h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I do enjoy a good election. I like to sit down and read all that crap they stuff in the letterbox. I like to argue with them when they knock at the door, which increasingly they don't, for some reason. I like reading what they said they would do at the *last* election, seeing what they *did* do, and casting it up to them. And I love listening to the votes coming in and all the speculation and gossip. Cos I'm weird. I'm a bit of an election .

There's a scientific formula for voting. Roughly:

Is what they promised last time a) a good thing or b) a bad thing? If a, go to question one. If b, go to question two.

Question 1: "(What they said they would do last time) - (what they actually did) = ..." The answer here should be as close to zero as possible.

Question 2: "(What they said they would do last time) + (what they actually did) = the number here should be as low as possible, too.

The citizen's dream is to have both of those figures as close to zero as possible.

Now, "past performance is no guarantee of future results", as the investment ads like to remind us, but it's the best thing we've got to work on. It's the application of the scientific method to the electoral process.

So you also have to factor in the following equation:

"(The likelihood that candidate *could* deliver even if they tried) - (the likelihood that the candidate is a lying sac of cack) =..." The sum of this should be as high as possible.

If all that sounds unnecessarily convoluted, I apologise. Whoever said making decisions about how society is run should be easy, eh?

The outworking of all the mathematics, in my case, is that I don't have much option but to vote for the Green Party this time around. I'm delighted that it's PR, I have to say.

we only really get the red ones and the blue ones for general elections round here... sometimes if your really good and the moon is full and it hasn't rained that week and the month has an R in it there is a yellow one.... but never in the local elections just in general ones...
which leads me to believe i may as well spoil my ballot and use it as a protest against lack of choice

it may be too early for me but can you explain for Q2 why it has to be a low number?

I guess if Q2 is high then they either promised a lot of things that they couldn't deliver, or did a lot of things that they weren't elected to do. Probably both.


Geggs

Actually, rereading, I think I got that wrong. Q2 was for 'bad' things. And you just want that to be a low number because you don't want the government to do things you don't like.


Geggs

Cool, if that made some kind of sense I'm glad, and also mildly surprised. I was a tad inebriated after the May Day parade when I made that post.

this is the text of the Q2 thing

"Question 2: "(What they said they would do last time) + (what they actually did) = the number here should be as low as possible, too. "

what they said they would do - give each thing one point
what they actually did - give each thing one point

iif you add the two together, you want it high, because you want the thing they promised to have a positive score (+1) and the things they did that they said they would do to have a positive score (+1) so for each thing they did, added to the fact they said they would do it, would make 2 points for each thing.

and that's why I'm confused :D

Q2 was for the stuff they said they were going to do *that you didn't like*, so a low number is good.

Yeah, that's the gist of it...for example, I'd much prefer it if the current Westminster government were a lot *less* effective at carrying out their agenda. Because every time they tick something off their things-to-do list, it leaves the country worse off than it was before.

Anyway, on more general electoral things: canvassing.

I have a loathing with extreme prejudice for people who come knocking on my door (except for friends or family), particularly when I'm sitting down to my dinner. I'm rarely ever rude to them, but often I ignore them, and often not being rude takes a bit of effort.

But I'm following a few candidates on twitter, and in unguarded moments they are letting slip how much fear and trepidation they have about the act of canvassing. This takes a little bit of the annoyance away, for me.

it wasN#t clear to me that Q2 referred to things he didn't like

You obviously missed this bit:

"Is what they promised last time a) a good thing or b) a bad thing? If a, go to question one. If b, go to question two."

I should have done flow charts, though, I will do mind maps next time.

(It's kind of hard to do logic non-pictorially, for me)

yes - that's the problem I had with it, despite reading it about 42 times
Got it now, thanks

How's that essay coming on? Are you finished yet?

arghhhhh no...

I kinda, sorta, really, *want* to like the SDLP, but they aren't making it easy for me. Their most able and talented candidates never seem to rise to leadership positions, and their leadership positions are filled by "facepalm people" without too much in the brain department.

I'm not really sure why that is. It certainly didn't used to be the case.

So, having read the literature of all the candidates, my first thought is confirmed: The Green Party is the closest thing we have to a real labour party.

One time we went on strike. Now, despite what the papers might tell you, being on strike isn't an extra couple of holidays. It's not fun, and money gets scarce, and it's emotionally exhausting at times, too, when you see a friend crossing the picket line and saying you.

The only party who supported us, without looking for votes, was the Green Party (and some Sinn Feiners).

Voters remember these things.

...and some Progressive Unionists, too.