General Election 2024

[vikingTON]

8 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I am that soldier, and I doubt I'm alone.

Ex-Labour voters are not and never have been the decisive swing vote in any context except in their own heads. They'll win a crushing majority across the UK as a whole regardless of whether 'Laebur left me' posturers return to that fold or not. 

Meanwhile the bald party has produced this account of 17 years in government. I think it's probably beneficial to try and capture/remind voters of genuine achievements in government like this. 

For me, 1, 3, 7 and 34 are actually demonstrable and significant benefits of the administration. It'll be different for other voters, but there's some definite weak sauce efforts in there regardless (10,000 whole affordable rural homes - over 17 years!). 

Mebbe a top 20 would have been better. 

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

6 hours ago, virginton said:

Ex-Labour voters are not and never have been the decisive swing vote in any context except in their own heads. They'll win a crushing majority across the UK as a whole regardless of whether 'Laebur left me' posturers return to that fold or not. 

Meanwhile the bald party has produced this account of 17 years in government. I think it's probably beneficial to try and capture/remind voters of genuine achievements in government like this. 

For me, 1, 3, 7 and 34 are actually demonstrable and significant benefits of the administration. It'll be different for other voters, but there's some definite weak sauce efforts in there regardless (10,000 whole affordable rural homes - over 17 years!). 

Mebbe a top 20 would have been better. 

 

Can I remind you that in the Scottish context ex-Labour voters, sorry 'posturers', all but wiped that party from the political map ?  And obviously given the population disparity this has little impact on the UK as a whole so what exactly are you trying to tell us ?  I'd rather focus on the fact that unlike our English brethren the Scottish electorate has an alternative choice, but each to their own.

 

[DumbartonBud]

On 13/06/2024 at 18:43, cyderspaceman said:

I'm registered as an oversees voter.

Still waiting for the ballot paper to arrive. 

If you live anywhere other than Western Europe I’d strong consider changing to a proxy vote. 
Your ballot paper is unlikely to be in the mail system until next week. 

[GordonS]

7 minutes ago, DumbartonBud said:

If you live anywhere other than Western Europe I’d strong consider changing to a proxy vote. 
Your ballot paper is unlikely to be in the mail system until next week. 

Very much this. We've set up proxy votes because we'll be in Germany. You can only hold proxy votes for a maximum of two domestic voters (or four overseas voters), so we had to ask two people to vote for the three of us here.

There's still time to set these up, the deadline to apply is 5pm on Wednesday 26 June.

You can fill in a form from here (this is the Lothian site but the forms are the same across Scotland): https://www.lothian-vjb.gov.uk/electoral-forms/

Then it needs to be printed off, signed and posted to your local electoral registration office, which is not the same as your local council. You can find yours here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/your-election-information 

[DumbartonBud]

9 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Very much this. We've set up proxy votes because we'll be in Germany. You can only hold proxy votes for a maximum of two domestic voters (or four overseas voters), so we had to ask two people to vote for the three of us here.

There's still time to set these up, the deadline to apply is 5pm on Wednesday 26 June.

You can fill in a form from here (this is the Lothian site but the forms are the same across Scotland): https://www.lothian-vjb.gov.uk/electoral-forms/

Then it needs to be printed off, signed and posted to your local electoral registration office, which is not the same as your local council. You can find yours here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/your-election-information 

All great advice, you can also now apply on line for a proxy at 

Www.gov.uk/apply-proxy-vote 

But make sure your proxy is also a registered voter before you apply. 

[GordonS]

2 minutes ago, DumbartonBud said:

All great advice, you can also now apply on line for a proxy at 

Www.gov.uk/apply-proxy-vote 

But make sure your proxy is also a registered voter before you apply. 

Ah, that's much better. I've no idea why the Lothian JVB site doesn't just direct people there.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-proxy-vote?step-by-step-nav=ff81c31c-3282-49df-85a4-013887130110 

[BFTD]

Had to have a chat with my mother about ID, as her voter registration card/letter arrived yesterday. She's reached the point where she's losing everything on the regular, so her bus pass has disappeared into the ether again and she's been waiting for a new one for a few weeks. She's somehow remained completely oblivious to the ID requirements and even the wee leaflet about it didn't sink in, but I noticed that you can apply for a wee ID certificate for the election, so I'll need to push her to do that next week (I still get the impression that she hasn't quite realised that, if she turns up without ID, she's not getting to vote).

