Will/Have you voted?

[Hulababy]

We have two ballot papers - one for local elections and one for european one.

Dh has just picked up our ballot papers envelopes and realised that these have to be in by 10pm tomorrow evening. Missed last post so he is going to have to take them over to the City Hall tomorrow during the day some time. Ooops!

I have to say that I found the postal voting a bit of a pain as it is so easy to forget if you don't do it as soon as the envelope arrives, which is what we failed to do obviously!

Obviously for me it'd be loads easier if I could do it online as I spend so much time on here

So is everyone remembering to go along to vote, or are you abstaining (choosing the right not to vote I guess)?

I have. Spurred on by the BNP leaflet through the door.

I cannot believe this, but I am voting Norris (Tory) as Mayor. I hate Ken Livingston with a passion. Despise the congestion charge, and think his tall building policy is blighting London. I would vote Simon Hughes, but not if he supports congestion charging. I never in a million years thought I would do this. But Ken seems determined to destroy my city so I don't feel I have a choice.
Otherwise, Green in Europe, Libdem locally. Blair can go whistle for my vote if he persists in supporting Bush.

Serenequeen, how about voting for the party whose policies are nearest to your views, even if you don't like it? That way, at least your preferences have more weight than if you did not vote at all. Not a very compelling argument, I agree, but it does give you a bit of a voice. This is, essentially, my position. I am an ex-Labour voter (indeed, an ex-Labour member). I voted Lib Dem today because their positions are to the left of Labour on some issues, and because of their hostility to the War, but I think they are highly opportunistic in the way that they move back and forth between appealing to ex-Tory and ex-Labour supporters.

Prettycandles - parliamentary elections in Britain are traditionally on a Thursday so that, with results on Friday, the new government can be sorted out over the weekend. However, the European elections are all today, with results on Sunday, so that it must be just a coincidence that they are on a Thursday. I think it would be much better to hold them on a Sunday, as they do in many other countries, making it easier for people with jobs to vote.

i voted at lunchtime...tbh, i find it exciting voting: maybe i'm naive, but it feels like i'm doing something about it all for once...i always forget this, and then when it comes to being in the polling booth, i always do get quite excited.

aloha, why so anti-congestion charge? steve norris is odious no-goodnik, and is, if i'm not mistaken on the board for Jarvis (or another of the london transport contractors): massive conflict of interest imo...if it's not too late, can i appeal to you to put your vote somewhere else???

Still haven't voted

DS asleep AGAIN. But will go out and do the deed some hour or other.

Apparently, the local elections were brought forward to coincide with the European elections and the results of the European elections won't be known until Sunday because that is when the rest of Europe is voting. Are we out of step?

i like the congestion charge too! would love to know where all the money is going though...

Fio2, I wondered that at first! I had visions of people wrapping up mountains in great sheets of brown paper and string and hauling them away to somewhere flat, like Norfolk. But in fact, it's an anti-windfarm party.

Aloha, lol at your disbelief at yourself. I can imagine you having an out-of-body experience, watching yourself put the cross in Norris's box.

Will be voting when I get home. V annoying as dd's nursery is in a church hall and the church is a polling station, but not ours, so I have to leave it to later.
I like the congestion charge too, for central London, and possibly extending to Westminster which is also largely a business zone. But I do not agree with Ken's proposal to extend it to Kensington & Chelsea which is a residential borough with mostly independent small businesses which surely will suffer (and no, I don't live in K&C). The theory is that the money is spent on improving public transport but this seems to be more bus than tube focused at present.

Hate, hate, hate the congestion charge. Why should I be fined just for moving around my own home town? It's nearly impossible to pay - the online thing doesn't work and there is no phone number I could find on the site. If you honestly forget to pay by 11pm you get this massive fine instantly, which I think it outrageous. Also I think the speeding up of traffic thing is a complete con. I remember travelling by bus to work just before the charge was introduced, and London was totally paralysed - not by traffic - but by roadworks. There were a record number of roads up or closed and major roadworks everywhere. It took absolutely hours and hours to get anywhere because of this. Then the congestion charge was introduced and BINGO! all the roadworks ended by sheer coincidence and journey times speeded up. What a con. Anyway, how can traffic slow down buses? They are all in bus lanes which don't have traffic on them. Frankly I dream of Ken falling under one of his bendy buses. I want the Routemasters to stay, and I think his policy of blighting London with endless Norman Foster glass eyesores is shocking. We will look back at it with the same sort of disbelief we have now for the brutalist concrete blocks of the sixties and seventies. Half of Victorian Spitalfields is being demolished for more of these out of proportion monstrosities. Believe me, I don't like Stephen Norris one bit, but I am not voting for anyone who supports the congestion con.

