graham
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Post by graham on Apr 27, 2024 10:29:31 GMT
Too late to cancel this election. It would still go ahead in the way the Liverpool Edge Hill by election took place after the fall of Callaghan's government at the end of March 1979.
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Post by batman on Apr 27, 2024 11:11:03 GMT
I find the idea of Sunak calling an election on Monday nigh on impossible to credit.
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Post by philvn on Apr 27, 2024 11:14:06 GMT
I find the idea of Sunak calling an election on Monday nigh on impossible to credit. The Times and The Grauniad are both saying it's not happening, but I suppose you never know - May's announcement in 2017 took everyone by complete surprise if I remember correctly. |
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Post by arnieg on Apr 27, 2024 12:30:54 GMT
At the time of the 2005 visit to Blackpool I was on Conference Ctte and analysing conference feedback was part of my role. While other venues (Bournemouth, Harrogate, Brighton principally) got approval ratings circa 90% poor old Blackpool struggled to get 50%. It must be observed there was a strong tone of middle class home counties condescension among some of the comments - a lot of Lib Dems don't do cheap and tacky. |
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Post by tonyhil on Apr 27, 2024 12:32:13 GMT
I thought she'd taken leave of her senses - which turned out to be the case. My prediction at the start of the campaign was that she would spend it spouting vacuous platitudes while Corbyn would be roaming the country talking about the things that mattered to people, and that Labour would do rather well. One of my better predictions, counterbalanced by assuring everyone that Johnson would never become Prime Minister.
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Post by gibbon on Apr 27, 2024 13:20:44 GMT
There had to be vote in the House of Commons to cancel the writ for the Gorton byelction. The acting returning officer stated she had no power to cancel the by-election. This would be an interesting quiz question for the future.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Apr 27, 2024 13:25:38 GMT
Had the House of Commons not authorised a writ of supersedeas, the Manchester Gorton writ and byelection would have been cancelled automatically on 3 May (the eve of intended polling day) by the dissolution of Parliament. The RO would have been obliged to go through all the normal electoral processes up to then, which is why the writ was cancelled earlier.
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davidh
Forum Regular
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Post by davidh on May 1, 2024 10:50:22 GMT
I find the idea of Sunak calling an election on Monday nigh on impossible to credit. The Times and The Grauniad are both saying it's not happening, but I suppose you never know - May's announcement in 2017 took everyone by complete surprise if I remember correctly. Nonetheless, governments are more inclined to call elections when 20 points ahead in the polls and with no majority than when 20 points behind and with a comfortable majority. |
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The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 38,925
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Post by The Bishop on May 1, 2024 11:59:12 GMT
The Times and The Grauniad are both saying it's not happening, but I suppose you never know - May's announcement in 2017 took everyone by complete surprise if I remember correctly. Nonetheless, governments are more inclined to call elections when 20 points ahead in the polls and with no majority than when 20 points behind and with a comfortable majority. Though in 2017 that was after the election, not before  (and there were, even if only with hindsight, a few signs a snap poll might happen then) |
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Chris from Brum
Lib Dem
What I need is a strong drink and a peer group.
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Post by Chris from Brum on May 2, 2024 7:01:12 GMT
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The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 38,925
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Post by The Bishop on May 2, 2024 14:30:39 GMT
As a delegate at one of the last Labour Party conferences that was held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, I can say exactly why Labour stopped coming there after 2002 and the Conservatives stopped coming after 2007. It's simply not suitable as a modern conference venue. Meant to say, this was despite their making a terrific song and dance when Labour said they wouldn't be going to Blackpool any more. "We will not abandon you, we don't look down on Blackpool unlike those effete Blairite snobs" - except when, just a few years later, they did. The "value" of a Tory promise - it never changes |
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johnloony
Conservative
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Post by johnloony on May 2, 2024 17:33:26 GMT
I have hardly been thinking about the Blackpool South by-election at all. I have been busy with election stuff in Croydon for weeks. I need to be at the Excel Centre at 9am tomorrow, which means getting up before 7am and leaving the house at 7:30am. It will be a long day tomorrow, and I will need to get proper sleep tonight beforehand.
