The Straight Choice

Today is June 4 and my partner tried to get me out of the house without my morning tea at 6:30am to deliver Green Party leaflets. I headed out at 6:50am.

The delivery on the day is potentially important because folks might pocket your leaflet on their way out the door as a method of reminding themselves to go out and vote (if that’s what they are inclined to do).

This one batch of streets near my house gets hit hard, because they are in reach and dense with letter boxes. People there don’t know that half a mile up the road they never get any Green Party leaflets.

These were just ordinary leaflets used in another part of town, not special ones that say “Vote Today” I saw going out last May from other parties in the target ward during the council elections. It’s important that every leaflet to the same house looks different.

There’s a shortage of public buildings in some parts of the city, so they have set up portacabins at certain junctions. Probably cost quite a bit.

We voted in the basement of this place.

Later in the morning, while I was shopping, I asked someone I knew whether he had voted today. He turned out to be a “bring back hanging — it’s the only thing these violent thugs understand” and “I’d agree with the BNP if I could be bothered to vote” sort of bloke.

Maybe it’s my age, but I talk politics with people to find out what their rationale is, not to convince them. I know I don’t have the talent to persuade people. That’s what politicians are for. I converse for my own good, to learn, not to teach.

The conversation about politics drifted onto the TV program on the BBC last night, “Kate Adie returns to Tiananmen Square”, which had really impressed him.

Those Chinese get killed for trying to get democracy in their country, which we know is cherished here about as much as an old shoe. Funny how those who don’t have democracy are much more keen on it than those who do. Funny how killing them off doesn’t really deter them from wanting to get it.

Do you think the death penalty only stops people murdering kids in other street gangs, but it can’t stop people fighting for justice and democracy?

I don’t think the question was understood. The two concepts were in separate thought compartments.

If you don’t know who to vote for today, Nosemonkey has some online resources for deciding how to vote.

I was interested to note that he linked to that Green Party video about the voting system I did earlier, as he is not a Green supporter. I felt concerned about that, given my affiliation, but apparently there just is no other resource for describing the EU voting system.

I mean, goddamnit, what do you think the electoral commission is for? There’s this embarrassing animation about how to walk to the polling station, and then they give only this page to explain the mechanism of the system! Not good enough! This is something that needs an on-line animation with pie charts and real numbers.

The facts are, later tonight, when the polls close, there will be a count of the ballot sheets with their faces turned down. Some of my colleagues are going to be there at the local station to see if they can glean some estimation of the votes in Liverpool by looking at the imprint of the “X”s through the paper.

The number of ballots have to match those who registered at the poll to prevent ballot stuffing.

The real count happens on Sunday when rest of Europe votes, and the results start to come through later that evening.

I expect there to be a pause in election leafletting after today to give everyone a break, and then it probably picks up much sooner than you would think in certain parts of the country where a candidate is really serious about getting elected.

The only way to find out is to either be there, or keep the profile of TheStraightChoice high enough such that it appears on our radar.