slothwithwifi - Tumblr blog

slothwithwifi · 11 days

Text

A postal vote also means you don't have to factor in getting to the polling station on the day itself so useful if you have shifts or caring responsibilities that are difficult to coordinate around, or health conditions that you can't preempt on the day. Voting by proxy is an option for medical and disability or employment reasons, but I'm not sure how involved that process is as it's restricted to certain categories, whereas you don't need to provide a reason for applying for postal votes unless you're voting in Northern Ireland).

I applied for a postal vote for the elections at the start of May as I was away, it involved filling in a not too long online form and uploading a photo of your signature. When you're registered they send out the voting documents closer to the election date (I think it was about a week and a half) for you to fill in and send off, with pretty clear detailed instructions on how to do so.

If there's anything about physically getting to the polling stations that could throw a spanner in the works, even if it's simply 'I feel too rushed and panicky having to fill in the ballot paper while people are waiting and it puts me off' then Postal Votes can be really useful. On top of getting around the ridiculous Photo ID aspect.

[Image ID]

Key dates for the 2024 UK general election

Deadline for registering to vote: 23:59 on Tuesday 18th June

Deadline for applying for a postal vote: 17:00 Wednesday 19th June

Deadline for applying for a proxy vote: 17:00 Wednesday 26th June

Deadline for applying for a Voter Authority Certificate: 17:00 Wednesday 26th June

Polling day: 07:00-22:00 Thursday 4th July

[End image ID]

#uk politics #uk elections #the gov.uk site also says expired ID is allowed as long as you don't look vastly different from the picture #but I'm feeling a bit dubious about relying on my expired passport because im a suspicious so and so #I do want to go in person if possible this time though so might get the Voter Authority Certificate just to be absolutely certain?

2K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 12 days

Text

May your 25th of May be glorious! Here's to Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hard Boiled Egg.

#the glorious 25th of may #discworld #not that a book about what it means to care and to resist when things seem futile and not everything will get better #but what happens *will* make a difference to the lives of all these individual people that society is made up of #and so it matters even when things seem too wrong to ever change #seems in any well relevant to the situations many of us find ourselves in atm or anything....#*looks over at the shelf and decides its time for a Night Watch re-read*

3K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 15 days

Text

.... And it's just been announced for July 4th, which is a pretty tight turnaround for getting any registration and documentation done if you haven't already.

If you're in the UK please do take a look and make sure you can vote - there's not a simple answer to making our messy politics better but getting the Conservatives out of power does an awful lot to take us in that direction, and protects the most vulnerable (and well, everybody) in our society

Okay Brits I need you to start paying attention.

We are likely in a General Election year.

We are going to be voting which political party we want to govern us the next five years. As of yet we don't have a date (the latest it could be held is January 2025, though it's probably going to be in 2024), but you need to start listening to what's going on so you can be ready and make an informed choice.

In the last General Election, the turnout was 67.3% across the UK. People often say they didn't vote because they didn't understand the politics or "they're all the same anyway."

When a General Election is called, Polling Day will be 25 days later. If you're working, busy, or just have life stuff happening, you may not have time to do the research you want. This is why it's important to start doing things now.

1. Are you Registered to Vote?

You can register to vote here.

You can check if you're registered by going here.

You must 18 or over on Polling Day to vote in a General Election.

You must also be one of the following:

A British, Irish, or qualifying Commonwealth citizen. (You can check here if you're a qualifying Commonwealth citizen)

Be resident at an address in the UK (or a British citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years)

Not be legally excluded from voting

According to the website, while registering, "You’ll be asked for your National Insurance number (but you can still register if you do not have one). After you’ve registered, your name and address will appear on the electoral register."

There is also an option to register to vote anonymously "if you're concerned about your name and address appearing on the electoral register for safety reasons." The link to that page is here.

You can register to vote by post by going here and printing out the forms.

If you would like a step-by-step guide to registering to vote, here is a page that has a pdf doing just that. It is also available in Welsh.

2. Get a Photo ID

We now need to show a photo ID when turning up to the polls.

Here is a list of valid forms of photo ID.

Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get a valid ID, otherwise you will be turned away from the polling station.

If you vote by proxy, you need to "take your own ID when you go to vote on someone else’s behalf. You do not need to take theirs."

According to the website, "The name on your ID must match your name on the electoral register. If it does not, you’ll need to:

register to vote again with your new details

take a document with you to vote that proves you’ve changed your name (for example, a marriage certificate)

Small differences do not matter. For example, if your ID says ‘Jim Smith’ instead of ‘James Smith’.

