I woke a tad earlier than I might have done, but got up
anyway, made toast and watched an episode of “Shameless” which was
rather good.
Rather than messing about on-line though, I set off for
work. As I drove there was a lot of talk about yesterday’s local elections on
the radio. The consensus of pretty much everyone interviewed was that elections
are rarely won on the promises of the wannabe candidates, they are lost by the
more obvious failings of the incumbents… regardless of whatever successes they
might have had. It was generally agreed that tomorrow’s coronation has come as
something of a godsend for the Conservatives as it is taking the public’s
attention off of their frankly disastrous results.
There was an interesting snippet from the chairman of the
electoral commission who was talking about how people were turned
away from polling stations yesterday because they didn’t have the required
identification. The chap is apparently organizing a formal review into the
matter and will deliver his report in September. I wish I had to work to such lax
deadlines.
I can’t help but feel that not allowing people with the
correct papers to vote is a good move. There has been no secret at all about
the need to have identification to vote; the information has been publicly
available for months. If anyone is so out of touch that thus came as news to
them, how can they be in any way informed enough on current affairs to cast a
vote?
I stopped off in the Tesco at Pembury to get some odds and
sods. I ranted about the place the other day, but I do like going in there. The
attitude of the staff there has to be seen to be believed; they *really*
don’t give a shit. A classic example of this was when my Tesco Clubcard failed
to work this morning. The woman behind the till offered to put it in her bin
for me, rather than do anything to help.
Eventually equipped with shopping I went on to work and had
something of a dull day.
There was a minor episode as I drove home. As I drove past
the Pig and Sty in Bethersden so there was a small dog running loose in the
road. I couldn’t leave the pup so I stopped and rounded him up. The dog was
sitting outside a rather impressive gate behind which I could hear voices, so I
shouted at them, and eventually some chap came out and seemed rather shocked
that his dog was loose.
I came home to an empty house; “er indoors TM”
had taken the dogs to the park. I spent a few minutes correcting the mistakes I’d
made yesterday on the Wherigo I’d been working on, and then had a look at the
results of yesterday’s local election. Had I actually drawn a cock and balls on
the ballot paper it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. But the
actual result is something of a joke when you actually look at it in
detail. The winner (Green candidate) only got twelve more votes than the
one who came third.
The proportion of votes locally was:
- Green; 27.6%
- Labour 26.8%
- Conservative 25.6%
- Independent 19.9%
With a twenty-eight per cent turnout this can hardly be
called a resounding victory, for the Greens though can it? To my mind the only
loser is the Independent who has only got half the votes she got as a
Conservative.
Locally, Ashford’s council is no longer Conservative controlled.
That’s not happened for years…
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