Going to university (2019/20 academic year) - wave goodbye to family, say hello to fellow students and key uni staff and they're settling in (hopefully)

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Previous thread. Possibly a little precipitous but for some of our DC their university start date is only just over a fortnight away. Yikes!

DS is quite sensible in some ways but common sense is not his thing, so there's room for some improvement on that front. Plus he seems quite young for his age, in some ways. Still don't think he's really 100% got the hang of effective revision techniques, so work to be done there too.

At the moment all he's worried about is whether he will be able to watch his beloved sports (anything and everything from football to F1 and NFL). I have advised him, as per someone's comment on here, that the SU will be the place to go for that.

@Witchend is Durham one of those rare NE constituencies that doesn't have a solid Labour majority? They are few and far between in that neck of the woods.

How do you register for postal vote?
How do you find out where her vote will make a difference??

In terms of the postal vote, there are forms to fill in to register, or contact your local council for assistance and advice.

I know there are clever websites that show you how to vote where you live if you want to unseat an MP (fat chance where I am; it basically says don't bother!) but you can just look at Wikipedia , tbh , for majorities.

So...for example, where DS lives now has a 21.000 Conservative majority. Lincoln, where he is headed, has a Labour MP with a majority of just over 1000!

Annoyingly where I live, if I lived less than a mile up the road , I would be in another bellweather with a Labour majority of 2000!

Take it back : just checked and the majority a mile up the road is 789. The Tories have put in a good looking 12 year old to fight him at the next election with a high social media presence.

Registering for a postal vote, the form

"New* I think she said Durham was pretty strong Labour. But the majority is less than half ours so she feels her vote might count more.
I think the Tories could put a glass of pond water in here and it would still get in.

Yes, that makes sense @Witchend. Mind you in these volatile and uncertain times, anything is possible if a snap election does indeed take place on 14 October.

@Atreus DS is similar - quiet at the beginning but warms up once he gets to know people. I'm sure he'll be fine but that first freshers week may be hard for him. He is at Bath but doesn't know his hall yet (came through clearing so won't know until this weekend). Is there a link to the various groups? He isn't on FB but accepts he may need to sign up just for these kinds of thing if they don't have whatsapp groups

And for this kind of 'noisy' chat, to me FB may be better as its more passive so you won't be bombarded with notifications.

Just checked and it's Labour in both uni cities as well as here Still, they could check where their votes would be most useful...

Checked as well - my older girls have previously done postal votes as our constituency is less safe than their uni ones, and ds will be in Manchester Central with a 31000 Labour majority! Another postal vote I think.

Ok. Trying to sort your teens vote out for them is a bit much. Let them sort out where they want to, and how they want to, vote?

Definitely need DS to register in Bath. Decent Lib Dem majority but not massive and the Conservatives are in second place. Wonder if thats swayed a lot by students - you'd think it would be a fairly conservative place?

Compared to windsor with a 65% conservative share of the vote in the last election.. Nothing rocking that boat anytime soon.

Ds used to just register for postal vote as and when a polling card arrived.

Wonder if thats swayed a lot by students
No, the South West is very Lib dem generally despite what people in London assume!

Lol, I've never tried to "sort out their vote", I was just interested, especially as a general election may be imminent. My girls looked into it themselves and told me, and I expect I'll leave it up to them to talk to ds about it

This will be DS2s first opportunity to vote but he's been a card carrying member of a political party since he was 13. He'd be disappointed to miss it so I will remind him to sort out his vote.

@MrKlaw I think in traditionally West Country people are more likely to vote LibDem. Although Bath is an affluent city (albeit with a dark underbelly), the population is probably more akin to that of Cambridge than the very naice parts of London. I have a good friend who lives there, so know it well.

ooh dark underbelly..mysterious - whats that all about?

@Manontry Not trying to sway any voting but DS has ignored about 8 'register to vote' letters over the spring/summer so he needs a fire lighting under him regardless of where he registers.

DS has already voted the once, back in June.

Bath is a nice city but boring. Bristol isn't far away though which is much more vibrant.

@Manontry you are probably right. It seems idyllic for a short visit, although very expensive. I would not wish to be a hard-up person living there! Way too many temptations to spend money, including a very large branch of Anthropologie and lots of niche boutiques.

DS will be moving from a Cons majority of over 20k to a Lab majority of over 15k. But the home MP is a Tory rebel and was one of the ones kicked out, so things could get a bit more interesting if we have an official Tory candidate and an independent one.

We're already up to 923 posts. Will create a new thread later on today!

We're in a constitutency with a very safe Conservative seat, held by Brexiteer and high leave vote, so if DD supports anything other than this, then yes she needs to register in Edinburgh.

DD has packed her clothes into one massive suitcase. Quilt, mattress topper, pillow, kitchen items packed. I think she's got towels, toiletries and stationery to sort.

We're leaving late morning tomorrow, stopping off midway overnight enroute and then near Edinburgh in readiness for Saturday morning drop off.

Good luck to your DD starting at Edinburgh this weekend, @ifonly4.