Friday...time to ramble?

[byslantedlight]

I swear, if I fall over one more thing this morning, spill anything else, get nearly-caught one more time doing a sneaky at the photocopier, I'm going home... Quick - how do you turn a day around?! I need good things! (Although there was no queue at the coffee counter. But my coffee wasn't very nice. And Boss stopped to chat while not-catching me at the photocopier, and the rest of it went cold. Hmmn, not sure the coffee thing was all that successful after that brief first moment... Also she'd keyed in it before I could give her my free-coffee card, so I had to pay... That might be one on the Tory side of my day, come to think of it...)

Speaking of which... *g* Oh, godddddd! Although in a way at least it's kind of interesting, and maybe it'll make the buggers buck up a bit, and start listening to what the electors are actually saying they want/need, rather than trying to tell us that what we want/need is what they're giving us? Or is that just hopeless optimism? Either way, I reckon it's our only hope for a bit of change, because it was really a race between one horse shown from three different camera angles...

How was your voting day? Did you get to vote? Cos my goodness - queues at the polling stations! On the one hand good, surely that must mean a better turnout than usual (or does it just mean that more people left it until the last minute?) I still think voting should be compulsory, as it is in Australia - and if you just don't want to vote for anyone, then spoil your paper/make a "donkey vote", and then we'd know how many people felt that way too. But it'd be a positive outcome at least from that pov...

Right - bad start means a glorious end to the day, doesn't it? I shall be over here working on that... any clues as to how to make it happen gratefully received...

A Wonderful Thing
Oh I know - let's have a Wonderful Thing - NASA's astronomy pic for today. Except they're calling this "the antennae" - stoopid, unpoetic scientists... *headdesk*


I can't decide about this next one - is this a Wonderful Thing - Arborsculpture...? Or is it as bad as forcing kittens to wear dresses and big pink ribbons?

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

I think the turnout for this election was pretty good - 60-odd%, which might not be great but is a hell of a lot better than it has been in recent elections.

I had a postal vote, which I sent off on Saturday, so I've been a bit bored by the electioneering all week. From my point of view it was already over! Be interesting to see what happens now.

Hope your day improves.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

60% is pretty good - wasn't it something awful like in the 30s last time? Or am I thinking of local elections, perhaps... Oh no, it was 61.4% in 2005, apparently, and Ladbrokes have been getting bets about it being over 70% this time - hmmn!

It was pretty much over for me before I even got here, considering where I live - but you've gotta make your point, don't you, and you never know... Stoopid where-I-live...

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

Wailing and gnashing of teeth in this household...

At first it looked like the queues were people who left it until late to vote, but apparently there were long delays at some polling stations caused by voters without polling cards, or lack of staff, or lack of ballot papers.
Was just thinking yesterday how antiquated the system is, with slips of paper and lead pencils. Surely it must be possible to make voting electronic.
Last I heard, the turnout overall was only about 5% more than last time, but I wonder if there were particular seats where there was a big jump - where there are lots of young people, or marginal seats?

Here compulsory voting sounds like the next thing to fascism, but yeah, it works in Australia.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ooh, not getting notifications...

And hah - just read your post, and yes I can imagine the wailing in Chez Jaycat...

D'you know, I think I really dislike the idea of making voting electronic - everything's so electronic these days that it's almost less real, somehow... If computers broke down, it would be as if nothing existed, even! Much as I love them... *g* Plus it'd be so much harder for ordinary people to be reassured of accuracy - it'd all be down to trusting the tech companies (okay, right now it's down to trusting individual counters, but at least we can understand their answers if we have to question them, rather than being shown a line of code in which we'd have to be fluent to make any sense at all!) That said, I know what you mean - I was almost taken aback myself, when I turned around and was confronted with a pencil on a string! *g*

I suspect the media hyped up the election enough that it made it sound as if more people were interested - they certainly made Clegg sound sexier than people clearly thought he was!

Here compulsory voting sounds like the next thing to fascism, but yeah, it works in Australia.
I wonder why - people seem to sit down and accept so many rights being taken away from them, but accepting one that's being made compulsory, as you say, would probably be tantamount to... well, something Very Bad Indeed! *g*

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Not an absolute majority. Not an absolute majority. Not an ...

well that's some comfort I suppose. ::not feeling too good this morning ...::

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I know, IknowIknowIknow... If I'd had any hope at all to start with, I'd say it was nearly as bad as 1992, but... then I didn't have much hope whichever way it fell, except that Do.Not.Want. as they say - it was bad enough last time, and they'd only have to shift even further right to make any sense of themselves in comparison at all... Just... *sigh*

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I was checking the Times and Guardian early on, but the sites seem to be competely clogged up at the moment.