Only just occurred to me what an own goal this could end up being for the Tories, assuming that it would be the feckless poor who'd be most likely to be affected by their weaksauce attempts at voter suppression, while the demographic most likely to vote for them struggle to remember where they put their wallets/purses and will be irritated by change.

Edited June 15 by BFTD
Multiple yesterdays

[vikingTON]

7 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

Can I remind you that in the Scottish context ex-Labour voters, sorry 'posturers', all but wiped that party from the political map ?  And obviously given the population disparity this has little impact on the UK as a whole so what exactly are you trying to tell us ?  I'd rather focus on the fact that unlike our English brethren the Scottish electorate has an alternative choice, but each to their own.

Scottish Labour were never wiped from the political map unless you also think that the SNP would be wiped from the political map in future Westminster FPTP elections. 

The tick upwards in support for the SNP came from:

a) supporters of independence - not Labour Party voters exclusively, and 

b) young voters who came of age in and around the 2014 referendum and who were not in fact voting for Jack McConnell and a string of other clowns. 

There was also a significant shift within the No-voting electorate towards Unionism of the most viable flavour - a phenomenon that peaked in 2019 and drew support away from Scottish Labour to, err, the Tories. 

Not that these inconvenient facts will be borne in mind, because mainstream Scottish political debate is fixated on the idea that placating a handful of middle-aged 'Laebur left me' voters and their soft left political views are the key to power. You're really not though.

[TxRover]

5 hours ago, GordonS said:

Very much this. We've set up proxy votes because we'll be in Germany. You can only hold proxy votes for a maximum of two domestic voters (or four overseas voters), so we had to ask two people to vote for the three of us here.

I would very much like a story on UK proxy voting to hit FOX News at a Trump Rally here and get to watch heads exploding and the cries of “One man, one vote” (which they literally intend as one white man) and chuckles about “that’s why we fought them”.

[DumbartonBud]

6 hours ago, BFTD said:

Had to have a chat with my mother about ID, as her voter registration card/letter arrived yesterday. She's reached the point where she's losing everything on the regular, so her bus pass has disappeared into the ether again and she's been waiting for a new one for a few weeks. She's somehow remained completely oblivious to the ID requirements and even the wee leaflet about it didn't sink in, but I noticed that you can apply for a wee ID certificate for the election, so I'll need to push her to do that next week (I still get the impression that she hasn't quite realised that, if she turns up without ID, she's not getting to vote).

Only just occurred to me what an own goal this could end up being for the Tories, assuming that it would be the feckless poor who'd be most likely to be affected by their weaksauce attempts at voter suppression, while the demographic most likely to vote for them struggle to remember where they put their wallets/purses and will be irritated by change.

Last day to apply for the free voter id is 26th June 5pm but as with everything if you are going to apply do it as soon as possible. 
Remember that even expired versions of the IDs on the approved list are OK as long as you still look like the photo. 

[GordonS]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

I would very much like a story on UK proxy voting to hit FOX News at a Trump Rally here and get to watch heads exploding and the cries of “One man, one vote” (which they literally intend as one white man) and chuckles about “that’s why we fought them”.

Never occurred to me anyone would have an issue with it, it's obviously more democratic that you can get someone you know and trust to vote for you if you are unable to vote yourself than that you're disenfranchised. But then, when has logic ever mattered to Trumpers. They're not exactly in favour of everyone voting anyway. 

[Granny Danger]

25 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Never occurred to me anyone would have an issue with it, it's obviously more democratic that you can get someone you know and trust to vote for you if you are unable to vote yourself than that you're disenfranchised. But then, when has logic ever mattered to Trumpers. They're not exactly in favour of everyone voting anyway. 

Trump has argued vigorously against postal votes then encouraged his supporters to make sure they use their postal votes.  Don’t expect consistency or rationality to come into it.

 

[GordonS]

1 minute ago, Granny Danger said:

Trump has argued vigorously against postal votes then encouraged his supporters to make sure they use their postal votes.  Don’t expect consistency or rationality to come into it.

 

I'd have thought postal votes favour Republicans. Is it a dogwhistle? 