If you do not have a type of photo ID that allows you to vote, you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate."

3. You need to apply to vote by post

You can apply here.

You need to be registered before applying.

To apply you need:

"The address where you are registered to vote

Your National Insurance number or other identity documents, e.g. a passport

the specific date of the election or referendum you want to make a postal vote, if you only want a one-off postal vote

You’ll also need to upload a photo of your handwritten signature in black ink on plain white paper.

If you cannot provide a signature or one that always looks the same, you may be able to apply for a postal vote signature waiver within the service.

You might be asked for extra documents to identify you."

The linked page has an option for downloading an application form to send in by post.

4. Start Researching!

Think back to the last few years.

What did you like, and who did them? What about the opposite?

Is there something local happening in your area, and who is pushing for/against it?

Look up the parties' social media - what do they promote, promise, and call out?

Here are some resources:

An overview of the political parties

BBC News page for current politics

How many MPs are in which parties

Information on General Elections/when ours will likely be held

The other key political events in 2024

General info around voting, elections, boundary changes, etc.

TL;DR

2024 Will likely be the year the UK votes for the next political party in charge.

You need to register to vote.

You need a photo ID to take with you.

You need to apply to vote by post.

The best time to start looking into the parties and what they do is now, so you can be informed later on.

The rest of the world is welcome to share this!

#uk politics #it's been 14 years of Conservative majority #let's not put up with this any longer #general election 24 #here we go #and yes i did discover the announcement through Tumblr #somehow not the Destiel meme though....#also it says expired Photo IDs are also valid so worth double-checking the gov.uk site to see if you have valid ones already

95 notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 29 days

Text

Sorry I Spent all mY spoons this week already and it's fucking Tuesday. We're heading to the knives

#feeling this on a bone deep level #im back in work and exhausted and people are consistently not listening to either the training or reference materials ive given them #i have neither the energy or patience for this and 'we're heading to the knives' hits a little too close to home #here's hoping i manage to hold on to some level of workplace professionalism (or at least repression) by the end of the week #and don't get incredibly pointed with people

28K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 2 months

Text

kind of interesting how the boop feature makes tumblr feel so much more active? like idk usually you see people reblogging stuff but you never know if that's a queue and you forget that there are real people behind the blogs. but if ur getting booped? somebody saw you and acknowledged your existence. wild.

#phatic expressions as a structural piece of language bring me joy #genuinely #because they highlight how the 'point' of communication isn't just to convey information #but also to express and even create connection #and isn't that wonderful #how building relationships is built into the building blocks of language?#☺️#but also yes Tumblr has a load of way to enable those connections #let's have some fun with them too

13K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 2 months

Text

i have not booped half of you as well as i would have liked, and i have booped half of you half as well as you deserve.

#ive had a lot of unexpected fun with the booping today ☺️#there's something rather lovely about taking away the worry about interacting (because it's opt in)#and then watching the joyous chaos unfold #also toe beans 😺#go forth and boop!#and still feel free to say hi unexpectedly once the booping's over 🙂

32K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 2 months

Text

"who knows what they still do on tumblr"

us:

#boop

52K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 2 months

Text

Reblog if its ok to spam you with boops

62K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 2 months

Photo

Realising the last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep was around 1:30 am this morning soooooooo...

Good morning, good morrrning!

☺️🧥☂️

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN dir. Stanley Donen + Gene Kelly

107K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 4 months

Text

Instant thought was a Portal gun 🔫

16K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 4 months

Text

I generally struggle with sudoku because I can do patterns but numbers just don't really click with my brain and I forget where I'm at with them.

I've just done three straight runs on this picture version and I think only had one point where it flagged an error - it's lovely to look at but also gives me a way to do some relaxing puzzle solving that I couldn't really engage with before, thanks for making this @weepingwitch

i know this means absolutely nothing to most people but basically all of the little web game things I've made recently (angels in automata, hex plant growing game, d.a.n.m.a.k.u., life music, sudoku land, the metroidvania style map editor, etc etc etc) are all entirely self-contained individual client-side html files that can be downloaded and run offline and have literally no libraries or frameworks or dependencies, because i'm an insane woman who enjoys hand coding my input handling and display code from scratch in vanilla js and having it all live in one single html file with the game logic and the page structure and the page style all just living and loving together side by side in a universal format that can be run by any web browser on any devixe. i'll even include image files as base64 data-uri strings just to keep every single asset inside the one file.

19K notes · View notes

slothwithwifi · 4 months

Photo