please empty your brain below
DG said... "Never assume that your vote will be wasted, because your vote might always cancel out the X cast by some misguided extremist bigot."

Too right !

adaptor-plug | 09.04.10 - 8:29 a.m. | #

All this talk of mapping with gun barrels and rotten boroughs merits a trip to Old Sarum. That too is famous for both.

Mark | 09.04.10 - 8:34 a.m. | #

that is a very interesting spreadsheet...

tim... | 09.04.10 - 10:30 a.m. | #

Are any of them worthy of my vote?

Richard | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 10:31 a.m. | #

"Blimey, I now live in a genuine marginal constituency."
Oh no, I've followed the link and so do I - although given your current MP I think you should probably be top of the list. I shall have to barricade the doors for the next month!

allotmentqueen | 09.04.10 - 10:46 a.m. | #

In this particular election, no vote is wasted, because while it has no legal effect a party's share of the national vote will give it moral authority in in the event of negotiations to form a government with a hung Parliament.

Mike Scott | 09.04.10 - 10:53 a.m. | #

The Pirate candidate is going to be reet peed off if he gets elected, isn't he?

B | 09.04.10 - 11:05 a.m. | #

My home constituency was a safe Conservative seat until 2001 when the incumbent lost a majority of nearly 5,000 to the Liberal Democrats. It’s swung back to the Tories, but only just, and it’s marked as ‘Marginal’ on that rather interesting spread sheet you linked us to.

I certainly feel as if my vote counts, although I also take Mike Scott’s point that, even in a safe seat, the number of votes nationally will have significance if the result is a hung parliament.

Chaz | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 11:18 a.m. | #

While I agree with the general principle that you should in fact vote, can't really be bothered when the choice is between a giant douchebag and a turd sandwich.

Also, with the #debill passed it is now clear beyond any doubt that the government is run by the MaPhiAA corporation.

moot | 09.04.10 - 11:23 a.m. | #

And the smaller the party you vote for, the bigger your vote will seem, when it comes to influence. Something Mr Griffin is working to his advantage...

disgruntled | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 11:51 a.m. | #

"misguided extremist bigot." That's not a nice thing to say about the MRLP

hobo | 09.04.10 - 4:10 p.m. | #

This just reminded me of a way you can check how much a vote from your constituency is worth on www.voterpower.org.uk. It's quite an eye-opener. See the sitemap for a list of all constituencies.

Yuffie | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 4:54 p.m. | #

Looks like the Mosque Gang have got my area stitched up.

Bob_P | 09.04.10 - 5:55 p.m. | #

There's an old science fiction story (I think Philip K Dick; it might be Isaac Asimov) where psephologists are able to predict Americans' voting preferences so finely that the entire election comes down to one ordinary Joe who's watching a game of baseball.

When's it going to get to the point that they can just identify those 13,500 people, get them into the O2 with ask-the-audience buttons and tell them to get on with it...

hampshireflyer | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 8:08 p.m. | #

What a collossal crock of shite.
A vote doesn't cancel out another unless it's for the winning MP.
In a democracy even minority views get represented fairly. In the UK they don't.

Bjorn | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 8:40 p.m. | #

Just make your mark for what you believe in. If other people feel differently, so be it, but at least you have recorded your point of view.

| 09.04.10 - 11:03 p.m. | #

In my previous office, anyone who didn't vote, and admitted it, was shouted down any time they ventured to express a political opinion at work. On the grounds that if they couldn't be arsed to get to the polls once in 4-5 years, we couldn't be arsed to listen to them droning on...
I live in a totally non-marginal seat now, but I'll still be exercising my right to vote. I've only managed to vote on the winning side once, while I was living in London in 92 - it was a nice feeling...

Liz | Homepage | 10.04.10 - 4:40 p.m. | #

Interesting points...

I relinquished the right to vote when I moved abroad (France)the logic I used at the time was why should my X be used against or for someone living in the UK, while I am not? The conundrum being that neither do I as a UK citizen have the right to vote in similar elections in France.

Now that I want to vote Brown out because I cannot stand his lies anymore I find that the UK does not have a decent system of postal voting and I must try and find someone who lives in the constituency in which I last lived, to go and vote on my behalf. They have to know therefore how I want to vote. So not only is it not a secret exercise of my right, but neither is it fair, nor practical.

Should I burden someone with my wishes? Can I trust them to put a X where I want it? Can I trust them to even get off their arse to go out and do it? So I end up thinking along the lines of a lot of voters to whom you refer...do I even bother?

What a sad state of affairs. What a sad State.

pondlife | 10.04.10 - 7:18 p.m. | #











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