Some people really are as thick as mince...

[AuContrairePubicHair]

So far today I've seen 3 posts on 3 different local FB groups from people convinced that the reason they haven't received their polling cards for tomorrow's elections is some sort of deliberate conspiracy.

The real reason, however, is that there is no election happening in our area.

You'd think they'd a) have noticed the complete lack of electioneering/canvassing/posters in front gardens etc locally, b) have realised their polling cards hadn't arrived and done something about it before today if they were that invested in voting, or even c) spent 30 seconds checking online before spaffing such nonsense....

They clearly haven't even tried to find out who the local candidates are, because if they had they'd have found out there are no local candidates because there are no local elections here [doh]

It's terrifying that these people are allowed to vote.

I really wish they'd just stay at home. I've heard quite a few vox pops from people who claim to have only ever voted once before, leave in the Brexit referendum, who plan on turning up to vote for Reform tomorrow. Hypothetically, I fully support democracy, but low information /participation voters really do make me question that support. Add poorly informed voters to that too, if you get your political views from X and social media you're most probably very poorly informed and easily manipulated.

I don’t generally like people being called thick. But there are people who think Farage is a man of the people with the best interests of the country at heart. So there’s that…

Ask them where the local polling station is, hopefully they won’t know 🙈

Of course they won't know, how would they know, they hAveNt Had thEiR pOlLinG cArdSssss

You are coming across as self righteous and mean. And of course you are a senior brain surgeon?

Looking forward to the threads tomorrow

This is an actual friend of mine - used freedom of movement to move to the Canaries and then voted leave because ‘Britain has too many immigrants, who refuse to learn the language, integrate properly and take all the jobs’.

He’s never learned Spanish, lives in a little expat enclave and became the president of his resident’s association because ‘we can’t let it go to a Spaniard, they’ll stop putting us Brits here first.’

Couldn’t. Make. It. Up.

My neighbours have a second home in Spain. The woman was delighted with the Brexit result: she said she’d voted Leave because her husband was voting Remain, and she thought she’d got the better of him.

Someone I know has a holiday home in Spain and voted Leave, absolutely baffling.

I'd love to vote for who I actually want but I need to vote to ensure I don’t get what I really don’t want. Fun times.

Nope, I'm self employed in a non-skilled trade, to fit around being a parent carer for a disabled child, and have no education beyond the GCSEs I took in 1996.

Somehow I still know when I do and don't need to vote, and manage not to take the lack of a local election in my borough as evidence of a conspiracy against democracy (ours were held in May 2025 and there was something like a 34.7% turnout).

It’d be great if they turned up to vote for Reform tomorrow! 😂

And the alternative is much more terrifying.

I was a supply teacher.

I mostly taught health and social care BTEC. One college had me teaching a unit about politics / parliament. I thought why? But actually teaching it was a good experience for me and the students.

We looked at how laws are passed, why there are two houses in parliament that sort of thing and it was clear to start with they had no idea beforehand.

Given todays turnout will struggle to reach 30% in most wards, it's the least of our worries. Unless they are the reason 70% can't be arsed ?

@MrsChristmasHasResigned I really think you should be able to pass a short test of current affairs before you are allowed to vote.

What would the questions be? Would prospective voters have to get 100% or would anything over 50% be enough?
Would the tests be available in other languages?
Where would the tests be taken? In large halls with invigilators?

I think I know what the question would be:
What party are you voting for?
Anyone who puts Reform or Conservative will fail.

I agree that a much bigger issue is why so few people bother to vote - rather than what they actually vote for, which is the main thrust of most discussions on Mumsnet. Essentially, people seem to want a 'democracy' in which only those who agree with their political opinion are allowed to vote. Now that's what I call 'thick as mince'.

What in god’s name is a vox pops?!?! I am NOT googling that!

No need to worry. Vox pops (short for the Latin phrase vox populi, voice of the people) are those little segments you get on the news where a roving reporter goes out and asks random passers by about issues of the day. My favourite is Brenda from Bristol, who was asked what she thought about the election that had just been announced ...

On the same vein as “thick as mince”, on another thread I’ve got people trying to tell me that my ELECTRIC CAR is still polluting the environment because “it still has something that makes it move” and also because “electric is made from gas” 🫪🫩

Ohhhhhh gotcha! Thanks. I always wondered what the verb was for those little mini-interviews on the street!

Near me, but not this Ward, residents put up LD supporting placards in their front gardens, and got a visit from fellas in suits and hi viz, claiming to represent the estate management company, who ripped up the boards as unacceptable.

Estate management company denied all knowledge. It turned out they were Reform activists.

It's not just politics. I do sometimes wonder how certain people get through life. Recently I was on a long-distance train journey when two bewildered travellers got on and sank into the nearest vacant seats. We had just gone through a full ticket check to get onto the platform and I assume the train manager had been summoned to help them as they were convinced they had etickets for our train but couldn't find them and hadn't a clue what their seat reservations were. They passed most of the next two hours intermittently trying to log on to the email account of the more clueless of the two, who had bafflingly been charged with booking the tickets, and then uploading the train company's app to see if the tickets were there.

The train manager was amazing. She must have had the patience of a saint. She took the phone and rapidly scanned evidence on the email and app which the travellers themselves had proved unable to check. She then stated kindly but firmly that they had only managed to buy one ticket between them. This amazed the hapless pair, and they had a long conversation about how it could possibly have happened ('I remember now, you got Chris to help you, didn't you?' 'No, it was Pat, at least I think it was Pat. Anyway, I just don't understand this. I'm sure we asked for two tickets, but it's all so confusing' etc etc).

Fortunately they stumped up for a second ticket without demur. There was a bit of a diversion while one produced what she thought was a railcard but turned out to be something else only valid in London. Utterly, utterly clueless. (Native English speakers and British nationals, for the avoidance of doubt.)

Life was simpler for people like this when you had to go to a ticket office and buy a paper ticket. You told the booking clerk where you wanted to go and how many people were travelling and that was that. For most of us being able to do lots of things online makes life easier but I do worry about those who can't keep up with it all.

🤣

I'd have assumed that they were deliberately playing stupid in an attempt to avoid paying and be so irritating, confusing and time-wasting that the guard would brush it off and let them get away with it... but the fact that they had actually paid for one ticket rather suggests otherwise!

If their intention had been to deliberately under-pay, they'd have been better using the old trick of buying just one ticket, then both of them hide in the toilet when the guard is on their way, and push the single ticket under the door, with only one person speaking/making a sound. Only problem with that, though, is if another thief pretends to be the guard, asks for their ticket and then they both run off with it and hide in the opposite toilet to wait for the actual guard!!