Therefore I expect that I will probably go to bed at about 9pm this evening, and sleep most of the night.
Therefore (extremely unusually) I will probably not stay up to watch the result of the by-election.
Whenever there is a parliamentary by-election, in the last few years I have often received a phone call from Nick “The Flying Brick” Delves phoning me from the count just for a chat. This time he will have to go without…
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Post by newsouthender on May 2, 2024 18:38:36 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd.
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andrewp
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Post by andrewp on May 2, 2024 18:42:00 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd. That is a bit surprising to me. In over 20 years of working in polling stations, I have always been told to automatically give everyone all of the available ballot papers, and if they don’t want one of them then to encourage them to put it in the box blank- and I can’t remember anyone ever refusing to do so. |
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peterl
Green
Congratulations President Trump
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Post by peterl on May 2, 2024 18:47:37 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd. That is a bit surprising to me. In over 20 years of working in polling stations, I have always been told to automatically give everyone all of the available ballot papers, and if they don’t want one of them then to encourage them to put it in the box blank- and I can’t remember anyone ever refusing to do so. I was a poll clerk on the PCC elections in 2011 combined with district elections. I was told give people all the ballot papers, but if they specifically say they don't want PCC then don't give it to them. |
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Post by IceAgeComing on May 2, 2024 19:15:25 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd. That surprised me when I voted today (not in Blackpool but elsewhere) - in Scottish Parliament elections they've always had different boxes for the two ballot papers (and when the locals were alongside those as well); don't see why you couldn't do it here. You still would have to verify that people hadn't put votes in the wrong box but this seems like a way of speeding things up slightly. |
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andrea
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Post by andrea on May 2, 2024 19:32:36 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd. That surprised me when I voted today (not in Blackpool but elsewhere) - in Scottish Parliament elections they've always had different boxes for the two ballot papers (and when the locals were alongside those as well); don't see why you couldn't do it here. You still would have to verify that people hadn't put votes in the wrong box but this seems like a way of speeding things up slightly. In Italy when we have more ballots on the same day, other than having different boxes, we also have ballot papers in different colors. So it is easy to spot if you have a ballot paper in the wrong ballot box (and anyway it is the chair of polling station who puts the ballot paper into the box in front of the voter...so if there is a mistake, it is the polling station's staff to blame. And even if they let you put the ballot paper in the box, they should check you are putting the one with the right color). |
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Post by gwynthegriff on May 2, 2024 19:34:02 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd. I think there have been past attempts to use separate ballot boxes but certainly round here separating small numbers took pretty much as long as separating large numbers and - of course - it would require many more ballot boxes, which the local authority may not possess. |
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Post by gwynthegriff on May 2, 2024 19:37:00 GMT
I think you may be missing a little joke by Mark Aah - dwi ddim yn deall jocs saesneg! As for what they do with "benthyg" - they have to use two different words! |
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johnloony
Conservative
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Post by johnloony on May 2, 2024 19:41:38 GMT
When I voted earlier today, both ballots were going in the same box so there might be a long night of separating and verifying ahead. The polling staff were also giving a choice about whether you wanted the PCC ballot paper or not which was a bit odd. That surprised me when I voted today (not in Blackpool but elsewhere) - in Scottish Parliament elections they've always had different boxes for the two ballot papers (and when the locals were alongside those as well); don't see why you couldn't do it here. You still would have to verify that people hadn't put votes in the wrong box but this seems like a way of speeding things up slightly. We had four different ballot boxes, one for each colour. In 2021 there were only 2 boxes, because all 3 ballot papers for the GLA election were A4 designed to go flat into the box, ready for being scanned by the machines. This time there are no scanning machines. |
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