Because it sounds ‘friendly’ and means nothing, or even the opposite of what it claims.
Miniluv, minitrue, minipax, miniplenty. Channeling 1984.
It was a Boris Johnson slogan to try and convince people in the UK regions that the Government was going to do something to redress the imbalance in incomes and infrastructure between the South-East and the rest of England.
Then they cancelled the HS2 train line (the flagship “levelling up” project) and used some of the money to repair potholes in London. (No that’s not Labour propaganda - the Minister concerned explicitly said so:)
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: ‘This funding is part of a long-term, 11-year plan to ensure road users across London have smoother, faster and safer journeys by using redirected HS2 funding to make the right long-term decisions for a brighter future.’
Putting Michael Gove in charge of that department was a bit of a giveaway as well.
It’s a throwback to the English Civil War in 1642 
and the levellers fight for popular sovereignty (I used to drink in the Rosemary Branch) in Hackney.
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I would be very surprised if the Tories know that much history. 
I remember the English Civil War because it was exactly 300 years before I was born.
So I can claim absolutely no responsability. 
Drat, we were hoping to blame you for everything that’s happened since, David. 
Sometimes I feel as if it would be justified. 
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You done well Karen. Only another £59,999,999 to go and Gove will have been as generous to you as he was to Michelle Mone(alot). 
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I got an email from PayPal this morning telling me that they have £10 waiting for me to claim and to contact them via my account.
I replied saying that I do not have, nor do I want, an account with them but, if they would kindly tell me that they will send me a cheque I will give them an address to send it to.
Almost instantaneously I got a reply saying
Thanks for contacting PayPal. We’re sorry to inform you that this email address is no longer active.
Funny how 2 seconds ago it was active enough to get my message and reply to it then. They then went on at length to list all the ways I could contact them but non excluded having an account there.
Binned, and I won’t be claiming it direct from the people who organised the questionnaire because, to be fair to them, they did say it would be paid via PP at the outset and I went ahead knowingly because I wanted to help in any way to get my vote back.
PM me if you want my Paypal address to give to them and I’ll do a virement from your choice of Wise or my French bank to wherever you say
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Thank you Karen, but no, I prefer not dealing with them on any terms, and I can afford not to have the £10. I didn’t have it before, I didn’t expect it afterwards, and will do without it now. But thank you again for the kind thought.
There is a very helpful website that gives you a projection of the vote for uk constituencies, following boundary changes. Apologies if this has been posted previously.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/boundaries2023.html
It shows that in my constituency (I’m now registered with a postal vote thanks to this thread!) Priti Patel’s majority is projected to be slashed. If the Lib Dems vote tactically for Labour, she could well be out
.
Please, always bother.
Even if your vote just reinforces something that you want it’s always worth showing the true level of support.
Equally, even if you think your vote would be “wasted” by dint of there seeming to be no chance of it effecting the change you want you should still place it. Again, if for no other reason than to show support.
P.S. There should be a candidate called RON on all ballots - ReOpen Nominations i.e. a box to say ‘none of the above’. If RON gets a majority then the candidates need be changed or to espouse better policies. Oh, & we need PR…
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T’was lighthearted! I always vote.
I’m curious, this would be my first UK election from France - how does the postal vote work - you get posted a ballot paper and post it back, is the postage paid or does one have to pay the foreign postage oneself? And how does one know the letter wont get lost?
I never doubted it. My reply was more for the wider audience 
You receive the forms in the post, you complete them & send them back in the prepaid international rated envelope that comes with them.
You don’t know that the letter won’t get lost, but I suppose you could ignore the SAE & pay for tracked delivery.
To bypass possible x-channel delays etc. I’ve always tried to give the completed envelopes to a trusted person who is taking a trip to the UK & can drop them into a postbox there.
There was an election when I was going on a trip to the UK myself & was able to hand deliver our envelopes to the local authority offices; you can even hand them in at polling stations on election day.
In past elections there have been cases of postal votes forms being sent out very late & taking too long to arrive, but IME that got better more recently.
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Totally agree, in Australia I believe unless things have changed, it is illegal not to vote. A valid ‘non of the above’ is equally valuable, shows that someone hasn’t got elected through can’t be arsed.
For the 2016 referendum I thought it so important that I went back to vote clutching my OH’s proxy as well… Otherwise I have given my sister in the UK my proxy vote, and she then applies for a postal vote. I don’t trust postal votes from here as ballot papers often come out too late to get them back in time.
But maybe with more overseas voters they will improve things?