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, GordonS said:

I'd have thought postal votes favour Republicans. Is it a dogwhistle? 

It’s another part of the conspiracy as to why Crooked Joe won in the swing states.  Note the previous comment about rationality.

 

[JS_FFC]

58 minutes ago, GordonS said:

I'd have thought postal votes favour Republicans. Is it a dogwhistle? 

In 2020 Biden encouraged his supporters to vote by post to reduce the spread of covid whereas Trump ridiculed this idea as he was a borderline denier. 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

I'd have thought postal votes favour Republicans. Is it a dogwhistle? 

They do, but they are an “avenue for stuffing the ballot box” according to Trump Co. (for reference, “2000 Miles”, the now discredited film, was their go to reference)

As to mail in ballots, their argument is kinda…

1) People get mailed multiple ballots…(and the systems ensure only one is counted)

2) ….even if they didn’t ask for one…(and a mailed return ballot gets discarded BEFORE counting if you vote in person)

3) …and they are accepted after Election Day…(if mailed and postmarked by Election Day and received within (usually) 3-5 days)

4) …and you have to stop counting at midnight on Election Day…(after they passed laws prohibiting any count starting before the close of the polls on Election Day, which resulted in people being able to vote after mailing in a  ballot and them designing a system to weed out those ballots, instead of counting them and blocking voting in person as they did before)

5) …because, THAT’s Election Day.

Also, military mail ballots are required by Federal law to be accepted after the election date (if postmarked on/before) for several days.

Mail in ballots were the focus of ballot harvesting allegations (2000 Miles above) when Democratic volunteers would pickup completed ballots from elderly or handicapped voters and return them. Laws were passed limiting how many ballots you could return, what relatives could do it, etc. at the same time, they removed some requirements for in-car voting in person for handicapped voters (bringing a voting machine carside) where the precinct was not accessible.

They restricted ballot drop boxes, they closed precincts, shutdown lots of early voting locations/days/hours, etc, etc.

 

He’s the reality…mail voting late arrivals are heavily military votes, very Republican…overall mail voting skews Republican…handicapped voting skews Democrat…voting at remote locations, those being closed, skews Democrat…early voting on Sundays skews heavily African-American and Democratic (souls-to-the-polls)…early voting skews Republican.

[GordonS]

They really get accept that they just got whumped by 7 million votes, can they. Deranged people scare me even more than evil people. 

[BFTD]

4 hours ago, GordonS said:

Never occurred to me anyone would have an issue with it, it's obviously more democratic that you can get someone you know and trust to vote for you if you are unable to vote yourself than that you're disenfranchised. But then, when has logic ever mattered to Trumpers. They're not exactly in favour of everyone voting anyway. 

Yeah, that's what it comes down to; if you're not voting Republican, you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Many of them are quite explicit that nobody else should ever win in their area. It's pretty unnerving to see elected officials openly discussing fascism as though it's the normal state of affairs that their country has temporarily navigated away from.

4 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Trump has argued vigorously against postal votes then encouraged his supporters to make sure they use their postal votes.  Don’t expect consistency or rationality to come into it.

He knew he was going to get slaughtered on the postal votes in 2020, but it was part of the laughable election fraud defence that he's been preparing the ground for since well before the election in 2016, just in case he lost. It was utterly transparent that they were going to feign confusion about the postal votes being added towards the end of the counting process and more needed to be done to stop them duping the credulous (f**k knows what, though).

I'm guessing he finally accepted that he had absolutely no chance this time if he continued to tell people that postal votes were for fraudulent fraudsters, so he changed tack overnight without even a flicker of embarrassment, as he's a psychopathic liar who'll do anything to protect his own ego.

[sophia]

Marginal decision on whether to share this via the gaffes thread but I want to be fair* to Suella

 

*Of course I don't, her conduct is such that she is deserving of the ridicule that she attracts

[TxRover]

8 minutes ago, sophia said:

Marginal decision on whether to share this via the gaffes thread but I want to be fair* to Suella

 

*Of course I don't, her conduct is such that she is deserving of the ridicule that she attracts

So, is the use of “Let Me Think About It” by Ida Corr, a Danish-Gambian artist:

a) A troll job by her social media coordinator

b) Tone deaf

c) A threat to Rwanda that she’s gonna pull the money

d) Outreach to Remainers

e) All of the above