? Cameron said in Parliament yesterday that it would be decades if ever for Turkey to join the EU. A single EU country can veto anyway and the French, who have no desire to admit the Turks, have promised a referendum on it should it ever look likely, and the Cypriots and (I think) Greeks would veto, probably others too, including the UK if we were still members. The 'deal' giving Turks tourist visa fast track access to the Schengen area is tied to several criteria around transparency in the Turkish political system which it is very doubtful they can meet. Only 10% of Turks have passports and a tiny fraction of them have the 3rd generation biometric passports required.
Where I am the only thing we have to vote for today is the Police Commissioner, or whatever they are called. As I have had precisely zero information on who the candidates are I will be abstaining from this privilege. Or I might have a look on line and if anyone stands out I'll exercise my democratic duty. Why didn't they delay all the elections happening today and have them on the same day as the referendum, or bring the referendum forward to coincide with today? Then the turnout would have told us exactly how interested the British are in democracy.
In truth, a lot of things will be learned by having these elections on different days. I'd be really surprised if the PCC elections get more than about 15% across the country. Areas where there are also local elections will get a little more, but that will depend on local stuff - in a borough near me, there's been a load of trouble over the past year with traffic issues, which the population blame on pathetically inept decisions by the incumbent councillors. I'd expect that area to have a higher than average turnout.
That's a pretty cynical view of the electorate, though it may be accurate. Even if votes were cast mindlessly, or more likely according to traditional loyalties, at least the beneficiaries would have a slightly enhanced mandate. But it's not something I'm going to get exercised about.
Understand it's cynical, but the politics of election management is increasingly a cynical PR exercise - something New Labour cemented in their time in office. All parties will be looking at the differences between turnout, political inclination, weather, and which votes are taking place. They will be looking to learn something about what energises people to go and vote. And they will use that - initially in the upcoming EU referendum vote but going forwards in local, national, and EU elections in the years to come.
Then AV is entirely tactical, and the person that more people actually want to win becomes irrelevant. Not a system I would want to see introduced across the country.
Well look at that, it is possible to pause the implementation of the new contract after all. Who would have guessed.
I... think I understand you. Voting for someone that won't win still feels to me like a wasted vote, however, as the person you 'really' hope gets the job is someone you don't actually want to vote for (else they would get your first vote) simply because he's less detestable than the other person who has a chance of winning?
How does AV work when you are voting for a single position? Does your second choice get counted as a half vote or something? I should look it up I suppose. Is the London Assembly elected the same way? I get PR but need to put a bit of time in on AV.
