Polling stations cycle parking

Simonb said:

dkahn400 said:

Left it under their watchful gaze while I strolled in to vote Green.

I was intending to vote Lib Dem until I saw there was a Green candidate on
the ballot paper. I didn't know they had a candidate until this morning.

Round here the Greens are the only party bothering to do any
canvassing at all. Everyone else just sent us a leaflet. Here being
Manchester Central (Lab majority 13,742 last time) and not being on
anyone's marginals list. Not a battle bus in sight.

Peter Clinch said:

"Do you feel safe in your home?" asked the Conservative leaflet. Since
that's a "yes, actually" I'll not be bothering him with an X, then...

Had I been tempted to vote LibDem, the leaflet they sent us would have
changed my mind. "it's so close here!" it says, above a nice
colourful bar chart showing that last time, Labour had 39% of the vote
in [all of] Manchester and the LibDems were just behind on 35%. Whooo
that's close. Might be worth voting LD to give Tony B a bloody nose,
if it wasn't for the fact that the actual figures for our consituency
are Labour 68.7%, LD 15.7%.

Dave Larrington said:

The other munchkin on duty was Labour, and we all know how

trustworthy

Quoted message said:

/they/ are, don't we boys and girls...

There was no LibDem munchkin available where I did my democratic duty -
only Labour and Conservative munchkins, and neither of them was
interested in looking after my bike (which was leant against the wall)
- they just wanted to know the number off my polling card, probably for
Nefarious Purposes.

d.

audrey said:

Here being
Manchester Central (Lab majority 13,742 last time) and not being on
anyone's marginals list. Not a battle bus in sight.

According to the Guardian t'other day, my constituency is a marginal
(Conservative majority over Labour of about 2,000) but the most
interest we got was a few leaflets through the door, all of which went
straight into the recycling unread.

d.

davek said:

There was no LibDem munchkin available where I did my democratic duty
- only Labour and Conservative munchkins, and neither of them was
interested in looking after my bike (which was leant against the wall)
- they just wanted to know the number off my polling card, probably
for Nefarious Purposes.

My L-D M wanted that too, but I had left it in the polling station. Ah ah
ah!

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
I am Wan, for I am pursued by the Army of Plums.

in message <[email hidden]>, Peter Clinch

(') said:

audrey said:

Round here the Greens are the only party bothering to do any
canvassing at all. Everyone else just sent us a leaflet. Here being
Manchester Central (Lab majority 13,742 last time) and not being on
anyone's marginals list. Not a battle bus in sight.

Nobody's come to see us at all, though I did see a man wearing a red
rosette doing the rounds nearby last weekend.

A nice old gentleman chapped at my door a couple of weeks ago, wearing a
blue rosette.

Good morning, quoth he, I'm canvassing on behalf of your Conservative
candidate.

Aye, says I, gently.

Will you be voting for us? asks he.

No, says I, gently.

Sum total of conversation between me and all political representatives
this campaign.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and we had run out of gas for the welding torch.

audrey said:

Had I been tempted to vote LibDem, the leaflet they sent us would have
changed my mind. "it's so close here!" it says, above a nice
colourful bar chart showing that last time, Labour had 39% of the vote
in [all of] Manchester and the LibDems were just behind on 35%. Whooo
that's close.

That's similar to the leaflet I had from the Conservatives. At the last
general election, Labour won 54.9% of the vote in Kingswood, with the
Tories in second place on 28.4%. Yet the Tory leaflet claims that this
is a marginal constituency and bears a chart showing 42% Labour, 39% Tory.

Next to the chart is some small print saying "2003 Kingswood Result".
So they're taking the result of the last council elections and trying to
make people think it's a general election result...

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

wafflycat said:

I wonder what it's like living somewhere where Your
Vote Can Apparently Make A Difference?

Cheers, helen s

With this being the first general election since moving here, I am
antonished to find my voting choices somewhat limited...

Finding myself as a North-East Glaswegian, I had the choice of
re-electing the Speaker of the House of Commons or, ummm, no one really.
No Labour, no Tory and no Lib-Dem candidates stood against him. Eh,
hello? Democracy anyone?

And if I was inclined to get further off-topically political I may
question what good his enforced neutrality will be for us in this
obviously blessed constituency, but shall keep it as pub fodder for later.

As for parking, I padlocked the bike to a a railing (no munchkins of any
variety to be found. No great surprise there though).

Stross

wafflycat said:

Non-existant. Mind you the place only a few minutes walk away, so it's ped
mode for me.

There seemed to be far more people driving to the local polling station
than walking. I wouldn't have thought many people lived far enough from
their local polling station to bother driving, but evidently I was wrong.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer said:

I wouldn't have thought many people lived far
enough from their local polling station to bother driving, but
evidently I was wrong.

You should know better: no journey is too short for a car.

Danny Colyer said:

There seemed to be far more people driving to the local polling station
than walking. I wouldn't have thought many people lived far enough from
their local polling station to bother driving, but evidently I was wrong.

During my brief visit (no queues and few candidates to choose between) the
people I saw arrive or leave were all on bikes or walking.

