Gaza is a foreign war and councillors can't effect it

[mids2019]

Just this really. No matter how strong your feelings on Gaza why vote for local councillors ,who should be concerned about verge cutting and leisure centres, on this issue.

Your councillor won't finish a an audit committee on car parking charges in Oldham then get on the phone to Benjamin Netanyahu to have a go.

Are councillors getting votes on this ticket going to be any good for advocating for good local services.

Ok that's your opinion thankfully we live in democracies where we can all express our view through the ballot box. I find it frustrating that so many disagree with peaceful protests and are now disagreeing with how people vote. Can't win. I also still don't know why you think or how you know the councillors that have got through will be useless

Whether my local councillor agrees with me on Gaza, Ukraine or EU membership is irrelevant, as s/he can’t affect policy in those areas.

How that councillor feels about climate change is much more relevant, as the council can do a lot about the environmental impact the city has.

That doesn’t mean I don’t care about Gaza. It does mean I focus my vote on where it will make a minuscule difference

I’m suggesting that in local elections it’s probably sensible to vote on local issues, not on irrelevant geopolitics. Now do you understand? 🙄

@caringcarer @mids2019
So in your view the only reason people voted labour was because of Gaza?

We're getting to the bottom of it now you're just annoyed people didn't vote tory and the only reason they didn't is because of Gaza, no other reason whatsoever

They also represent national political parties that DO take a stand on foreign policy so it's to be expected that some people will send a message to party leadership this way.

But your issue isn’t really that the best person for specific local issues has been overlooked.

It’s that people didn’t Labour, isn’t it?

And I'm suggesting for some voters both matter. Again no one has pointed out the candidates that are not likely to be any use in local government because of their views on Gaza and it has become obvious posters are just annoyed the tories lost big

I don't vote Tory or live in Birmingham. I was just musing that people even vote for councils that bankrupted them. I don't think.Gaza or anywhere else in the world has got anything to do with local elections. None of the councillors anywhere has any influence over Gaza. It's just something people seem obsessed about.

Oh come on.

Birmingham City Council hasn’t bankrupted the city; that was the inevitable consequence of 13 years of national government policy to cut funding to councils. Birmingham is the biggest but not the only one, and many others are on the brink.

Councils can do a lot to benefit or harm their communities, but without the funding from Westminster, they are all buggered.

But where is the proof Gaza influenced how people voted? Local elections are just that local, people vote for candidates for a whole host of reasons and no where has it been suggested Gaza was the main voter issue, it wasn't

It's just something people seem obsessed about.
Maybe some people are obsessed about Gaza because watching children dying from bombing, deliberate starvation, diseases does that to people with an ounce of humanity.

If that argument held true then all councils would be bankrupt not just Birmingham. Birmingham council made mad decisions like spending lots of money for solar panel boards showing how many cyclists pass a street each day. Honestly who cares about that? Also most councils fulfil mandatory duties Birmingham council goes over the top. Great if they can afford it but they can't. Eg councils have to pay to get SEN DC to special schools up to age 16 if they need to travel above a certain distance in miles. 16-18 year olds get free bus passes. Birmingham uses taxis to ferry 16-18 year olds distances sometimes of 20+ miles each way. This is no way to spend public money when other vital services then have to be cut like street lights. At the same time planting flowers everywhere, at enormous expense. They just can't prioritise properly.

But how is it a LOCAL issue?

My small town council went independent about 15 years ago.
It has been marvellous, no more split votes along party lines. They have to listen to and engage with the public. Would encourage every small town to do the same.

If Westminster gave a flying feck what happened outside of London, they would not have slashed local council budgets by so much.

I just commented on a specific sentence. I never said it was a local issue.

I voted Lib Dem( they have been punished long enough for their getting into bed with the Tories)this time as labour are a waste of space for many reasons, not just Gaza. I’ll not vote Labour while Keir Stamer is leader and that goes for my MP as well as local councillors.

I’m happy to take the risk of my bin being collected less frequently.

I’m sorry you feel the need to tell others how powerless they are to impact the world around them, while simultaneously trying to impact peoples opinions by starting a thread telling people what to do.

@MuggedByReality Well expressed..I loved your tone here: pointless self indulgent virtue signalling...that.has a real ring to it

Well I'm not.

I quite like my local area and community to run smoothly and efficiently. That's why we have local government. The idea that we vote for people whose job is to look after our area based on their thoughts on the Israel/Gaza conflict is just silly....we do actually need services in our local areas.

You would trust somebody who is OK with the indiscriminate killing of mostly women and children to look after the needs of your area 😂

I'm saying I'd vote for someone based on their ability to perform that role...

It's why I wouldn't vote for a party based on their stance on trans issues and what is a woman....we actually need to live with these people making decisions about our lives. I really wouldn't vote on principle on a single issue.

So basically… you’re a Labour voter.

That is not a comparative issue.

Ideally a candidate would have the technical ability to carry out the role,
while also having ethical values that mean they in practice really do meet the needs of their area.

Unfortunately very few people seem
to meet this criteria!