Recently in Election 2005 Category

On the Make My Vote Count site, there is an opportunity to email one of your local councilors... I took up that opportunity. Here's what I sent:

Dear Stewart Golton

As a resident of the Morley and Rothwell constituency, I am writing to let you know that I have signed the "make my vote count" petition, see http://www.makemyvotecount.org.uk

I believe a referendum on voting reform is an essential first step towards restoring trust in politics. I hope you agree and that you will also sign it.

Yours sincerely...

And, although I half expected one, I received a reply which read:

Dear...

Thanks for the note. I am a signed up member, so am fully on message as far as electoral reform goes.

It really is quite disturbing to see how the share of the vote for the different parties in Yorkshire got divided up in terms of seats won. If you take into account the people who didn't vote at all, several seats really do look like "rotten boroughs".

Hopefully, this last set of results will get the PR issue back on the agenda across the parties.

Best wishes
Stewart Golton

It's really good to know that a voice is being heard, even if it is only mine. I'm sure most MPs would be receptive to any correspondence. Give them a try - write to them about something that you believe in, or are passionate about, regardless of whether it is on the national agenda or not, from this website (due to the short amount of time since the General Election, MPs details aren't available just yet. The site promises to get them published as soon as possible.)

I've done a small amount of research and found this page, published the day before the election - 04/05/2005 - which has a small feature on my favourite 5 vote guy, Martin Kyslun.

In today's Telegraph, they published an 8 page pull out special thing detailing every election result that had been declared at the time of publishing (I think two had still to be declared). Now, I guess this is only of use to people like me who are a little sad and are interested in the quirks of the system. But looking through the results, one constituency stood out for me. It was Derbyshire West.

As I said two entries ago only, 1 out of every 323 voters votes in the UK actually make a difference. I also stated that based upon the 2001 election results, I didn't count.

Now that we've had the election and the results are in, well it seems it was right... here's what the result is from my constituency: (remember that Colin Challen had a majority of 12090 in 2001)

So there you are... my vote didn't make one jot of a difference, the earthquake to change things here didn't happen, and even though Mr Challen's majority increased, there was a whole 1.2% swing from Labour to Conservative. Which annoys me greatly.

The current political make up of Yorkshire and the Humber is pretty split, with the Conservatives dominating the larger, more northern areas and Labour controlling the smaller, more dense southern areas. There's a smattering of Liberal Democrats in there too (three I think)... see a map showing this in detail (from the BBC) here.

I hope you got the result you wanted.

Did you know that only 1 out of every 323 voters votes in the UK actually make a difference?

This site gives a list of the previous 12 election results and the number of votes that made the difference. It's very interesting reading.

The Do You Count? website takes this and then works out whether or not you can make a difference to the forthcoming election. All that's required is for you to provide your postcode. The site works out your constituency and determines, based on the majority in the 2001 election, whether you can make a difference or not... here's what my result is:

YOU DON'T COUNT
Held by: Labour
Your outgoing MP is: Colin Challen
Majority last election: 12090

It doesn't really make a difference who you vote for in this constituency as it's almost certainly going to be held by the Labour party (which had a majority of 12090 at the last election).

To go into it deeper, these were the actual results from where I live in 2001:

As the Do You Count? site says, this doesn't mean there is nothing I, or indeed we, can do.

Here are some suggestions given by the site for action. Lobby your MP about electoral reform (when they get back to work!) Sign a petition calling for electoral reform.

If, however, you've decided not to vote, or are planning not to vote, then tell the world why! Show them you're not apathetic and you have real concerns and reasons for not voting.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who chooses to use these sites, whether you're in a safe seat or not. Please use the comment form below to get in touch - it does require a little bit of time first, but it's worth it, right?