Billions of dollars were spent on the US election in recent days, considerably less has gone into organising today's electoral vote in England and Wales. Scotland of course runs things differently as you will understand. No president is being sought, nor are we voting for either members of parliament or local councils. The vote is a new one, we are choosing a man to head the local police! Until now a local police authority has called the police to account, checking into the cheif constables behaviour and accounting for the cash spent. The Conservative government, sorry Con/Lib-Dem coalition, have decided one man is required instead. To be frank I doubt anyone knew who was on the previous committee unless there was reason to contact them. I suspect Cameron and his hordes believed the local authorities were all communists and require changing so he could tell them what to do, so the one man accountable to the people is introduced. You will of course realise that few of those standing are known to the nation, fewer still are known in the locale, some may be unknown in their own house even, however the stand anyway. A website has been laid on to supply some details of those standing, a picture, basic details, a statement of intent, and answers to some questions. On such basic details most of the electorate will decide. No-one knocked on doors, no leaflets were given out, and one meeting in Chelmsford was the soul outreach I heard off. I was the 20th person to vote early this morning, and the lowest ever turnout is expected by evening when the doors close. Will this individual receive a mandate that makes much difference to me or most others? No. Still, it's democratic I suppose.
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6 comments:
Only one candidate's manifesto fell through the door. I didn't like her, and i knew nothing of any others, so I did not vote. It seems very few people did.
No mandate, I would say if a win is simply the majority of about 13% of the electorate.
12.81% voted here and the man who came second says thats a stronger mandate than the MP as. he may be right!
By the way, that funny cartoon reminds me of a movie, "The Shawshank Redemption". Please tell me you have seen it. It's a good one.
Kay, I'm afraid I rarely watch films.
On the one hand, I wish our system was more like yours, in that we would vote for a party to run things, which would cut down on the gridlock considerably. On the other hand, knowing that one side will not let the other side get away with too much is comforting during times when a wrong move could spell serious disaster for years to come.
Jerry, No party here gets away with much unless it has an overwhelming majority. At the moment it is so divided.
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