Lock up the bike? No need, stealing a rather twitchy recumbent requires
some practice first ;-)

Mike

On Thu, 5 May 2005 13:27:05 +0100,

Simonb said:

dkahn400 said:

Left it under their watchful gaze while I strolled in to vote Green.

I was intending to vote Lib Dem until I saw there was a Green candidate on
the ballot paper. I didn't know they had a candidate until this morning.

I'd have voted Green in the council election if I'd realized they had a
chance of winning but the bit of canvassing paper only arrived through
the door today after I'd voted.

Didn't vote in the general election. Won't vote in a general election
until we get a democracy where all votes count equal. Hopefully there
will be even fewer voters in this election than the last one and that
might be the start of an impetus to change to a fairer system.

(They only cross out half your name on the electoral roll if you only
vote in one election and I got a C next to my name as well. All rather
fun really. And I was impressed that they didn't bat an eyelid when I
said I only wanted to vote in one election although they did have to
consult a form to work out exactly what they had to do)

Tim.

--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t,"
and there was light.

http://tjw.hn.org/ http://www.locofungus.btinternet.co.uk/

davek said:

neither of them was
interested in looking after my bike (which was leant against the wall)
- they just wanted to know the number off my polling card,

"Watch my bike for a minute and then maybe I'll tell you on my way out"

Quoted message said:

probably for Nefarious Purposes.

Nah, they just like to see who's registered but hasn't voted so they
can try to get 'em out to vote later on.

Pete.
(pulled a sickie today so walked round to my polling station rather
than stopping off whilst cycling to work)

Dave Larrington said:

No, mine had a wall too. The Lib-Dem munchkin kept an eye on my bike while
I did the democracy in action wossname.

As I cycled up, sporting beard, I wheeled my bike into the hallway of
the community centre and the LibDem woman was only too happy to keep
and eye on it.

Poor misguided fool.

Richard said:

Shamelessly stolen from a cycle mailing list:

Straw (no, not that one) poll: what's the cycle parking facilities like
at your local polling station?

R.

None at mine so I wheeled it in with me. But, to be fair, there's no car
parking either.

davek said:

There was no LibDem munchkin available where I did my democratic duty -
only Labour and Conservative munchkins, and neither of them was
interested in looking after my bike (which was leant against the wall)

Oh, I'm sure they'd have been interested if you'd said "I'd planned to
vote for you but there's no one to hold my bike." Probably got the chain
oiled and the saddle polished too.

Quoted message said:

- they just wanted to know the number off my polling card, probably for
Nefarious Purposes.

Nothing nefarious. It's just chickens coming home to roost night for all
those people who told all canvassers from all parties that they would
get their vote. We have a list, you see, of all those people who have
indicated support for us. The "tellers" (that's the activists hanging
around polling stations) tick off those who have both promised and
voted. Those that have promised but not voted get their doors knocked
and phones rung. And, indeed, lifts offered.

It's what I've been doing all evening; cycle couriering of voter numbers
between polling stations & HQ and telephone "knocking up".

wafflycat said:

"Dave Larrington" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

davek said:

There was no LibDem munchkin available where I did my democratic duty
- only Labour and Conservative munchkins, and neither of them was
interested in looking after my bike (which was leant against the wall)
- they just wanted to know the number off my polling card, probably
for Nefarious Purposes.

My L-D M wanted that too, but I had left it in the polling station.
Ah ah
ah!

Our polling station had a service of tearing up your polling card into
bits in front of you, should you desire this.

I was tempted to ask if they ran the same service but where the
politicians were torn up.

So Helen, if your local representatives are duff, what are you doing
about it?

wafflycat said:

Quoted message said:

No munchkins of any affliation at my local polling station. Indeed apart
from the two electoral form issuing bods sitting in the village hall,
there was a dearth of my fellow citizens exercising their democratic
right to choose. Plus I live in a place where voting Tory is taken for
granted. As I kid I lived in a place where, as my mother once put it,
"They could put a donkey's backside up as a Labour candidate here and it
would get voted in." I wonder what it's like living somewhere where Your
Vote Can Apparently Make A Difference?

I suppose you first have to be someone who gives a [censored] sufficiently to
actually get involved.

David Martin said:

On 5/5/05 10:25 am, in article [email hidden], "Simon

Mason said:

"Richard" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Shamelessly stolen from a cycle mailing list:

Straw (no, not that one) poll: what's the cycle parking facilities like at
your local polling station?

I walked there. It's in a church 5 minutes away - I wasn't going to get
togged up in my cycle gear for that.

Don't need special gear for that. I rode in my work clothes, and then
continued to work.

Quite. What's all this "getting togged up" for cycling? I have a bike
and legs, what more do should I have?

audrey said:

Simonb said:

dkahn400 said:

Left it under their watchful gaze while I strolled in to vote Green.

I was intending to vote Lib Dem until I saw there was a Green candidate on
the ballot paper. I didn't know they had a candidate until this morning.

Round here the Greens are the only party bothering to do any
canvassing at all. Everyone else just sent us a leaflet. Here being
Manchester Central (Lab majority 13,742 last time) and not being on
anyone's marginals list. Not a battle bus in sight.

You should have seen my "Battle Bike".