Hi

I voted earlier today.

As is my democratic right I scanned the ballot paper to check out all the candidates even the ones I wasnt planning to vote for.

All of them lived in my bit of town except one who didnt even live in Sheffield!!!

I find this a bit of a cheek.
How is this guy suposed to have a handle on local affairs, assuming he's elected in, when he lives an hour away?

And I know Blair lives in Downing St but at least he maintains the pretence of keeping a house in Sedgefield as well as Prescott, Mandy etc etc who all have houses in their own constituencies.

Any thoughts?

d

To be honest most MPs spend precious little time in their constituencies anyway. They are kept abreast of events through the local party, papers, letters and surgeries.

Originally posted by sanman
To be honest most MPs spend precious little time in their constituencies anyway. They are kept abreast of events through the local party, papers, letters and surgeries.

This is not strictly true in Sheffield. Most of the MPs in Sheffield are home most weekends.

Speculative candidates generally don't imagine they're going to win so neither move home nor resign their council seats.

Originally posted by ukdavvy
Hi

I voted earlier today.

As is my democratic right I scanned the ballot paper to check out all the candidates even the ones I wasnt planning to vote for.

All of them lived in my bit of town except one who didnt even live in Sheffield!!!

I find this a bit of a cheek.
How is this guy suposed to have a handle on local affairs, assuming he's elected in, when he lives an hour away?

And I know Blair lives in Downing St but at least he maintains the pretence of keeping a house in Sedgefield as well as Prescott, Mandy etc etc who all have houses in their own constituencies.

Any thoughts?

d

If elected I think that you would find that they would have a local presence. They are not going to buy a property here if not elected are they?

"Mandy"? If you are referring to Peter Mandleson, think you need to catch up on events, as he's no longer an MP. He resigned his Hartlepool seat to go to the European Commission.

I'm very reluctant to vote for anyone who does not live in the area they are representing.

Fortunately, when I went to vote earlier today I was able to vote for the person I wanted to knowing they live in the local area and have local knowledge.

Originally posted by ukdavvy
Hi

I voted earlier today.

As is my democratic right I scanned the ballot paper to check out all the candidates even the ones I wasnt planning to vote for.

All of them lived in my bit of town except one who didnt even live in Sheffield!!!

I find this a bit of a cheek.
How is this guy suposed to have a handle on local affairs, assuming he's elected in, when he lives an hour away?

And I know Blair lives in Downing St but at least he maintains the pretence of keeping a house in Sedgefield as well as Prescott, Mandy etc etc who all have houses in their own constituencies.

Any thoughts?

d

tis wasn't the Lib Dem Candidate in Hillsbrough was it? I noticed that they lived in Manchester and any chance of them getting my vote vanished.

I noticed one of my local candidates has his address as in Coventry on the voting slip, but his address is listed as the same as Roy James' address on the website listing candidates. Strange! :confused:

well I'am sorry but the candidate who lives in Coventry is the BNP ....... are you seriously telling me you looked at him as a serious candidate anyway !!! :o

Originally posted by Kezza1
well I'am sorry but the candidate who lives in Coventry is the BNP ....... are you seriously telling me you looked at him as a serious candidate anyway !!! :o

I already knew that... and of course I didn't consider him a serious candidate! Was just curious to see what address he put on the voting slip as I already knew he was from Coventry but James' address appears on the list of candidates on the election website. I bet he will be fuming at Jeremy Paxman referring to him as the National Front candidate tonight lol.... not far off though, according to his views and his past!

missed that!! ..........does anyone know where i can get the results from sheffield central ??

Originally posted by Kezza1
missed that!! ..........does anyone know where i can get the results from sheffield central ??

Go to somewhere like www.Sky.com/news or http://news.bbc.co.uk , anyway surprise surprise Richard Caborn was voted back in

thanks rob :thumbsup:

Originally posted by ukdavvy
i

How is this guy suposed to have a handle on local affairs, assuming he's elected in, when he lives an hour away?


Maybe he's a regular forumer. :thumbsup:

And anyway is being 1 hour away really that bad a thing? If you lived in Grenoside i could be there in about half an hour. I live in Leeds. If i was travelling from say, dore or dronfield it would probably take about the same. Just a thought.

-PK-

I couldn't decide out of 2 candiates who to vote for so when in the polling booth i looked at the addresses. One lived in chesterfield and one in the area where i live. So i went for the local one, made decision a bit easier though.

As was pointed out people are hardly going to up sticks and come to live here before they win the seat.

And as for 'local knowledge' - you can probably get a good feel for what's relevant by setting up a weekly surgery in your constituency, listening, getting in to things like SF, reading the local rags. You could live in a nice part of Sheffield and still know sod all about what happens in another part of your constituency if you never bothered with it.

I'd rather had soemone who was willing to listen and put the effort in to representing their constituents, rather than someone who gets in based on the 'rosette on a dog' theory of British Democracy! :)

Joe

but how the hell is he going to listen when he lives god knows how many miles away ??? ........ British democracy allows any tom dick or harry to travel accross the counrty and say oh i know i will stand here............ for gods sakes its bad enough Caborn got back in...... i am a labour supporter but omg a party for working class people has anyone seen his expenses ...... argggggg i do apologise rant over and out :mad:

my take on the whole thing was the BNP one didnt want to list a sheffield address because he would be fire bombed


just my 20p

Originally posted by Carl_Malibu
my take on the whole thing was the BNP one didnt want to list a sheffield address because he would be fire bombed

Why would anybody do that?

d

Originally posted by Carl_Malibu
my take on the whole thing was the BNP one didnt want to list a sheffield address because he would be fire bombed


just my 20p

No nothing as dramatic as that, they just couldn’t find anyone from Sheffield to stand so bought in a rather nasty bloke from Coventry, as they had to for two other seats in Sheffield.

Originally posted by robbie
tis wasn't the Lib Dem Candidate in Hillsbrough was it? I noticed that they lived in Manchester and any chance of them getting my vote vanished.

I have a confession. A free paper, Look Local, which circulates around Hillsborough, twice published the photographs of the main political contenders in that constituency. However, they didn't publish the photo of John Commons, the Lib-Dem candidate from Manchester. They mistakenly published my mug-shot instead! I'm sure that must have added a few hundred votes to the winning Labour candidate's tally! :roll: :smile:

Originally posted by Carl_Malibu
my take on the whole thing was the BNP one didnt want to list a sheffield address because he would be fire bombed


just my 20p

One of the BNP candidates lives up at Lowedges I noticed.

I thought it was a bit stupid listing a Sheffield address. There are quite a few people who have very strong opinions re. the BNP and letting them have your home address wouldn't be very wise.

Just shows how clever they are though ;) (sorry, couldn't resist)

Norton, you can hardly go listing an address that isn't yours though, in the course of standing for election. Starting off by lying to the electorate ....oh-oh! not a good plan :rolleyes:

Quite aside from that - look at the reaction of other local posters to candidates from outside the area standing .... horns of a dilemma there really for candidates, whose politics may not prove popular. List genuine address and risk something nasty or list false address and risk losing votes for being an outsider. Difficult choice for some? and possibly illegal too?

My address is on the council web site and I can guarantee if anyone comes to my place they will be in for a nasty shock.
I also have every address of all the candidates but unlike some I wont go around attacking their house.
Democracy dont you just love it.:hihi: