#UK elections

[quintessbrit]

!! UK VOTERS - REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR PHOTO ID!!

This Thursday is the first local election vote in the UK in which you will need to bring a form of ID in order to cast your vote.

You’ll need one of the following types of photo ID to vote:

a UK or Northern Ireland photocard driving licence (full or provisional)

a driving licence issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands

a UK passport

a passport issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or a Commonwealth country

a PASS card (National Proof of Age Standards Scheme)

a Blue Badge

a biometric residence permit (BRP)

a Defence Identity Card (MOD form 90)

a national identity card issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein

a Northern Ireland Electoral Identity Card

a Voter Authority Certificate

an Anonymous Elector’s Document

You can also use one of the following travel passes as photo ID when you vote:

an older person’s bus pass

a disabled person’s bus pass

an Oyster 60+ card

a Freedom Pass

a Scottish National Entitlement Card (NEC)

a 60 and Over Welsh Concessionary Travel Card

a Disabled Person’s Welsh Concessionary Travel Card

a Northern Ireland concessionary travel pass

The photo on your ID must look like you. You can still use your ID even if it has expired.

Please remember to vote if you can - and if you are able and want to get the Tories out - type in your postcode to tacticalvote.co.uk and they'll tell you who to vote for it get the Conservatives out!

^^this is especially important if you live in a critical area with a possible swing in leadership due to a marginal win prior e.g. I vote in East Cambridgeshire and I will vote for the Lib Dems as they came in a narrow 2nd place last time! Hoping they win this time!

#Uk #uk #uk politics #Uk votes #uk elections #votes #vote vote vote #Vote #Pls #I beg #Tactile voting #Get them out

[sasch1sch]

here are all the elections coming up next year that are already starting to make me sweat:

new austrian government

EU election

US presidential election

UK general election

russia and belarus presidential elections (we already know the results anyway lets be real)

i need a break

heres to hoping the italian government collapses again. cheers!

#leftist #socialist #european politics #hocus pocus #potus #scotus #austrian politics #eu politics #us politics #uk politics #politics #uk elections #us presidential election #rishi sunak #joe biden #donald trump #ron desantis #ron defascist #ron desanctimonious

[bookwormonastring]

spotify i could kiss you for this

#this whole photo ID thing is bullshit #voter suppression cos they’re scared too many of us won’t vote tory #and if people haven’t been paying attention #and don’t have a valid form of ID #especially young people since we have less options (related to being less likely to vote tory perhaps? hm) #if even one person manages to vote just because they opened spotify and saw this then it’s fantastic #uk politics #spotify #spotify uk #uk elections

[earhartsease]

just went to vote in the local elections here in England and it's the first time we've ever had to provide photo ID, and it set off our jewish hypervigilance in ways we did not expect

(yes we know it's the norm in other countries, but here it's a new expression of oppression)

#uk elections #uk fascism

[hug-me-baby]

If there's one thing that has been embedded into my brain so many times that iv lost count it would have to be how stupid the conservative party are not that that wasn't already apparent with everything they've done over the past 16 years tearing this country and it's people to shreds. Not only are they completely ignoring most of the nations struggle to live, a huge drug epidemic, the slow collapse of our national health service, racially driven attacks, the rise in domestic violence, and now he's discriminating against 0.5% of the FUCKING UK's population because these amazing brave and beautiful people are expressing who they should have always been and who they are, this was only just last tuesday and it has caused an increase on homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in the uk. Please I am beging you to any British citizens 18 and over it's now your time to change this whilst it's going to be hard cleaning up this monstrous state this once proud nation was far from over 16 years ago please DO NOT vote for the conservative party on future elections.

