To think that people who can't be arsed to vote are lazy.

daisybo that's really wierd. Surely you could just vote for one candidate and that vote would be counted?

yes everyone should vote, voter apathy really annoys me. however when i went to vote on thurs with my 2 kids i was furious to discover i had to make 2 votes and there were only 3 candidates - 2 tories and 1 labour so basically i HAD to vote for at least 1 tory candidate - talk about a bloody democracy. as i would rather sever my hands than vote tory i spoilt the paper. even so i would rather spoil the paper than not vote at all, even if there is no one worth voting for!!

You are right Squirrel.

FFF if you're a new mother and have bought the myth that BF takes half an hour and then you'll be able to go about your business, you're not going to have organised a postal vote are you? And if you have, there's the question of getting to the post - in my case, it's the same distance as the polling booth. Plus I just assumed I would get time at some point and therefore wouldn't have organised a postal vote - not unreasonable in most people's minds. The idea that I should go to the trouble of organising a postal vote (how do you do that btw, is it when the polling cards come round) in order to spoil my paper, is a little bizarre. What a waste of public money.

Also, don't talk to me about "excuse". I don't need an excuse not to do something I don't want to, thank you, I don't want to have to excuse myself to the state.

Vis a vis jury service, you don't need a really good reason to get out of it. Being middle class and having a jolly important job is usually good reason enough ime. In my old industry, every time someone got called up for jury service, our MD would write a letter saying they couldn't possibly be spared for business reasons. (The business wasn't important, it was selling people things they don't need.) If the same criteria were applied to voting, I'd have less of an issue with it. (One of the secretaries got into trouble for saying there'd be no trouble at all about serving on a jury, they were furious with her. So much for civic duty and all that.)

It was nice to see the people of brighton & hove excersising their vote. they changed council to Conservative becuase the labour party has pissed the people off no end with local issues such as schools lottery and bin collection.

The same thing goes for Bournemouth. Again Conservative as they felt the Lib Dems were ignoring the peoples wishes with regards to new regeneration in the town. Bournemouth peole didn't want the town to turn into Brightons little sister. They like is to remain the sleepy place where old people go to die. Not a hen party get your dildo on the restaurant table kind of place.

Again local people in a town i forget voted the conservatives out in favour of the lib dems becuase the Conservatives were planning a couple of MILLION quids worth of extension to the TOWN HALL!

People did that.

Yes I agree with the OP. If there are for instance 100,000 people in this country (I know its more like 65 million) so am using this as an example before anyone says I am thick

Only 30,000 turn out (of course its much less than this in reality), 12,000 vot labour, 8,000 vote tory and then 6,000 vote BNP, what a worrying thought. The other 4,000 were obscure.

Then the next year that 6k vote went up to 9k, everyone would be flapping around.

Perhaps our government should do something to appease the people who are voting for this damning group. Reading on here last night, I heard how, young mothers, old ladies were BNP canvassers. This would not happen if the current parties revised their positions on immigration, but no one is prepared to stand up and say, enough is enough. Lock the doors Now!!! No more.

Everyone who is here is fine and can stay, but there will be no more immigration to this country unless you can prove that you can support yourself & family for 5 years at least (like Australia) correct me if I am wrong. Rant over.

giant sqirrel you could have postal voted. BF isn't an excuse

potoroo, DL won't be able to vote anyway, unless she becomes/until she becomes a citizen.

Then, if she does, she HAS to vote.

No vote no voice.

Simple as that.

And a fine would be a great idea. However it would tick me off if I took the trouble only for some computer to f* it up a the last minute as happened here last night. The machines Labour brought in against advice actually ripped and shredded some forms.

the main thing that bothers me is people who whinge about "the state of the country and the government", but when you ask them if they have voted they say no! how can they critise if they cannot be bothered to vote!

Message withdrawn

So, those of you who think voting should be compulsory, would you have fined me for not voting when I was trying to establish BF with my DD?

1000 is good one of my candidates did not get that

My Ward prob consists of over 5000 people , with probably 2500 over 18/eligible to vote, in tonights paper there was about 900 people voted
NOt that we had much choice (Tory/Labour) and no information abot either AND despite being such a close knit community I couldn't find anyone who knew either of them
My Mams area had a really popular local man , works hard etc and he got 800 votes on his own!Just shows the difference.

After the choices in this election I am so very tempted to stand next time.

I have not voted for a few years now and it is not due to lazyness.

There is nobody worth voting for and if there was a box to cross for this, I would do it. They are a bunch of liars!

I do not think that it makes any kind of statement to spoil a ballot paper - some are spoilt because they have been accidentally spoilt and some deliberately - the two are not distinguished so it is a totally pointless thing to do. The counters are not going to show spoilt ballot papers to politicians!!!

Furthermore, those who fought for the vote (particularly the vote for women) would be absolutely disgusted to see people like us just voting for the sake of it. They were good people and wanted to see change - they did not want us to behave like sheep!!

I believe not voting was the most likely way any politician would take notice of me. To call me 'lazy' is not accurate.

one vote every 5 years, between a very small choice of parties, isn't enough to call Britain a democracy. That's why I dont bother. Its not because I am lazy, its because I have studied and been involved in politics and I cant be bothered any more to prop up the extremely thin facade of pretend-democracy in Britain.

I'd vote for someone who was intrested in the down to earth stuff for the benefit of local people but nobody in our area was looking at any of that just in tourism & expanding onto greenbelt for londoners etc. Puting money into things I viewed as pointless. Like rebuilding amusement centres etc

For many years I have been hands on in helping the community, I understand what voting entales but I'm not going to vote for something I dont agree with.

Hills, would you vote for none of the above?

Yes, mum did get in....was very scared at being on stage and thought that they would just shake her hand and leave her to it, not give her a round of applause etcetera. She scored 3rd highest and won a seat from another party (not getting political, so wont name parties if you dont mind)

I didn't like any of the parties so I chose not to. If they gave me something to say yes about then I'd vote for them. I'm not voting for people I dont like to do things I dont agree with.

Congrats to ginger's mum! 1,000 votes is very respectable, did she get in?

I managed to go and vote even though I'd been too busy dealing with my cat's sudden illness and death all day to remember the count until 6pm, so feel like saying 'yes' to the OP, btw.

if you care about your local hospital, you should be voting for the party you think will do most for it. Otherwise you can't complain if the government decides to shut it.

gingersj I personally raise alot of money for our local hospital doing various fun runs/charity runs, and no I dont moan about local resources.