The following Dodgers have been smited by the JDK for their crimes against Jam:
All the girls! for picking on the JDK and damaging his already delicate self esteem!
The Basserd Who Nicked Copper's Stuff For the offense of nicking Copper's stuff. You are a tw*t, whoever you are and we all hope you get run over by a tram in Nottingham. Or Liverpool. Or whereever else they have trams!
Copper For the crime of playing with her Wii instead of her Jammie pals!
So, today it's those lovely local elections and with them comes a dilemma.
Now I've always seen it as my duty to vote. No question - come rain or shine, I always make sure my bit of paper makes it into that ballot box. But this time round I don't think I want to.
This reluctance does not stem from any political issue, but from an unfortunate geographical oddity. You see, I moved house in december (actually, officially in february) and my polling card still has me registered in my old constituency - presumably because 2 months isn't enough time to update their records!
So... if I vote, it has to be in my old constituency, of which I'm no longer a member. The outcome of that particular election will have no effect on me. The way I see it, if an outsider, say a frenchman wanted to vote in our general election, I'd want to chase him off with a big stick - it's none of his business. It's the same thing here - I'm now an outsider in the constituency that I'm registered to vote in! I'm not registered (yet) in the one that makes a difference to me!
I had this exact same issue last month when we had our elections here.. I ended up not voting cause it was a two hour drive to the constituency where it would no longer effect me (I was kinda mad - I had given them my change of address too!)
it's a tough one - I remember going in the car with kingBilly and his Aunt to the presidential elections.. when we got there, the queue must seriously have been about a mile long.. It was well known that they were going to vote for opposite sides - so they had a big debate in the car, figured each other would cancel each other's vote out and we went and got pizza
Well, I'm not voting out of apathy. For a change, not mine, but that of the local candidates. Not one of them has managed to put anything through my letterbox telling me what they're actually standing for (2 out of the 4 candidates have put something through the door saying they're lovely people) so I am unable to make an informed decision.
...they had a big debate in the car, figured each other would cancel each other's vote out and we went and got pizza...
That works if there were only two candidates. Presumably there were only two candidates? If there were more than two candidates, then King Billy and his Aunt are decidedly Unamerican and should probably be disenfranchised and deported! That said, I've updated the third poll option to reflect the pizza!
sha76jam wrote:
Not one of them has managed to put anything through my letterbox telling me what they're actually standing for (2 out of the 4 candidates have put something through the door saying they're lovely people) so I am unable to make an informed decision.
This is a big problem. I'd love to discuss political issues with my local candidates to see which of them would function best as my representative, but they've never given me the opportunity. Their literature usually only tells me how awful the other guys are, which is nice but not overly helpful. In the last few years I've had to trawl the net for a copy of their manifesto, which is usually a pretty poorly written price of prose.
My mum doesn't vote. I've tried to explain why she should, but she won't. Then she goes on to tell me how it's awful that the government doesn't pay her very much for being a teacher and how the bin collections are rubbish and how she doesn't like that new roundabout the put in the centre of town.
Well, when voting for president of Americaland.. it's pretty much a two-horse race right?.. the donkeys and the elephants? .. wait.. where are the horses?
I'd vote - if only to demonstrate that democracy isnt dead - look at it this way - the person who bought your house is almost certainly a thick tw@t so at least you can help balance things with an intelligent vote.
__________________
I'll take arrogance and the inevitable hubris over self-doubt and lack of confidence.
"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson
I didn't vote in the end. I went with Catfish to her polling station and made polite conversation with the elderly couple presiding over the proceedings while Catters made her mark. then I made a cake.