#protect trans people #lgbtqia #fuck the tories #eat the fucking rich #tory nobheads #uk elections #uk election 2024 #keep the tory cunts out of power #rishi sunak #stupid tory cunts #pride #uk politics

[thewuzzy]

#honestly we should all be taking bets on which will happen first #united ireland #uk shitposting #back to regularly scheduled eurovision content once i have a wee mo to process #sinn féin #dup #uk elections #indy ref #aye #northern ireland #ni #scotland #scottish independence #uk politics #british politics #indyref2

[fck-capitalism]

I find myself scared for the election in the UK this year not because of the likely result the tories will lose because that is fucking amazing and I can't wait, but because how much elections and voting can whip our country up

-I already quite dislike the UK but election time is when all the horrible crappy people come out of the wood works to voice their horrible bigotry opinions

-Also I find myself in a constituency where our mp is a known Terf so that's really not great

-And everything becomes a fucking debate! I hate debates, after having to study them for politics it's clear majority of the time no one is coming to any agreement and it always the case that they bring on dumb people that are effectively person B in the following scenario that the media frequently perpetuates:

Person A: is on the news to talk about the Dangers of climate change

Commentator: okayyy now over to person B

Person B: a climate change denier

It's like why do all the person Bs get allowed to spread so much misinformation like that??

-Finally I also really worry with the recent developments in technology and considering how technology has been used to manipulate British voters I the past such as in the Brexit referendum it makes me very scared of what's going to be brought out of the bag this time

#uk #uk elections #polls #debate #capitalist hell #capitalism #fuck capitalism #fuck the tories #fuck the tory scum #fuck bigots

[eaglesnick]

The Continued Erosion of British Democracy

In May 2021 it was reported that:

“More than 2m voters may lack photo ID required under new UK bill” (Guardian: 11/04/21)

Although there was no evidence that our electoral process was in anyway flawed, being abused or interfered with, the right-wing Tory Party decided to introduce voter ID. US civil rights groups, who know something about Republican interference with the democratic voting process, have called what the Tory Party is doing “voter suppression".

In other words, the Tory government has introduced a legally binding voter requirement that has the effect of potentially  denying millions of the electorate their right to vote The fact that this group of voters – the young, the poor, the homeless, - are demographically more likely to vote Labour or Liberal Democrat is not a coincidence. This is a blatant attempt at ballot rigging.

Am I exaggerating? Possibly, but it is very odd, that older voters, who demographically tend to be vote Conservative, can use their bus passes as proof of identity, whilst students, who demographically tend to vote for more left-wing parties, are not allowed to use their student cards as proof of ID. 

 On top of the 2 million people estimated to have no photo identity at all, you can add those who do not know they need a valid form of photo ID to vote. Research shows that 25% of those born after 1995 do not realise they now need photo ID to be able to vote.

All of these figures and statistics are guess work at the moment, derived from various polls looking into the problem. Come voting day, and post electoral analysis, we should know exactly how many people will have been disenfranchised by these new rules. Well, that is what you would expect but this isn’t so. Sunak has no intension of  calculating how many voters don't have a "valid" photo ID.

Tory minister refuses to say if number of voters without photo ID will be fully recorded  (Guardian: 27/04/23)

Even the Daily Telegraph, usually a staunch supporter of Conservative Party policies, is disgusted with this anti-democratic interference with the right to vote.

“The new rules on voter ID are a democratic scandal. This expensive new system is a solution to a non-existent problem – the government should be making voting easier, not harder."

I couldn’t agree more.

#uk politics #voter suppression #uk elections #photo ID #Sunak #right-wing #electoral #interference #polling day #vote rigging

[pauldegregorio]

#register to vote #sack the tories #uk politics #uk elections #local elections #pollution #sewage

[tomorrowusa]

In the UK, political analysts and journalists have been searching the thesaurus to find synonyms for disaster to describe what happened to the Conservative Party in two by-elections on Thursday.

The by-election results only confirm that the Tories are on a downward spiral.

Peter Walker at The Guardian spells out the implications.

