An Essex man who threw chips out of his car window has received fines for littering from two councils because they fell across both districts.

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Your actual outcome:

Labour -11
Conservative -28
	Liberal Democrat 32
UK Independence Party -7
	Green 11

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Whilst on the subject of politics, I had a conversation recently which concerned me a little. (I'll not name the subject to protect identity but feel free to speak up if you read this and want to make yourself known). Basically, this person had decided not to vote with the justification that the parties were all as bad as each other, and no one party stood out well enough to warrant a vote. Part of the conversation went something like:

Me) Would you vote if there was a RON option?
X) Yes
Me) Have you written to your MP to state that much, asking if they're going to campaign for that or some other way to register dissatisfaction with all candidates
X) I don't even know who my MP is
Me) *stunned silence* It's Anne Coffey.

I'm trying to place why I felt surprised. Maybe because someone who has political awareness and seems to have at least some strong views
(OK, so you won't know who I'm talking about here, but bear with me)
hasn't found a political affilliation. Perhaps it's because I view a non-vote as wasted. I don't know.

sofrfruit and I spoke earlier this evening about this and explained a few things I didn't know about. Instead of spoiling a ballot paper e.g. by marking each possible vote (which is the only solution I had previously known of), you can scrawl a message such as "Re-open nominations" on the paper. This is because non-standard votes are examined by all sides to see if they can argue that is should go on to their own party, or shouldn't go to that of an opponent. This also means that those who do have a party in mind can also elect to vote for that party and also write such a message without the paper being treated as spoiled. I've now decided to do this, because though I'm in favour of a RON option (or better still STV), I'm not happy enough to sacrifice my vote to that effect.


To the (I suspect) few of you who weren't planning on voting in the forthcoming UK general election (assuming you're eligible to), what are your reason(s)?