Don't get me wrong. I hate Ken and he won't be getting my vote. Just don't have a problem with central London congestion charging. I do like routemaster buses tho and agree they should stay. They're kind of a London landmark, like black cabs.
If all buses were in bus lanes that would be great, but sadly round me they're only partially in their own lanes and keep having to join the rest of the traffic and get snarled up. And in Oxford Street of course they make their own traffic jam!

oh suedonim! they are anti wind farm here aswell, but they are putting them in the sea. I am SURE you know where I have ni idea what it is about

Hve just been and voted, and was horrified to find the BNP at the top of the paper. Naively I believed they were only in England and Wales.

Voted lid dem, best of a bad lot really. Why are there so many parties all spouting a load fo S**t.

Also irritated coz I was apparently the 1st person there for about 40 mins, and yet how many children have missed out on a day of education?

Aloha- for the first time ever I am voting Tory as well. As soon as I found out that Ds1's statement was no longer going to be met (because of SALT wthdrawal) which is illegal I contacted my MP and local councillors. MP was useless- wrote stupid letters telling me that she was concerned but oh weren't labour doing a great job in the NHS (err no!). Tory councillors were very helpful - all got very over-excited and made quite a bit of noise. So they will be getting my vote.

And like lots of others- I can't vote for anyone representing Blair after he marched us into Iraq.

yes, i am really torn about what to do for london mayoral election. want to vote for ken, but can't bring myself to vote labour... first time in 18yrs

I voted Tory too ... never thought I'd see the day

I was so close to just spoiling the ballot paper in protest, but couldn't bring myself to do it when I was there.

I posted previously about getting BNP literature through my door and agree with NomdePlume that they are overtly targeting disillusioned pensioners and middle-agers and being very careful with the wording of their hateful leaflets. Interestingly, we got a second, much more intemperately worded leaflet from them on Sunday - laying the blame of all London's woes at the feet of "asylum-seekers" (their italics, they obviously don't believe in the concept).
We have localised problems with racism in my part of London too (blatant thugs and the "they're better off back where they came from" brigade) so I am voting come what may. Probably Ken for Mayor and Lib Dem for everything else.

Bit late on this one, but totally agree with Tommy et al that it is vitally important to vote. I feel sick at the thought of people not voting - especially if those people ever try to pass comment on stuff provided by the government (e.g. their health care, education, clean streets, more or less anything, actually). And yes, especially women who don't vote. Most of our mothers were not born into a world in which they were entitled to vote.

DS voted twice - at 8am with dp and at 5pm with me. And the presiding officer remembered him - what does that say about turnout!

I saw my neighbour's polling card in the recycling bin last week. Hmmm, an intriguing citizenship conundrum that one!

we're in teh stockport constituency that had all the problems and had to reprint 200,000 postal ballot papers. We received first set, filled them in posted them back, then received replacement set. Farce.

For my sins I've gone for Green in Euro and labour locally. We got 3 different sets of literature about BNP through our door though I wish I'd caught them posting it, would have liked to have had it out with them.

I always voted when I was living in my country but decided not to do it here because, even though I have got the right to vote in European elections, I don't consider myself European and thought it was not fair for the "locals", however a BNP pamphlet dragged me today to the polling station, so I did my little bit, I didn't vote for a party, I voted against the BNP.

katierocket - I'm in Stockport as well. The BNP candidate lives round the corner from me, according to the ballot paper

re: the postal vote. Can't say I'm that bothered about it. Think it's inevitable, that and voting online. We all grumble about change but get used to it in the end.

Urgh, just voted Shagger Norris. Feel unclean!!
Just realised I had a complete rant there, but having been stung twice for the charge fine by complete accident, I just feel outraged by it. And I really, strongly oppose the building policy. Ho hum. Voted a mix of Green and Lib Dem for the rest. Also dislike London's army of corrupt traffic wardens, but nobody was promising to do anythign about that.