Why should I vote?

[SYorksDeano]

So the local elections will shortly be with us and it will be time for people to vote for someone to represent them and generally try and make an improvement (and believe me Sheffield Council needs improving), but who are your local councillors?

 

Well that is a good question. In my area (Ecclesfield) we have 3 councillors representing the area. I know we have 3 at the moment as I checked on Google just before I wrote this. Now are these 3 people up for election again? Well that's a good question. As it stands at the moment I have not had a single leaflet, someone knock on the door or someone just shouting at the top of their voice to vote for them.

 

This morning I had a little walk from my house and to my surprise I spotted 1 Lib Dem poster. Who is the person standing for the Lib Dems? Has the poster just been put up by a friend of a friend? In fact who is standing for election in my area because I don't have a clue and the people that I speak to are in the same situation so its not just me. We have received voting cards so something must be happening.

 

Then we have the vote on if we want an elected mayor. On tv the other day they had someone on from either the Yes or No camps who said "We could have done things a bit better but I think we will be ok". Really? Least the interview was honest. Yes you could have done things better by actually contacting people. If we have an option 'I couldn't give a toss' then I know where my vote would be going.

 

We have people standing for election who haven't told me why they want my vote. What are they going to try and do about the areas problems? This area has some housing issues that certainly need resolving. Are those standing for election going to try and get answers or get these problems resolved? Here is 1 problem they can get answers to:

 

90% of homes in this area still have to undergo the Decent Homes programme (if seen some of the 'work' carried out in some of the houses, cowboy builders have nothing on these). We have been told that the houses won't be done till 2013 or 2014. The programme is meant to finish in 2014 anyway but the big question is 'Will the work ever be carried out?'. Sheffield Homes have recently been told that after 2014 the houses are going back to the council so why should Sheffield Homes carry out the work?

 

Let's take repairs to my house. Ever heard the saying 'the house that Jack built'......well even Jack is denying all responsibility and who can blame him. I have large pieces of rendering falling off the house and in December 2011 Sheffield Homes sent Keir (who do repairs on behalf of Sheffield Homes) out to remove dangerous parts of the rendering. Has rendering been put back on? Well after 5 inspection visits you would think so, but the answer is no. According to inspectors for Sheffield Homes the area is part of a programme where all the rendering will be done.....yet when you make enquires with Sheffield Homes they don't have a clue what you are going on about.

 

These are the sort of things local councillors could sort out.....if we knew who.

 

With Sheffield Homes I have an unofficial stupidest repair of the week going on with some friends. Last week I won! I had someone out to repair the window, and he wanted to take bits off 1 window to repair what he had come out for......so in other words move the repair into another room for him to come back out to repair that. The windows need replacing anyway but this won't be done until the Decent Homes programme starts. In fact with all the 'temporary' repairs carried out and the 'temporary' repair to the temporary repairs in my house, they could have saved a hell of a lot of money by replacing it.

 

So if any local councillor in my area reads this, if you want my vote then get repairs done to peoples properties and tell people who you are, then just then you might get my vote.

 

As it stands I'm voting for no one. If those that want to be elected don't speak to the people that have that vote, then what will change if they are voted in?

[Jim Graham]

As it stands I'm voting for no one. If those that want to be elected don't speak to the people that have that vote, then what will change if they are voted in?

 

 

 

You do right.

 

But I would vote for an elected mayor. Clearly the entire intellectual capacity of 82 Sheffield councillors adds up to brain power of a chimp. They are obviously incapable of getting the simplest things done because they spend their entire waking hours throwing insults at each other. An elected mayor, independant of the main parties, can ask government for the powers to cut through the council's bureaucratic c**p and get things done. So give it a chance. You're getting nothing now so what have you got to lose?

 

I've got three Lib Dem councillors and they are a complete, total and utter waste of oxygen.

[esme]

Sadly, if you don't vote then your opinion will be chalked up to apathy by those that are elected.

 

Politicians, even counting those who stand as councillors, take the view that if you can't find a suitable candidate to vote for then you can stand for office yourself, and not voting is chalked up to apathy.

 

The fact that until recently standing for office required so much time, effort and money that only someone with party backing or who was reasonably wealthy could do it making the option non viable for the majority, is neither here nor there, the option existed therefore not voting was, and remains, apathy in their eyes.