But even though Tory aides will point to the murky circumstances in which the incumbents in both Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire, Chris Pincher and Nadine Dorries, departed their seats, Labour’s success will send a chill through the spines of Conservative MPs for several reasons. The first is the sheer scale of the losses. The byelection record tables for swings and biggest majorities overturned are becoming increasingly filled with votes that took place since 2019, and there is now another one to be added. Dorries’ 24,664 Conservative majority was the biggest numerically to be lost in a byelection at least since 1945, potentially ever, as Labour’s Alistair Strathern won a majority of 1,192. While Tamworth involved a slightly smaller majority, the swing to Labour’s second new MP, Sarah Edwards, of 23.9 percentage points to her party from the Tories, was even greater than the 23.7 percentage point swing in July’s Selby and Ainsty byelection. The second reason for Labour joy and Conservative jitters is the way that Labour pushed their way to a win in Mid Bedfordshire despite a full-on parallel effort from the fearsome Liberal Democrat byelection machine, one which has delivered four massive wins since 2021. The Lib Dems had insisted that in the mainly rural seat only they could tempt enough Conservative votes to switch to them. In the end, their vote tally rose, but even they were steamrollered by a Labour machine clearly motivated by the prospect of government. The Mid Beds result also carries another bad omen for Sunak and his party: the way that English voters are becoming increasingly good at deciding who they need to club together tactically to unseat the Conservatives.

Increasing numbers of people are voting tactically in these by-elections to specifically defeat Conservative candidates. They may not agree with everything that Labour or the Lib Dems may stand for, but the main point is to remove the Conservatives from power.

Tamworth is was statistically the 57th safest Tory seat in the UK out of the 350+ which the Conservatives hold. It doesn't necessarily mean that Labour and the Lib Dems would pick up almost 300 seats. But in the next general election, which must be held no later than 28 January 2025, the Conservative Party will have to defend many seats which they've been taking for granted.

One fun aspect of the October 19th by-elections is that the unsuccessful Conservative candidates bolted out of the buildings as soon as the results were made known. It doesn't violate any rules, though it's poor election night etiquette.

They probably had some idea where things were headed and wanted to avoid answering questions about the WAY bad night for their party.

To see the extent of the collapse of the Conservative vote, check out the results on a graph.

If you're wondering why the BBC doesn't list every single candidate on those graphics, check out the entire list for Mid Bedfordshire which includes one named Prince Ankit Love Emperor of India.

Here's a list of how parties fared in the 19 by-elections since the general election of 2019. The Conservatives have won just 1 of the 12 in the past 20 months; and that was a narrow victory to retain Boris Johnson's seat for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. More important than the number of Tory losses is their geography – constituencies lost to Labour and the Lib Dems in traditionally Conservative areas.

#uk #house of commons #uk elections #by-elections #tamworth #mid bedfordshire #labour #lib dems #conservative party #scottish national party #sarah edwards #alistair strathern #keir starmer #winter is coming for the tories

[georgefairbrother]

On June 1st, 1970, Prime Minister Harold Wilson, while on campaign in London for the upcoming general election, was hit in the face with an egg, thrown by a Young Conservative named Richard Ware. The egg, according to some quite detailed BBC reporting, bounced off the Prime Minister’s head and broke on his jacket.

The motivation for the protest was the government’s banning of the South African cricket tour to the UK that summer. Harold Wilson himself was unfazed, observing that the cost of living could not be as high as the Tories claimed if people could afford to be throwing raw eggs about.

The polls, at that point, were predicting a comfortable win for the incumbent Labour Party.

The BBC reported;

“…Although his government has been dogged by economic crises, culminating in the devaluation of sterling three years ago, there have been signs of recovery recently. Chancellor Roy Jenkins introduced a series of indirect taxes in 1968 and a pay rise ceiling of 3.5% which have helped improve the economy to the extent Mr Wilson felt it was safe to call an election for 18 June…”

Opposition Leader Edward Heath commented on the egg ‘incident’, when asked at a press conference, “This was a secret meeting on a secret tour which nobody is supposed to know about. It means that men - and perhaps women - are walking the streets with eggs in their pockets, just on the off-chance..”

In spite of the polls, the Tories secured victory with a majority of 30, leading to a single-term Heath Government.

See also:

#harold wilson #edward heath #uk politics #uk elections #democracy #protest #uk government #social history

[harringtons-cupid]

#uk politics #uk rights #human rights #fuck the tories #2024 elections #uk elections #general election 2024

[thebrokenkindle]

Friendly reminder to my fellow UK folks that you need some form of photo ID to vote in person at this year's local elections!

You can apply for a Voter ID Certificate if you don't have any photo ID, and you can use out of date photo ID as long as it still looks like you. You can also use certain concessionary bus passes (usually an older person's travel card).

More info here:

#uk elections #local elections #2023 local elections #2023 uk elections #voter id