SED 7: Polling Day
May. 7th, 2015 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightofdayeStill plodding along with this. Today is election day. Some real life stuff and thoughts on it follow.
Well its been a weirdish day. I Went to bed late didn't sleep so well. Woke up early and was in one of those weird semi-sleep states where you're convinced strange things are true. Hard to describe.
We had a team lunch and a meeting today, it was a bit long winded and boring especially after the meal but not the arduous grilling I'd, being somewhat silly, been worried about.
Came had tea. Went to vote, the polling station is just down from the street from me. Of course we have the first past the post system. Wherein we divide the country into areas and then each one gets to vote for an p to represent it in parliement. The good side of this is that you have someone specific from the local area representing you specifically and being from the local area having a vested interest in doing it well.
That's one of few upsides. The main downside is rewards a party not for having support across the country, but only for having people that support them cluster together for a local majority. You could have 20% of the population voting for you and far less representation in parliament.
Why to I mention this? I am in a safe seat of the Conservative Party. This means my vote is worth much much less than if I was in the marginal constituencies that all the politicians visit because they can actually change hands. This saddens me but we did have a voting referendum after the last general election and decided not to change the system.
The other thing I see a lot of is people saying 'oh well it doesn't matter who gets in. They'r all the same. We're only get shafted in slightly different ways' (i paraphrase) While I do empathise, this kind of cynicism strikes me as a kind of self-fulfilling property. The best way to foil change is for everyone not to think change is possible.
So good news. Last day of constant election campaign news coverage! Bad news: Tommorrow is the start of 'who will form the government with who and who will be minister of what News coverage!
Well its been a weirdish day. I Went to bed late didn't sleep so well. Woke up early and was in one of those weird semi-sleep states where you're convinced strange things are true. Hard to describe.
We had a team lunch and a meeting today, it was a bit long winded and boring especially after the meal but not the arduous grilling I'd, being somewhat silly, been worried about.
Came had tea. Went to vote, the polling station is just down from the street from me. Of course we have the first past the post system. Wherein we divide the country into areas and then each one gets to vote for an p to represent it in parliement. The good side of this is that you have someone specific from the local area representing you specifically and being from the local area having a vested interest in doing it well.
That's one of few upsides. The main downside is rewards a party not for having support across the country, but only for having people that support them cluster together for a local majority. You could have 20% of the population voting for you and far less representation in parliament.
Why to I mention this? I am in a safe seat of the Conservative Party. This means my vote is worth much much less than if I was in the marginal constituencies that all the politicians visit because they can actually change hands. This saddens me but we did have a voting referendum after the last general election and decided not to change the system.
The other thing I see a lot of is people saying 'oh well it doesn't matter who gets in. They'r all the same. We're only get shafted in slightly different ways' (i paraphrase) While I do empathise, this kind of cynicism strikes me as a kind of self-fulfilling property. The best way to foil change is for everyone not to think change is possible.
So good news. Last day of constant election campaign news coverage! Bad news: Tommorrow is the start of 'who will form the government with who and who will be minister of what News coverage!
