Local Elections

[Johnny]

In my family my Dad's side are all "English" with the exception of one who married a lady in Africa & never returned to England, I have no idea how much further that side of the family got. Although we are all CofE on my Dad's, mums mum (his nan) was Jewish.

My Mum's side is a mixture, although she is a cockney & so where here parents and grandparents here maiden name was Reilly. Some on here side also ended up in Australia (again not sure how much further that side of the family went) and also one of my cousins married a Welsh lady which opens just a whole new avenue.

So you could say I come from a mongrel family

[Anonymous]

I am currently a fully paid up member of the Conservative and Unionist Party. However because David Cameron has moved the Tory Party towards political correctness and also because Nick Griffin has done a good job of making the British National Party more saleable. I will therefore be voting for the BNP this coming Thursday. Finally for now anybody who thinks that the BNP is anti Jewish should take notice of the fact that Patricia Richardson the BNP group leader on Epping Forest council is Jewish and very well respected throughout the BNP, please visit http://www.bnp.org.uk and click on countering the smears.

[onetrickpony]

I'm a little confused as usual, i know there is local elections coming up on Thursday, but what are people in England voting for? Is it councillers, for MPs, Mayor - and how does it change the party control of towns?

Mostly on the news, all ive heard is Scotland this, Scotland that, hardly anything about what England are voting, or doing.#

I know at General Elections, if i go and vote for Phil Hope (LAB) and he wins, then he become MP for Corby, and thats ONE point to Labour on a whole. Im i right, or way off?

[James Vertigan]

I'm not voting for anybody... because we had our election last year. Doesn't seem to be one in my area this year.

[Nick Harvey]

what are people in England voting for?

In simple terms, their local councils.

Dependant on the structure of your local government, this could be any combination of Town Councils, District Councils and Unitary Authorities.

Unless anyone says I'm wrong, I don't think any County Council seats are up for grabs this year.

In our case, here, we get up to seven votes (out of eleven candidates) for our Town Council; and up to three votes (out of about eight candidates, I think) for our District Council.

(A partly political broadcast, extracting the urine out of the majority of the candidates will apear in the usual place at midnight on Monday evening!)

[Square Eyes]

You should use your vote against the wheelie bin mafia, imposing fortnightly bin collections, leaving our streets overflowing with rubbish and litter and threatening to fine householders for putting an item in the wrong colour container.

Nothing short of a council tax rebate will suffice for this degredation of duty.

[Johnny]

I'm not voting for anybody... because we had our election last year. Doesn't seem to be one in my area this year.

London always has theirs at different times to the rest of the UK, not sure why though

[Nick Harvey]

You should use your vote against the wheelie bin mafia.

We're in Kennet District, one of the districts with "chip in bin".

That row's still going on because the employed officials bought (very expensive) chips to put in the bins without telling the councillors they were going to do it.

[Nick Harvey]

What's the idea behind chip-in-bin?

They're not doing it YET, but...................

The bin lorry can identify whose bin is being emptied, weigh it as it's lifted, and charge you extra on your council tax if you go over your permitted weight of waste per fortnight.

It'll be chaos round here if they do implement it, as quite a number of people removed the chips and posted them back to the council (at the suggestion of the local paper); whilst in many streets the kids go round on bin day and swap the chips around between different people's bins.

[onetrickpony]

what are people in England voting for?

In simple terms, their local councils.

Dependant on the structure of your local government, this could be any combination of Town Councils, District Councils and Unitary Authorities.

Unless anyone says I'm wrong, I don't think any County Council seats are up for grabs this year.

In our case, here, we get up to seven votes (out of eleven candidates) for our Town Council; and up to three votes (out of about eight candidates, I think) for our District Council.

(A partly political broadcast, extracting the urine out of the majority of the candidates will apear in the usual place at midnight on Monday evening!)

Oh right thanks for that. I had someone from a Conservative group asking if we would vote Conservative, he did come across well but i'll stick with Labour.

On the bin issue a couple of years back here we all had one green wheelie bin which was emptied every Thursday. Now, you have to make sure the lid is closed, no bin bags beside the bins themselves, and put out the Black and Brown bins one week, and the Green bin the following.

So does the bin collection stuff work differently in different areas?

[Ant]

A brief post - sadly I think it looks like Alex Sammond and the SNP will win the Scottish Parliament elections this week. Although it'll be interesting to see what happens with this 2010 referendum.