png?oh=15832ec70a859b0e1b1800a2527e933c&oe=55BF0F23)
And I have to give kudos to the turtle's OH, who forecast - against all the polls, the odds and my scepticism - an outright majority victory! :bows:
I predict David Miliband as Prime Minister within 15 years.
And I think he'll be a very good one.
I hope this thread is still here so that I can gloat.
Quote from: Prof on Fri 8 May 2015, 14:30
I predict David Miliband as Prime Minister within 15 years.
And I can predict that by then I won't care a damn. :great:
I'll make a prediction. The Tories will struggle on for the next five years. In their usual ruthless couldn't give a toss fashion, they will bring the economy onto a some what reasonable state by savage and uncaring cuts. As money is the only thing that matters to them, Oh! and giving it away, so long as it's not to the benefit of the taxpayers!
Once they have done that it will be Labours turn, I say turn because that is very basically what politics in the UK is all about, turns. Milliband will be a distant memory there will be someone else more acceptable to the public. Sorry Prof and Janet the public won't have a man that looks stupid as their leader no matter how clever. Very un-PC and cruel know, but did any one learn anything from Michael Foot and his donkey jacket?
Then Labour will, as they always do run the economy into the ground. Depending on how fast they do that will depend on when the Tories get their next turn.
Sort of reassuring really Con's or Lab not a toss between them, which ever we end up with were going to be shafted!
The UK will have a referendum and not leave the EU. Scotland will have a second referendum and not leave the union. UKIP will take over the UK MEPs. Local authorities will be a mix of Lab, Lib and others the Cons will be shot down. There we have it, Pelinors prediction.
Forgot this time next week we could be at war with Russia if the EU has anything to do with it! :undecided:
Quote from: Prof on Fri 8 May 2015, 14:30
I predict David Miliband as Prime Minister within 15 years.
And I think he'll be a very good one.
I hope this thread is still here so that I can gloat.
Interesting one. We were discussing this this morning. My take on it is that as he's earning megabucks in charity without the hassle of politics, he may just decide to carry on banking money. No doubt he's come out of this episode far better than Ed.
OH surprised us all with his prediction @Janet (http://chalkcat.com/index.php?action=profile;u=2).
In any case, I am pleased to have been privileged to see this interesting historic day in British politics. To see three party leaders resign boom-boom-boom was unbelievable. I thought Farage spoke the truth, Clegg was a spent force, and even enjoyed Milipede's "thanks for the selfies" remark.
And now, back to business as usual.
Okay guys, you're gonna love this one.
I haven't seen it, but apparently Ian Paisley Jnr. sang part of a hymn during his victory speech. ::)
I'm looking for video of it.
So from an electorate of 46,425,386, only 11,334,920 voted Conservative.
This is a democracy? Really?
This was made a year ago!!
https://www.facebook.com/hugo.jackson.94/videos/654911224606798/
Quote from: MichaelSo from an electorate of 46,425,386, only 11,334,920 voted Conservative.
This is a democracy? Really?
I saw a tweet looking at the numbers the other way round, though ... can't remember the exact figures now but it was something like:
65% voted against the Tories but we got a Tory govt. Democracy?
Well actually yes, because 70% voted against Labour, 75% against UKIP, 80% against the greens ...
and so on. The Tories actually got the lowest anti-vote.
We need proportional representation. As I was reading earlier, "the FPTP system works if it's a two-party system, as it was historically in the UK." I would change "works" to "can be considered to work" - though I disagree with that because it can leave half the electorate unrepresented. Regardless of whether it works in a two-party system, however, it does not in a fractionalised multi-party system such as the UK has now.
But no majority government is going to vote for PR. The Tories didn't when they were in power with the Liberals, when the Liberals actually existed ( :Woot_Emoticon: ) and that was a Liberal top three demand. It certainly won't happen now they've been wiped out.
What I find amusing, one of the few things I find amusing about this result, is politicians and pundits saying that the LibDem wipeout is far more extensive than they could ever have imagined. Well I said it five years ago, posted it in this forum that those who voted or might yet vote for them would never ever ever forgive them for shoring up the last Tory government. It was obvious, and yet "those who know" just didn't see it. Idiots.
Democracy does seem to be an illusion, or is an illusion? I would love to see the Tories or Labour (because that's who the the present voting system benefits) defend the fact that the Lib's, Greens, and UKIP received over 5,000,000 votes between them (I think that's the approx. number?) and only returned 10 MP's and the SNP received less that 2,000,000 votes and returned 58 MP's. One could be forgiven for thinking that a single Scottish vote is worth more than any other single union vote, by a long margin!
One has to bear in mind that the only two parties big enough to change the system to a fairer one are the benefactors of the present one, so don't expect change any time soon. After all they could have done something over the past thirty odd years but didn't! A change in the system will only come from public pressure and as we saw from the expenses scandal Parliament will fight tooth and nail against it..... or I should say the Tories and Labour will.
In the mean time I am just thankful we have a government whether it was Labour, Liberal or Tory it mattered not to me. A hung Parliament would have been a disaster for the UK both at home in the EU and the world stage. Plus I don't think Cameron and his hench men are going to have an easy ride or get everything they want. Once Labour put a more charismatic and acceptable leader in charge I can see them back in 5 years time.
In the mean time expect monthly riots, the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer, but isn't that always the way? :undecided:
I think you guys have about summed it up.
Quote from: Myrtle Hogan-Lance on Sun 10 May 2015, 13:51
I think you guys have about summed it up.
We're fucked! ::)