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

I voted weeks ago. It's a compulsory Postal ballot here in Brighton this year.

The story is that the ruling Labour group has been peeking at the ballots as they mount up, and are not happy with what they see. Which I say, serves them damn well right, the self-serving careerist that they all are

You think so? Which way do the rumours have the poll going, then?

Sorry - I've been out of the loop all day with a migraine....

someone said earlier that their vote will make no difference because their home os in a safe seat for one party....

Trust me - it still can make a ifference. My party (I don't see any point in naming names, the example works fine without them) was in 4th place (this is Scotland). Last Westminster elsction we worked our a****s off and managed to increase ur share of the vote by over 7%, moving us from 4th to third and behind the 2nd place party by ONLY 72 VOTES!

Suddenly the wrld changed. The 1st place party got the wind up but central office suddenly saw the potential wehad and we got rather more support than we've ever had before... maybe next time we'll do it...

...it can make a difference. In the 1997 election in Scotland, the smallest majority was just 25 votes....

Whatever happens, think about my daughter - she'll be one of the counters tonight.

I hope your migraine is better Cloviscat

This is the first year that the Present Mr Cloviscat has not been at the Count - I'm not an election night widow!

I hope your daughter enjoys the experience, AGB - I think it's a fascinating opportunity, and it really does change your opinion about bothering to vote.

Migraine much better thanks, but I thought someone had spiked my drink yesterday

...and my party have moved up to second place! yah!!!

Mwahhahahaha. My vote did count after all. We've got that sh*tty labour council out of Bristol...

And I woke up to a couple of Greens as my new representatives, which makes a nice change.

This is a council that when a government audit said they were failing in all areas, sent out a newsletter saying what a success the sudit had been and how they had been praised by the inspectors...

You're lucky to have the choice Bob, all we had was one Tory no hoper (not his fault, no way a non-labour could ever get in here) and two brands of Labour.

And because the postal ballot system has changed here (I don't know about elsewhere) it's no longer a secret ballot.

Dis[ite best intentions I didn't get the chance to vote yesterday...left for work at 7am and got back a 8pm too knackered to do anything but cook the tea and collapse into bed.

Plus I was a bit suspicious that labour (who got all 3 candidates elected in my ward last time) hadn't put any candidates up...I know that it was so the lib dems could get control of the council but it still made me feel like I'd had my full choices removed because of political dealing. (this is even though I was planning to vote for the lib dems...I don't like the way decisions like this are made behind closed doors in party offices)

But anyhoo - it all turned out ok and we got rid of the tory working majority maybe bournemouth isn't so bad after all.

I still feel a little miffed though...we got one peice of promotional stuff through the post - for the labour candidates in the next ward...I spent a good half hour yesterday trawling through the councils website trying to find out the candidates.

Anyway I'm just in a mardy mood because my office mate has been spraying cleaning stuff all over the place all morning making my headache worse

Oh and I almost voted for the Dorset Stop the War candidate...if only to see what would happen when he got elected the day the war was officially declared over

Did you find candidates on your *council* site? how ....

Eventually...to find the section about the local elections took a bit of ferreting (yesterday the only link was something about amendments to voting to make it more accessable to visually impaired people...followed that and manually changed the url to its root folder to find the main site)

Because I hadn't had anything about who was standing through the door I felt I should make sure I knew who was standing...and eventually I did... http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/living/Your_Council/Elections_Voting/list_of_candidates.asp

I had tons of leaflets (because this is Scotland and we're choosing MSPs as well) but the Council didn't put a thing about the candidates on their site - what a surprise, and as only one party has a local website... I'd have been rather left in the dark....

Councils are such lovely, pro-actie things, aren't they?

And still waiting for our council results, and some to that, the last MSP results as well - will someone wake me when Tweeddale finally declare?

Just been trying to actually find out the results from my ward - but the council website seems to be timing out.

Other delights available on bournemouth's website - get a bournemouth council website car sticker...or pay £12.95 for a bournemouth council umbrella...and there was me thinking bournemouth is supposed to be sunny

Chesterfield switched to Lib Dems, so I'm happy.

I've long suspected that the hold Labour had here was largely due to fidelity to our ex-MP (now retired) Tony Benn than it was to the labour party proper.

Lab 27, Lib 19 TO Lib 36, Lab 12.