City Council Elections 2014

[altus 533]

I think you'll find DOCX can be opened by free software without a problem (MS was pressurized into making it an open format by the EU years ago)

 

MS weren't pressured into it by the EU. After ODF, which MS were invited to join the project committee of but declined, was approved as an ISO standard MS realised that governments would prefer an ISO standard to their own. They hurriedly pushed OOXML as an alternatice standard and got it approved by various dodgy dealings on standards committees. What they got approved was a very poor interoperability standard - it had features like useWord97LineBreakRules but never defined what those rules were. On top of that, because what they got approved didn't match what MS Office produced they have never produced a version of MS Office that produces standards conforming OOXML documents. This left everyone else with a choice of conforming to the standards and having interoperability problems or copying Microsoft and not following the standard. All this is one of the reasons the UK government, and many others, have adopted ODF as their standard document format. Far more detail about this than you ever wished to know can be found on Groklaw.

[Glennis 15]

I'm sure the voters of Burngreave will be flocking to vote for someone who thinks the 2007 floods were caused by prostitution.

 

:hihi:

[Guest]

- surely Sheffield can't pull out of the EU on its own

 

It seems to think it can alleviate the plight of people from poor and war-torn countries and tackle climate change on its own.

[horribleblob 210]

Good old Sheffield City Council:

 

Deciding not to release the list of candidates on the internet in a portable format, but instead using proprietary software which must be purchased first by anyone wishing to read it.

 

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/elections/elections-22-may.html

 

It opens simply enough in the free and open source 'TextEdit' on my mac. I don't know why SCC haven't given a pdf option though.

[tzijlstra 11]

MS weren't pressured into it by the EU. After ODF, which MS were invited to join the project committee of but declined, was approved as an ISO standard MS realised that governments would prefer an ISO standard to their own. They hurriedly pushed OOXML as an alternatice standard and got it approved by various dodgy dealings on standards committees. What they got approved was a very poor interoperability standard - it had features like useWord97LineBreakRules but never defined what those rules were. On top of that, because what they got approved didn't match what MS Office produced they have never produced a version of MS Office that produces standards conforming OOXML documents. This left everyone else with a choice of conforming to the standards and having interoperability problems or copying Microsoft and not following the standard. All this is one of the reasons the UK government, and many others, have adopted ODF as their standard document format. Far more detail about this than you ever wished to know can be found on Groklaw.

 

 

Yes they were, not sure why Groklaw does not feature this at all, seems a rather large oversight. But the EU has been on MS' backside over open standards since the late nineties.

 

And although MS might not have changed to open standards just because of the EU, there is no doubt that they could see this one coming and they were getting fed-up of having to pay massive fines all the time.

[Eamonn Ward 10]

I sent this to a hustings chair in case they wanted people to know how long the councillors would be elected for. Might as well repeat it here:

 

The councillor elected on May 22 will serve a 2 year term

 

The councillor elected in May 2015 will serve a 1 year term

 

New boundaries will come into operation for the 2016 elections - proposals are just beginning to be formulated and new boundaries will be agreed in 2015. If the council continues to have 3 seats per ward (almost certain) and follows the 2004 method (very likely) this should happen in May 2016:

 

All seats are contested - people will have 3 votes for 3 councillors.

Seats will be allocated for 4, 3 and 2 year terms to the top 3 candidates in order of votes.

[cgksheff 44]

I sent this to a hustings chair in case they wanted people to know how long the councillors would be elected for. Might as well repeat it here:

 

The councillor elected on May 22 will serve a 2 year term

 

The councillor elected in May 2015 will serve a 1 year term

 

New boundaries will come into operation for the 2016 elections - proposals are just beginning to be formulated and new boundaries will be agreed in 2015. If the council continues to have 3 seats per ward (almost certain) and follows the 2004 method (very likely) this should happen in May 2016:

 

All seats are contested - people will have 3 votes for 3 councillors.

Seats will be allocated for 4, 3 and 2 year terms to the top 3 candidates in order of votes.

 

 

That is a slightly obscure way of trying to explain what is going to happen.

 

This month you will elect one third your Councillors as normal.

 

How long they stay in office will depend upon the Electoral Review that is currently being undertaken.

 

It is expected to be finished and accepted by Parliament in Spring 2015 ... but that is not necessarily guaranteed.

 

Once it is accepted, there will be new ward boundaries.

 

All Council seats will then be put up for election in the following year and allocated as Eamonn illustrates above.

 

In the following years, one third of the new Council will then be put up for election every three years out of 4 ... just as they are now.

 

You are not "electing a Councillor to sit for 2 years". You are electing a Councillor as normal, but it is worth understanding that the whole Council will be put up for election in one go as soon as the Electoral Review is passed (probably in 2016).

[SevenRivers 10]

I would rather we moved to full council elections than election by thirds, and reduce the number of councillors to 1 or 2 per ward.

[Alcoblog 10]

Why do people bother showing any interest in this voting malarkey ... it's just a load of narcissistic halfwits coming out of the woodwork for a couple of weeks, knocking on peoples doors, patronising smiles, photo opportunities with sick children, pretending to have half a pint in the 'local', lying how much they care for the community in a pathetic attempt to get elected, thereby guaranteeing more back door earnings and freebies in the form of backhanders.

Complete waste of time ... you've just got to look around!

[jediwarrior 10]

Im gona vote BMP least they say it how it is

[SpikeMac 10]

Im gona vote BMP least they say it how it is

 

Best spelling mistake ever:D

[LeMaquis 10]

Im gona vote BMP least they say it how it is

 

The British Misspelling Party should be perfect for you.