Everyone looking forward to tomorrow?

lostinrates

we had no questions going out at all today.

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

we had no questions going out at all today.

I have nevr had any Q's either. They just tick you off and the local parties can look at who has voted....then they tick you off insise when you get your ballot paper.

PhylPho

A bit o/t, I know, so apologies to everyone here.

But this afternoon's stroll to our village Polling Station really, really cheered me up.

The Polling Station is -- and always has been -- in the village hall. The village hall is next to the green and opposite the village shop & Post Office.

After voting, I walked past and the shop / Post office window and saw a large hand-printed notice that could only have gone up in the past few days. It read:

WI

Urgent Notice

Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances, the Womens' Institute meeting to be held in the Village Hall on Thursday May 6 has now been postponed until Thursday May 13.

Surely, there'll always be an England when the Womens' Institute shows so spectacular a disdain for politics that it didn't even know there was a General Election coming up.

Kinda puts things in proportion, too. (Which is why in our household, we're now not going to spend all night watching the election results on TV. We're jam-making instead.)

lostinrates

PhylPho wrote: »

Kinda puts things in proportion, too. (Which is why in our household, we're now not going to spend all night watching the election results on TV. We're jam-making instead.)

what sort of jam. I made some blackberry from the freezer/apple/apple brandy jam the other week. DH says its amazing.

amcluesent

Dave look calm and quietly confident with the fragrant Samantha by his side looking serene and graceful. What a contrast to shifty Gordon & Sarah.

Malcolm.

I voted, took my own pen, no way I'm using their pencils on a string; they're naff, can be rubbed out and have miniature secret cameras in them.

PhylPho

amcluesent wrote: »

Dave look calm and quietly confident with the fragrant Samantha by his side looking serene and graceful. What a contrast to shifty Gordon & Sarah.

Sorry, you've lost me. Why are we looking at a picture of Alan Davidson's friends or relatives? I mean, who are those people? And who is Alan Davidson anyway?

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).

But at the time, they wouldn't have known the long term impact on the country and how it would, indirectly, affect their own kids in adulthood...and why should they have? They got to buy their council places for a few thou and didn't give it a second thought. They probably thought that the govt would just build more to fill the gap.

It's just one of those things and they did the right thing for themselves by taking up RTB. I am sure one has had to assist their offspring get a place too so the money just goes around in circles sometimes.

Cleaver

amcluesent wrote: »

Dave look calm and quietly confident with the fragrant Samantha by his side looking serene and graceful. What a contrast to shifty Gordon & Sarah.

Since someone mentioned it to me, I can't look at her without thinking of darts player Andy Fordham.

nickmason

fc123 wrote: »

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.

This is absolutely right - it's "telling", to inform "knocking up". Although it's a bit more complicated these days with computers and telephone teams in call centres in London etc. Some people have forgotten, some need a lift, some were hiding.

The one thing you can be guaranteed of is that no-one will ring you up and say "we're absolutely guaranteed to win, but we'd like your vote anyhow". For some reason, it's almost always "extremely close, and every vote will count".

The great thing about this rather arcane exercise is the camaraderie between "tellers", from different political parties, who spend hours sitting together discussing the weather etc. It puts the very voluntary nature of our democracy into light. It's also quite amusing when voters, not understanding what's what, whisper their numbers to one person, or storm past the other, only to see the tellers swap numbers.