Everyone looking forward to tomorrow?

fc123

Great polling station BTW.

A smashed up piano in the doorway with a basket of firewood next to it.

I am still trying to work it out.:o

Exocet

Well I've done the deed. Had to wait for a while as they were sifting through the ballot box and carefully separating the paper into two piles - Tory and Others. The guy explained they do this to make the count quicker at closing time. Anyway they closed the ballot box, I paid my fiver, complained and said it was free last time, they agreed and said Bloody Labour, I agreed and marked my X. Shall we put it on the Tory pile they asked, I said no, I will place my vote in the ballot box which had been locked up again by now.

Certainly felt proud when I marched out - I have done my duty.

jackieb

I was driving to the funeral today, with my parents and my sister in the car. We were talking about the election and my sister said she hoped the Tories got in. Then she said how she thought Maggie Thatcher was great! How she always stood her ground blah blah blah..

I contemplated shoving her out of the car and leaving her in the middle of nowhere!

fc123

jackieb wrote: »

I was driving to the funeral today, with my parents and my sister in the car. We were talking about the election and my sister said she hoped the Tories got in. Then she said how she thought Maggie Thatcher was great! How she always stood her ground blah blah blah..

I contemplated shoving her out of the car and leaving her in the middle of nowhere!

Thing is with Mrs T was that it all depended on what you did, where you lived and so on at the time. If she chose to axe something and that thing happened to affect you or your area personally, then she was hated forever. For others, Mrs T was a God.
Many of OH's family benefitted hugely from the right to buy and would no way be where they are now financially if Mrs T hadn't brought it in.
The irony is they do talk about how dreadful it is nowadays as none of the young in the family can get a nice solid, affordable LH rental in an OK area and have to work all hours (both partners despite having kids) to pay the bills and so on...they don't see the irony. I don't point it out either....as if.:D

carolt

Gosh you're tactful, fc - I don't think I could stay buttoned up on that one...

It is funny, isn't it, how even now, nearly 20 years after Maggie went, there are huge swathes of the country that could never, ever vote Tory because of her (I'm one of them, BTW).

fc123

carolt wrote: »

Gosh you're tactful, fc - I don't think I could stay buttoned up on that one...

It is funny, isn't it, how even now, nearly 20 years after Maggie went, there are huge swathes of the country that could never, ever vote Tory because of her (I'm one of them, BTW).

For us personally, Mrs T wasn't a disaster. We lived in London and OH remembers his dad getting an instant payrise when she got in in '79 (he was in the traffic police)....I never noticed her impact at all.

Had an OH family do last week and the lifestyles the Olds have would be impossible nowadays for the same job etc.
One cousin lives down LIR's way and is ex army. Just been laid off (@30k) and same firm re-employed him on £6.50 phr for a similiar (but not the same) job. They rent, are mid 40's and no hope of buying or getting a council house (no kids).

carolt

I think it was more the social impact I remember - the 'greed is good', no such thing as society (and yes, I do know Gordon Gekko wasn't Mrs T, but they were pretty close; could've been cousins... ).

misskool

tomterm8 wrote: »

The people outside the polling station, asking for your number, are volunteers... normally representatives of local candidates. Who ask you for your number.

Why do they ask for your number?

jackieb

Maggie Thatcher got our bank account frozen. We owed over £700 in poll tax arrears and my husband only took home £4500 a year. We had to pay full rent and there was no such thing as tax credits - and we had 2 small children. We'd never been in arrears for anything before (or after) that. I felt like a criminal because our account was frozen and we were far behind in our payments, and for that I can't forget - plus there was the fact she brought it in a year before the rest of the country. We were definitely in the can't pay and not the won't pay category.

This corner of the country was Conservative since 1974 - since the poll tax was introduced they haven't had a look-in.

fc123

misskool wrote: »

Why do they ask for your number?

I think it's called 'telling' and every voter has a reg number. I am sure my dad used to look at the telling lists to see who had voted and then compare them to his canvassing notes.
Any dead cert 'yes I will def vote for you' people he would have put a mark on. I know he used to go and knock people up to remind them to vote sometimes...often they would have forgotton and he has driven people to the polls before.