Fewer people standing for election

Councillors are the ones that fix annual budgets and make decisions about how many staff to employ. They're the ones who close schools and libraries, build new schools, expand or reduce services, etc. Your immediate bosses don't have the power that councillors have.

 

MPs and health ministers have loads of power over the NHS, but that does not exclude nurses or doctors from becoming members of Parliament. If there is any conflict of interest, they could stand for election for any role, and then resign if elected.

Would a person working for the council have any influence over those that may vote for him/her?

---------- Post added 27-04-2015 at 12:52 ----------

Councillors are the ones that fix annual budgets and make decisions about how many staff to employ. They're the ones who close schools and libraries, build new schools, expand or reduce services, etc. Your immediate bosses don't have the power that councillors have.

I guess all schools are affected by new schools being built, but only council school workers are excluded from standing for elections. If council workers were treated the same as civil servants, only those on the top pay scales would be excluded from elections.

I guess I am on my own on this one; The Electoral Commission has told me to contact -

The Cabinet Office

Correspondence Team

70 Whitehall

London

SW1A 2AS

I emailed The Cabinet Office and my local MP, neither of them replied. I have sent another email to The Cabinet Office.

Perhaps they have been busy arguing about Brexit.

Isnt democracy seen as a human right, something which is being denied to 20%+ of the adult population.

You're right. The knee jerk reaction to anyone who complains about the political system is 'stand for election so you can change things', which, if your figure is right, 20% of the population are barred from doing.

Every German who has reached the age of majority, in Germany 18 years, is eligible to stand for election according to the German Basic Law.

If you could provide a link to substantiate that, it would disable most of the objections people on this thread are raising, as, it shows that a system which doesn't bar people from standing, can work.

Eligibility to stand for election

Every German who has reached the age of majority, in Germany 18 years, is eligible to stand for election according to the German Basic Law (article 38, paragraph 2 BL). It has to be remarked that the age of majority can be altered by a simple federal law.

Eligibility to stand for election presupposes the right to vote. However, some German citizens are not permanent residents of Germany and also do not have the right to vote as a German citizen living abroad. They can still be elected if they meet all the other requirements. Yet, people can be deprived of their eligibility to stand for election in certain circumstances. This can happen in the case of an imprisonment of more than a year as is laid down in § 45, subparagraph 1 in the Strafgesetzbuch, the German criminal law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Germany#Right_to_vote

You're missing the point. If council staff could be councillors they'd be employing themselves with the taxpayer footing the bill. There'd be massive conflicts of interest.

 

Scotland changed their electoral system, so now local authority employees can stand for election, but they must resign if elected.

The Electoral Commission has recommended the same system for the UK.

Turnout at the 2017 Scottish local elections was 46.9%, the turnout in the English local election of 2016 was around 34%; my guess would be that Scotland have PR - so there are no wasted votes and that increases turnout.

The Tories will not change the voting system, because it keeps them in power. What a disgrace.

Myself and 24% of my colleagues cannot stand for the city council because we are employed by them.

If you truly cared about local democracy you would resign from your council employment and stand for election.

No conflict of interest then, and no barrier to entering public office.

If you truly cared about local democracy you would resign from your council employment and stand for election.

 

No conflict of interest then, and no barrier to entering public office.

I may do that when I am around 60; but I need to be financially stable.

Scotland changed their electoral system, so now local authority employees can stand for election, but they must resign if elected.

What a disgraceful waste of public money.

What is the point of standing for election if the winning candidate is forced to resign?

The local authority employee in this situation, who wins an election but then has to resign, should also be forced to pay for the full cost of holding the election and it's rerun.

If they can't or won't pay, they should be imprisoned.

What a disgraceful waste of public money.

 

I think you have this the wrong way round

They resign from their paid job with the local authority.

I think you have this the wrong way round

 

They resign from their paid job with the local authority.

Oops!

Please ignore my previous post.

Thank you.

Oops!

 

Please ignore my previous post.

 

Thank you.

I am in the process of writing a letter to my local paper, so I will make myself clearer, makes for a better letter

Oops!

 

Please ignore my previous post.

 

Thank you.

only your previous post?