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

I heard, from no reliable source I should add, but this one has just been rattling around inside my head for a while so I'll stick it in here see what response I get.

Anyway.

I heard that local councils in the U.K are *required* to sell on details of the electoral roll in order to make money. This is how your name gets on all those bits of junk mail that arrive thru your door and you have no idea *how* they got your name.

My memory was triggered off this little tid-bit of trivia when last night I saw a "Young person! Register to vote or you may feel marginalised." campaign ad.

The thing I don't know is, whether it is true or not (or even has an element of truth) and if it is true - kinda makes the whole drive to make people sign up to vote have an air of ulterior motive about it.

Any takers?

Clive

Pick up that 20th Century piece of technology, the telephone, give your council a ring and ask them

3.30am in the morning. I don't think there'll be anyone around.

besides I'm not that bothered. t'was merely an interested curio spawned by insomnia and that memory jogging advert yesterday.

Send then an email.

its fauls..offically. it is ileagal for them to pass on that information without your permission.

It's false that councils are *required* to do it, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. There are companies that advertise electoral roll CDs, with loads of names and addresses from the electoral rolls. Now, the electoral rolls are freely available. You can go to your local council house / reference library / wherever they're held and ask to see them. But I doubt that anybody is going to copy the rolls out by hand or photocopy them and then make a new list at their office. So the councils *must* be selling them.

As far as it being illegal to pass on that information without your consent, check out the following BBC news links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_336000/336978.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1528000/1528152.stm

This is a situation I was completely unaware of. I would give up voting, but my name has probably gone on to so many mailing lists by now that it's probably not worth bothering.

That second link above is the important one.

Initially the last Data Protection act was going to require LAs to put on the form a check box if you wanted your details to be sold.

In fact you can read it for yourself

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000113/debtext/00113-12.htm

But it appears they backed down on it. Typical new Labour

I wrote in the form myself to say I didn't want it used.

CH

I believe that this has been common practice but the Data Protection people have finally gotten onto it. I believe there is now some issue - I'm not sure of the details - where the electoral rolls are not being updated until the Data Protection rules around the Electoral Rolls are sorted out.

Thank you guys! those links were useful too.

Thank you guys! those links were useful too.

oh pootle - silly mouse button sticking.

I don't vote on protest. I don't register to vote - the government just want you to so they can keep track of you. They can fine me and put me in jail all they like, I'm still not registering.

No.

You are not protesting Fords, you are bottling out, and calling it a valid political protest against what - oppression? - computerised government? - a police state?

Women died so you could vote. And there are still many countries in the world where people still do die because they cannot vote.

From the luxury of the west you have the brazen nerve to sit in a town where you are provided with social medicine, where social housing is available, where education is free up to the age of 16 and subsidised thereafter, where you are innocent until proven guilty, where you have the right to silence if arrested - and you say that you won't vote.

I may not sound it - but I am speechless. I know that the National Health, social housing and the education and justice systems are not perfect here. But the first three exist because people voted.

If you wish to flick two fingers at the system then vote but spoil your paper.

But don't sit in the west and flaut your freedoms in the face of the third world and refuse to vote and call it freedom.

Voting is not just a right here - it is a f**king privelege. Feel humble that you have been born were you are allowed to exercise it.

And if you want to be invisible, then throw away your Sainsburies card, and pay cash when you go shopping. But don't pretend you live in a police state. You don't.

I am sorry to rant - but this is something I feel very very strongly about, as you may have noticed.

*taking deep breaths*
*calming down*

Ben

Well said agcB

....passes Ben a chamomile and lends her my to stroke to bring that blood pressure back down!

I do agree though. You have a vote. Use it.

I may not agree with the policies of my local Council or the Government, but at least I have the opportunity to change things by voting.

Personally, I feel that those who don't register to vote are not making any sort of a protest at all, just a rather childish sulk.

In my case it isn't just to do with the fact that my grandparents were involved in two World Wars, or my parents in one, or that women gave their lives for the right to vote, it is that it is the mature and responsible thing to do.

I do hate it though when I hear the whole 'voting is a privilege' thing. I know that and I appreciate what the Suffragettes went through. But, surely it is also my choice to exercise my freedom by deciding not to vote? I have my reasons for not voting, not because I'm being childish or sulking. Just to let you know I have indeed voted in the past, but my views have since changed. Voting and then spoiling the paper is to me just plain silly.

I also know we don't live in a police state, but it's going that way. Remember the Freedom of Information Act? Identity cards? So you're all quite happy to have no privacy at all? If I register to vote, I am in a way signing away a lot of rights to privacy, junk mail being one, and in the end that is my choice.

Fords, do you have a supermarket card?

Do you ever forget to scrupulously check the no-junk mail box on application forms?

Do you never use Switch, cheques, direct debits and credit cards?

Tell me you don't do any of those things, and I will begin to accept that you have thought through and followed through your position.

"Voting and then spoiling the paper is to me just plain silly."

No it is not. It is showing that you are not too apathetic to vote (as 43% of the population of the UK seems to be), but that you reject the choices that you have been offered. It is challenging the travesty that our democracy has become from within, and conversely it is strengthening it at the same time. By all means challenge it from without as well. But the spoiled papers are counted. No-shows are not.

And if you object to identity cards and the Freedom of Information act then bloody well vote against them. Protest too, write to the papers, chain yourself to the railings, fling yourself under the Queen Mother's horse in the Derby. But vote.

Incidentally, I did not say you were silly. I said you were abusing privilege. A different thing.

Ben

I think someone else has already mentioned the Mail Order Preference thing. There is a similar organisation for Telesales.

Also, in the UK you can select to have your phone number available to BT Directory Enquiries, but not published in the phone book. As a result, your number is not available to the Telesales organisations.

There are a lot of ways of avoiding junk mail.

Ben

You can ask your local Council to remove your name from the list they sell on anyway.

They only retain your name on the original copy, so not registering is unnecessary.

As for childish sulking? I'm actually very good at it and thoroughly enjoy a good sulk. Its the only time I can guarantee some peace and quiet