Local Council Erections 2012

[The Egg Man]

ive never understood the mentality of people who continually vote for the same party that have been in power for years and have done nothing or very little in the communities , yet people seem to be blindly loyal to these useless people and vote for their party anyway.

Its a difficult one.
I'm a Labour voter and always have been, brought up that way really and having lived through the Heath and Thatcher years in particular could never ever vote for the Cons, who represent their class and their class only (I'll await the next person to tell me that the class war is dead). You only have to look at what they are doing down south to know a lepoard never changes its spots.

In my teens I dabbled with the SWP but soon got tired of the far lefts ability to be at war with itself, something which never seems to have changed.

The '97 Labour government seemed to have finally delivered what we might expect from a government of that ilk but as we know the dream died with Bliar's determination to drag us into illegal wars.

I'm no SNP supporter but from my perspective in my area of work forgetting for a moment that they are the party of independance they have managed a competent job of running the scottish government, in many ways better than the previous Labour administrations. I mean who would want Jackie Baille as health secretary?

So, I don't know, I normally vote labour, my family always have and not to do so would feel like a class betrayal, however I really don't feel very inspired by the local labour party......

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, none of the above are standing for the local elections in a few days time.

[Josef]

Do you mean it's not elections for the SG or UKG? Because otherwise, I'm fairly sure that the SLP, SNP and Conservatives have put up candidates in my ward at least.

[The Egg Man]

I mean none of the individuals RDR mentions are standing in the upcoming local government elections.

If local elections are about anything they're about local matters.

[Josef]

I mean none of the individuals RDR mentions are standing in the upcoming local government elections.

If local elections are about anything they're about local matters.

So individual parties are to be judged solely on their current local candidates, National policies are in no way connected to local party policy, historical political affiliations are irrelevant, that sort of thing?

[The Egg Man]

I mean none of the individuals RDR mentions are standing in the upcoming local government elections.

If local elections are about anything they're about local matters.

So individual parties are to be judged solely on their current local candidates, National policies are in no way connected to local party policy, historical political affiliations are irrelevant, that sort of thing?

Individuals should be judged entirely on their own performance and not on the behaviour of a former leader over whose behaviour they had no control or influence.

By all means decide whether or not to vote for a local election candidate on what they've achieved (or not) on local things like potholes, rebuilding community centres, getting new schools built in the ward, getting bus services reinstated, deciding that Glasgow shouldn't try to build a tram network and the like.

[dimairt]

I was intrigued by the story - see link to Herald below -of the 26,000 requests for postal vote in North Lanarkshire and, sad person that I am, did a bit of research.
I thought a comparison with Glasgow might be useful.
There are eight constituencies in Glasgow and at the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections there were 32,729 postal votes. There are 511,000 on the electoral roll and 208,712 people voted.
The figures for NL are interesting. There are five constituencies and at the 2011 Scottish Parliaments there were 17,610 postal votes. There are 260,126 on the electoral role and 122,092 voted.
Given that Parliamentary elections always get a higher turn-out, numerically and in percentage terms, than local elections, how can there be more postal votes for this?

Durachdan,

Eddy

http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/inde ... cleid=1252

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/e ... nd-kilsyth?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/ ... s.17384496

[The Egg Man]

It may be as simple as the fact that some people ask for a postal vote for all future elections and then don't use it for every election.

[Delmont St Xavier]

Could it also be that North Lanarkshire has a lot of rural areas?

It's not easy for some within the NLC area to get to their local polling station. Indeed one local church will be turned into a polling station on that day because the local primary school has been closed. There are many outlying areas and quite an elderly population in parts without access to cars, etc. Does that have any bearing?

Coming back to Glasgow....
Today Cllr Liz Cameron arrives at my mother's door - to ask if she's received her postal ballot and if so does she know that's she's not to put an 'X' but 1, 2, 3 and so on.
10 minutes later a Conservative activist appears at the door and says, 'Remember you need to put your cross on the ballot paper to cast your vote.' In a rare inspirational flash of devilment, I told him that's exactly what she did next to the Tory candidate's name to which he responded, 'thank you for your support' and went to the next name on his list. You couldn't make it up!

[dimairt]

It may be as simple as the fact that some people ask for a postal vote for all future elections and then don't use it for every election.

True EM, you can apply for just one election, for a specific time period, or for a permanent postal vote. I think my question still stands though: in a constituency with half the electorate of Glasgow there is a disproportionate number of postal votes especially for a local government election.

Durachdan,

Eddy

http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/faq/voting_by_post.aspx

[dimairt]

Could it also be that North Lanarkshire has a lot of rural areas?

It's not easy for some within the NLC area to get to their local polling station. Indeed one local church will be turned into a polling station on that day because the local primary school has been closed. There are many outlying areas and quite an elderly population in parts without access to cars, etc. Does that have any bearing?

I don't think so Delmont. See link for list of polling stations which suggests that all parts of N Lanarkshire are well served on Polling Day.S Lanarkshire is more rural than the North which has the constituencies of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth; Motherwell and Wishaw;Uddingston and Bellshill; Coatbridge and Chryston and Airdrie and Shotts - fairly urban, I'd say.

Durachdan,

Eddy

http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/CHtt ... d=7628&p=0

[Dexter St. Clair]

It may be as simple as the fact that some people ask for a postal vote for all future elections and then don't use it for every election.

True EM, you can apply for just one election, for a specific time period, or for a permanent postal vote. I think my question still stands though: in a constituency with half the electorate of Glasgow there is a disproportionate number of postal votes especially for a local government election.

Durachdan,

Eddy

http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/faq/voting_by_post.aspx

Possibly all the parties realise that a postal vote is more likely to be cast having watched another party get their votes in at a previous election.

[dimairt]

Possibly all the parties realise that a postal vote is more likely to be cast having watched another party get their votes in at a previous election.

Good morning Dex, interesting point: a voter asking for a postal vote is more likely to use it and so becomes more attractive to the parties.
Still a lot of postal votes for a local election though, nach eil? N Lanarkshire averaged a 46% turnout last year, they'll be doing well to get 30% this time around.

Durachdan,

Eddy

PS - How about a pint sometime?

[dimairt]

On a more light-hearted note, my son's pal is standing for the Scottish Conservatives in Dundee. The Texans at the Alamo had a better chance of winning.

Durachdan,

Eddy

[Dexter St. Clair]

Voters don't ask for a postal vote.They're offered one and if they need any help in filling it out there and then and if they want someone to post it. hmmm

Dundee returned Winston Churchill.

[RDR]

I mean none of the individuals RDR mentions are standing in the upcoming local government elections.

If local elections are about anything they're about local matters.

I take your point Eggy but I was trying to explain in response to Pingu's point about why some people vote for the same party time after time, probably not very well.

Local elections should be about local issues, however some of the parties, in this area, anyway, do make statements in the election garbage we get through the door about their performance in other administrations, so it does invite comment about it even though these are local elections.

Anyhow in line with your point about about we should focus on local issues another reason for the blind following of a party is the fact that the councilers are local guys who are well known in the area, live in the area and have famillies who have been active in local politics for generations. For example my children all have gone to school with the children of the local MP and councillers so you know them as real people over and above the politics. I worked with the wife of the current MSP. Its a difficult link to break.