to be very pissed off that only 35% of people bothered to vote in my borough

[southeastastra]

arse, if some had got off their arses we could have had such a fairer representation :(

not that we know who has won yet but ykwim

Dittany

The Cat and Mouse Act - women were force fed by tubes, which sometimes were forced down their trachea, not the oesophagus - the food and liquid in their lungs caused pneumonia. There are quieter deaths than under the hooves of the King's horse. It wasn't their dying that made the difference though, it was their campaigning. And other social factors which made people more open to their ideas. WW1 not insignificant but part of the context, not the reason women won the right to vote. (Or decide not to vote if that's the way they're inclined.)

I wrote 'this is not democracy' on my ballot paper! We had 4 candidates for the council: 3 from the same party and one standing as independent, but had recently been the mayor representing the same party as the others, and her election leaflet was dreadful. I was not prepared to vote for anyone of them, but being very aware that people died to make sure I am able to exercise my democratic right to vote, I went along anyway, and showed my dd (8) what to do. My vote never makes any difference here anyway, which is why I am very depressed about the av result. o'clock I think.

One of the biggest factors was the fact that whilst the men were shipped off to be slaughtered, the women took over their jobs. It's hard to try and suggest that women are in some way less competant when they're sucessfully doing every male role and managing not to fall apart if they break a nail whilst machining munitions.

I prefer Sylvia. She wanted votes for women. Emmeline wanted votes for the right kind of women.

It riles me that so many people do not vote. I just can not understand it. I would be physically sick if for some reason I could not get to the polling station.

Anyone can request a lift you know from any political party. Saying you can't get there is a cop out. What about postal votes?

I feel everyone has a duty to vote and women especially because my mum never let an election go by without taking me and telling me about fighting for the right to vote. I agree with her and tell my girls (and son) the same thing. But if people don't vote I don't think they should be forced - although most I think don't out of apathy, not real decision. Which is sad and a shame politics isn't more interesting to people.

I quite liked the "Don't Vote, Can't Moan" line.

With local councils being responsible for services like SureStart, does the lack of turnout show that actually most people don't have strong views on local services and cuts, or just not much interest in holding their councillors rigorously to account in what they prioritise, their standards of delivery and VFM?

I did polling duty yesterday and approx 30% of my list turned up.

Of course women bloody well won the vote for women. Yes thousands of men and women were involved, suffragettes and suffragists, but does anyone really believe that men just handed the vote over to women, if the women hadn't made it perfectly clear exactly how important it was to them, and how much they would risk for it?

WWI fought for the right of women to vote? Pah, our great grandfathers died in their droves in that war IMO for no good reason whatsoever. At least if it had been for democracy it would have had a point.

1. What really won the vote was the millions of men who died on the western front. They won an extension of voting to working class men and women who were over 30 and married or owned property. The government feared an armed revolution if these men were not given the vote, and they considered it ethically necessary after WW1 to give all men the vote.

Millions ??

was it ?

PaWithABra - I think it was in the low millions, so yes.

Wouldn't crediting them with women's suffrage be a bit like saying the end of the feudal system was achieved by the people who died in the Black Death? ie of course their deaths were a factor but it was not their achievement?

vj32 why didn't you help her then?

Women died for the vote. Men died for the vote.

So why do so few people actually get off their bums and go to the polling station. This is not a feminist issue, it is an issue of the lack of political literacy in this country, especially among the younger demographic.

It seems like too many people would prefer to vote in a Simon Cowell karaoke show.

Wish I knew Madsometimes. I'm sure it must be something to do with the fact that BGT or whatever contains contestants who at least look something like their audience/electorate.

It's a bit like in Four Weddings where Gareth says his (male) partner preferred funerals to weddings, because it was easier to be interested in a ceremony in which you have an outside chance of participating. All kinds of people take part in those TV talent shows, and it's easier maybe to get excited about something where you think "I/my brother/my daughter/Katie from work would be brilliant on that".

Whereas politics is still under the control of what is really a small proportion of the population, rich white men for the most part. More than a third of them have been to private school (and 54% of Tory MPs), 90% to university, many of them are lawyers or have gone straight into politics, many of them have never known anything but wealth. Politics is in their blood and they have been brought up to think that they can do anything they want, and had the opportunities put in front of them.

Most of us can't imagine having the money or the time or the knowledge or the connections to get through the selection process to stand for election.

(Figures from Sutton Trust via Independent)

I mean you watch election night and it's man after man after man in grey suits.

may be if you had to pay to vote like you have to on the xfactor
more people would vote

I'm not a man in a grey suit, and I went to an ordinary school.

I will probably never be involved in politics myself. I would not enjoy that at all, but I have never missed an election since I was 18. Sometimes I have gone to the ballot box unsure of what to vote. I didn't have strong feelings about the referendum, but I still voted.

I don't accept that people do not vote because they do not see people like them. They do not vote because they think that their opinion will not make a difference.

I live in a safe labour seat, but last election I voted Lib Dem. I knew that my candidate would not win, but so what. I still voted, and I am probably one of the few people that would still vote Lib Dem if there was an election tomorrow

Evenless - Sylvia is best, certainly.
Elephants - definitely a closed circle of white men.
The argument of reasoned argument v chained to railings isn't strictly accurate, more like 'get votes for women, leave everything else unchanged' v 'votes for women is part of more fundamental change'. Both sides had men pro & anti. The WW1 connection is more likely toprevent revolution than to reward women's war effort. The 'chained to railings' lot were generally much more conservative than the 'go to endless conferences' lot.