Always interesting to see how the rest of the world does it. This business about polling cards, for example - I gather you don't have to have one to vote, but in some polling places they separated out those who had them from those who didn't? Here we used to get a card when we enrolled or changed electorate, but no more, and no-one ever checked for them that I can recall - as long as you've registeredyou turn up to one of the polling places in your electorate, stand in line (or not - if there's a bit af a queue, go and have a sausage roll and a soft drink at the Scouts/P&C/Rotary BBQ and wait), get directed to a table (usually A-E for me, for example), give your name & address & get your ballot papers.

Of course this is all on a Saturday, so people meander along when it suits them. And since you have to turn up (and I agree with you about that) you do, or you pre-poll or postal vote...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get in either, earlier, but it seems to have cleared up now - the website, that is... The rest of it - gargh!

You don't need your polling card to vote, you just have to be registered. I think it's basically easier for the polling stations to look up a specific number to tick off, than it is to look up a name, where there might be many with similar names/addresses - easier to be accurate about crossing off mother not daughter etc. I know I'm often not the only "me" at a GP's practice, so I make sure to use my middle initials, for instance...

I have been thinking that it would make massive sense to make polling day a Bank holiday, actually - not only would people have more time to go to the polls, but it might make it more of an occasion/something to concentrate on. I suspect we'd only whine if we had to give up time on a Saturday, mind... *g*

The trouble with people not voting in protest, over here, is that they're indistinguishable from the people who just can't be bothered, so it makes no political point at all...

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Am not getting notifications *grump*.

The trouble with people not voting in protest, over here, is that they're indistinguishable from the people who just can't be bothered, so it makes no political point at all...

Well exactly. Spoiled votes work differently here, because in a system where everyone has to turn up the number of "can't be bothered" or otherwise discarded votes is usually a fairly level percentage, so a protest no-vote can create a statistical blip.

I suspect we'd only whine if we had to give up time on a Saturday, mind... *g*

Saying nowt about that *g*.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm not getting notifications either - arghle! And the outboundlink/need-to-double-click thing is back, when it had been away for almost a week - double arghle...

So, we just agree on everything - yeay! *g* Hope you're having a good Friday night, you clearly deserve it! *g*

[cornishcat.livejournal.com]

I, too, can understand jaycat's point about modernising the voting system .... yet I feel there is something very sociable about joining throngs of like-minded, motivated people - rather than sitting in judgement at a computer, isolated from the real world.

However, when I say 'throngs', I may be slightly exaggerating my personal experience. There were more officials than there were voters at our polling station ... but we did speak to each other!!

Oh, and the local MP who has been giving me grief recently got her come-uppence, tee hee *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, although interestingly enough, over at rochvelleth's lj (though I think she's flocked the post) a few Americans have popped up to say they wished they had pencils back rather than the mechanical system they've currently got, because in some ways it gives them less choice - they can't purposefully spoil their ballot paper to make a political point, for example...

Good point about sitting in judgement at a computer, isolated from the real world - that's exactly how I was thinking of it, nicely put! *g*

Also - wheeeee for comeuppances - hah! *vbg*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Re: making your bad day better - go home, (if you're not already), pour a glass of wine, read some Prosfic. Works for me.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me - I'm just feeling short of new, fab Prosfic to read. Waaah! I should delve into the zine anthologies I've not looked at for a while - oh, maybe some Irene! I adore Irene, and she does always make me feel better! Yes!

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

I voted at lunchtime and there were no problems then. I've voted in every General Election since I was 18, because I consider it a right to do so. If it were made compulsory I wouldn't feel quite as good about doing it. I think we get enough of being told we have to do things in this country without adding to it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

To be honest, we're told what to do alot less in this country than in any other country I've lived in - certainly less so than in America, for instance, and there I found the "telling" often comes in sneaky ways, rather than openly...

I'm sure you'd get alot of people complaining about being "told to vote" if it was made compulsory here, but I suspect that'd be outweighed by a gradual feeling of greater involvement as the process became more familiar. And I should have added that my grand plan would also make polling day a bank holiday - again, letting people be more involved in the day, giving them time to stand around chatting and discussing it all, and also making them feel rewarded for being a part of the process. People who postively don't want to vote can spoil their papers in protest - and that'd be counted to show exactly how many people are feeling disenfranchised - people who can't be bothered will be encouraged to be bothered, and if they really can't be bothered can choose to pay a fine as they do in Australia (Jaycat explained that aspect well in a post about voting, though I think the lj where she did is locked...) - why, after all, should we reward laziness? Let people get away with laziness? Quite honestly I'm tired of cleaning up after other people who can't be bothered to do their own dishes, or put the dirty teaspoon down in the sink rather than on the counter where it messes up everyone else's work - I don't see politics as being all that different really...