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

The deed is done. Today I voted Liberal Democrat, finally severing a lifetime of increasingly strained loyalty to Labour. I cast my first vote in 1979, so it feels strange to change. I have a peculiar, irrational sensation of guilt, as if I've just dumped a long-term partner and gone off with someone new.

But it had to be done. It has become increasingly apparent that the Lib Dems are the only major British party with any serious interest in redistributing wealth or power in favour of those who are currently deprived of those things. They opposed the war in Iraq and they oppose student tuition fees. They openly favour taking just a little more money in tax from the rich in order to help the poor. They refuse to demonise asylum seekers, unlike both the Tories and New Labour. All of these seem to me be good reasons to support the Liberal Democrats.

It is still a real wrench to abandon Labour. I partied through the night when they came to power in 1997, but since then the disappointment has grown more and more bitter. The last straw has been Blair's foreign policy in recent years, which can essentially be summarised in the words 'Yes, Mister President'. I want to be part of Europe. Blair seems to want to play a part in building the New American Century that US neo-conservatives dream of.

Divorce is never easy, especially after more than 20 years; but the differences between Tony and I were irreconcilable. I just had to move on.

Tough decision, likely - but it shines through to me at least that you feel do have done "the right thing". Which is good

For a Dane - I should probably say for many a Dane - the affiliation to a single party is a bit "strange". OK, especially the Social democrats and probably the party Venstre (literally "left" though they are a liberal/conservative/right wing party - these things do get confused over borders and different language ) still have a core of traditional followers.

But altogether we have approx 10 parties in the parliament atm - which means that there are a lot more choice from election to election. So the long-term affiliations are rare and getting rarer.

Personally, I have been swinging a little between a couple of parties (that are similar in their basic beliefs), often decided by the actual persons running...

I had a choice of four candidates today - 10 must get pretty cofusing.

But for me, I've got no problems with chaging my vote as often as my hairdo - I wonder if my generation of voters will be less loyal, when we vote at all.

Andy (the boyfriend) didn't vote -they didn't send him a poll card when they sent them to other people in the house, and typically he didn't do anything about it. He didn't vote in the last election either, even when I printed a postal vote form out for him

I voted lib-dem too, although I usually vote green.

Ormondroyd, I think your decision was very coherent. Personally, I have never pledged allegiance to a single party, but have always voted for the left in its many incarnations. I realise that for the Brits the fracture is a lot more deeply felt than for fickle Italians, though, so all credit to you for breaking out of a pattern when you'd realised that Labour didn't do it for you anymore.

Oh, we don't get 10 candidates when we go to vote - we get a lot more than that Each party will probably have from 5 to ... G** knows ... 15 candidates in each area (which is rather large and does contain several voting sites).

The voting system's different - right now I have a few other things to do , so I don't really have the time to look up the translations needed for proper explanations...

whoops!!! i forgot to vote!!!! [dizzy blonde or wot?]
lol

Honestly, magoogy. People died to give you the chance to forget to vote!

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the way things went. There were the best-ever results for the Liberal Democrats, with about 30 per cent of the vote. Here in Bradford there were gains for the Lib Dems and the Greens at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives, and still absolutely no success for the neo-fascist British National Party, which is a relief. So no party has overall control on Bradford Council, and presumably there'll be some intense inter-party negotiations going on in our City Hall today.

The most worrying thing, though, is that just up the road in Burnley the BNP are now the second biggest party on the council. I'm glad that hasn't happened in my home city, but it's disturbing to see it happening anywhere.

I agree on that!

What I tried to say about the Danish voting system:


The seats in the Folketing (parliament) are allocated to the parties on the basis of proportional representation, so that the constitution of the Folketing very closely reflects the party-political preferences of the total electorate

However, the candidates run in individual single constituencies, and so most of those elected have a local connection reminiscent of those elected by majority voting in individual constituencies (as in the UK).


And then there are local elections - which I just realised that this was all about . That'll be another day... if at all.

u a fellow bradfordian then orm?? im bd8....u???

i honestly 4got the elections.....doh!!!! who won????

Well done Ormondroyd - for my money, you did the right thing! Labour need to remember we voted them in for a reason...

, Number Six! Looking at the national results, it seems as if I was far from being alone in the way I felt!

SV, what you've described there sounds just like the system that's used for elections to the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies. I wish we used it for national UK elections, since it does produce a more representative assembly while still giving people their own local voice in the assembly. Trouble is that our crude winner-take-all system serves the two biggest parties' interests, so they're unlikely to change it.

magoogy - I am indeed a Bradfordian. In fact, I live in BD1, right in the city centre. There isn't really a simple answer to who won the elections, but broadly speaking it was a good night for us Lib Dems and for the Tories and a poor one for Labour. In Bradford, nobody won - the local council is now evenly split, with 36 councillors each for Labour and the Tories, and 14 Lib Dems holding the balance of power.

There's a good summary of all that happened around the country here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2994029.stm

"...our crude winner-take-all system serves the two biggest parties' interests..."

Not to mention the US where this kind of system allowed George W. to win with a minority of the votes... (apologies to the UK - I didn't mean to imply you were like "them over there" )

..ahhhh, don't get me started

O.k. So I'm not old enough to vote yet. But I have to say, I agree with Ormy. Mind you, I do have respect for Tony Blair for standing by his guns (excuse the pun). Now, I just wish George Dubya would re-sign or whatever it is they do in America, I find his demeanor during the war to have been frankly frightening.

u live in town orm?? bet thats noisy.... where??? what pubs do u use???

I voted Labour in 1997, and haven't voted for them since. In the council elections, I voted Lib-Dem, and on the other two papers, I voted SSP. Who look more and more credible as a proper leftist alternative to Labour, so I'm pleased