 

However, now we have these wonderful things called internet forums, where people of like mind can get together and share their thoughts relatively easily, which is basically how political parties start, people of like mind got together, decided they don't like things as they are and decided to change them.

 

You don't have to go to peoples houses to discuss your views one to one any more or hand out leaflets that people put in the recycling without reading or stand on soap boxes on Hyde park corner, you can do this on the internet and see who is interested in your ideas.

 

It's a lot easier standing for office if you know you have the support.

 

The internet effectively removes the time and money requirements from the standing for office deal, something I'm not sure politicians have realised yet, they still seem to think the internet is something they can use to tell us what to do and are only just beginning to realise we can use it to organise ourselves.

 

So if you can find enough people of like mind you could form your own party with them and put one of your number forward for office, then you would have someone you could believe in and vote for.

 

It's still a gamble as your candidate might not get in but nothing is certain except death and taxes.

 

At least this way you can't be accused of apathy and you will be trying to make a difference.

[esme]

You do right.

 

But I would vote for an elected mayor. Clearly the entire intellectual capacity of 82 Sheffield councillors adds up to brain power of a chimp. They are obviously incapable of getting the simplest things done because they spend their entire waking hours throwing insults at each other. An elected mayor, independant of the main parties, can ask government for the powers to cut through the council's bureaucratic c**p and get things done. So give it a chance. You're getting nothing now so what have you got to lose?

 

I've got three Lib Dem councillors and they are a complete, total and utter waste of oxygen.

And if the elected mayor makes decisions you disagree with what then ?

[jgharston]

Now are these 3 people up for election again?

No. Sheffield has annual elections (three years out of four) with one of the three ward councillors up for election each year.

 

In fact who is standing for election in my area

see here for a full list of all 149 candidates.

 

In East Ecclesfield you currently have two Labour councillors and one LibDem councillor, and the LibDem councillor is up for re-election this year.

[ShefStealth]

Why should you vote? Because if you don't vote, you don't really have any right or justification to complain when the party that gets into office does things that you don't like. You don't vote, your views aren't taken into consideration.

 

People complain that things in Sheffield and the UK in general are getting worse, but each election time there's more and more apathy and less votes being cast. The first stage in empowering more proper democracy in this country is to actually bother to cast your vote when you're entitled to have a say.

[Akrasia]

As it stands I'm voting for no one.

 

If you don't vote then it will be put down to you not caring, so please do at least spoil your ballot paper by writing "I don't know who any of these people are" on it.

[ShefStealth]

And if the elected mayor makes decisions you disagree with what then ?

 

It's easier to view your grievences with/against one person - in this case the elected mayor, than it is to air your grievences with a whole cabinet of people. The trouble then becomes on the flip side of that, you're perhaps more likely to be able to get the time with at least one of the local MPs with the current arrangements in order to get your grievences heard than trying to get time with the mayor when that person's time is going to be a lot more sought after once elected.

 

I don't think of the mayoral election in terms of costs though, think of it in terms of accountability. Something goes wrong, in theory there then should be less of the "he said she said" delegation of blame. The mayor says something or pushes an idea that backfires, then they are to blame and we get them thrown out, call an election for a replacement. What happens in the current situation? There's a group of people with no real vision to improve things, that get paid for having "meetings" with lots of expenditure for stuff such as travel and refreshments yet nothing much changes.

[esme]

It's easier to view your grievences with/against one person - in this case the elected mayor, than it is to air your grievences with a whole cabinet of people. The trouble then becomes on the flip side of that, you're perhaps more likely to be able to get the time with at least one of the local MPs with the current arrangements in order to get your grievences heard than trying to get time with the mayor when that person's time is going to be a lot more sought after once elected.

 

I don't think of the mayoral election in terms of costs though, think of it in terms of accountability. Something goes wrong, in theory there then should be less of the "he said she said" delegation of blame. The mayor says something or pushes an idea that backfires, then they are to blame and we get them thrown out, call an election for a replacement. What happens in the current situation? There's a group of people with no real vision to improve things, that get paid for having "meetings" with lots of expenditure for stuff such as travel and refreshments yet nothing much changes.

I was unaware that we could call an election for a new mayor, I thought we had to wait for their term to expire

 

Might be worth having one if we can hoik them out of office.

[horribleblob]

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