General Chat

This item explains a lot about the "secrecy" of ballot papers.

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1051,00.html

The reason why results are given by electoral district ( all the way down to the ward ) is that democracy, like law, not only needs to be done but must be seen to be done. It is a feature of undemocratic states that getting disaggregated data for any kind of election / plebiscite is next to impossible.

This November we shall see the US elections. As anybody who knows their chads can tell you the result of the election though binary will be given out right down to each county.

Same thing in Australia where the govt is hanging on by its fingernails and likely to let go. Let none of them be missed, we've got them on our list.

in the referendum, yes, that was the case, but in all other elections they put an identifying number on your voting card

When I went to the polling station and handed in my poll card, they ticked my name off on their list to indicate that I had turned up to vote. ;-)

you're right - it is never a secret ballot - I always have this conversation with the polling clerk every time I vote - what you vote can be discovered

and I am sick to death of "Remain" people saying we who voted to leave are racists - I voted leave and no way am I a racist - I voted leave for many reasons and immigration was not one of them

on BBC this morning there were ex-pats in Spain, Germany and Brussels all coming up with much the same thing

If you read the BBC's reality check for the Referendum you will see that it is a secret ballot, the distribution of votes is an estimate based on polls done after the vote.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35603388

Not exactly a secret ballot then, is it?

bob, Votes can be traced by matching the numbered ballot paper to its similarly numbered counterfoil; the numbered counterfoil also bears the voter's registration number from the electoral register which is hand-written by the Polling Clerk when the ballot paper is issued.

Of those in the 18-24 years age group, only 34% bothered to vote. How do they know? Surely, as we were given a piece of paper on which to put our "X", which had no way of identifying the voter, there was no way of knowing who's was who's.
As for interest rates, my mortgage is fixed at .45% above base. If it goes any lower they will have to pay me!

Hope we survive in the current atmosphere of economic uncertainty & political doubt.

A race to the bottom is not a promising prospect.

It wouldn't have made good television.

However they were counted, they could still have just published the overall result.

That would have avoided all this conflict about Scotland, Northern Ireland, Liverpool and London voting Remain and virtually everywhere else voting Out.

I think that was because it was the way they were counted.

It is so unusual to have a referendum of that type carried out that there has never been another system devised for counting the votes.

If the referendum was a national vote decided by a simple majority, why were the results published on a constituency basis?
Just a though !

Just come to close down. My last post seemed a trifle hard hearted. It is always sad when anyone loses their home, more so if it has been brought about through redundancy or ill health.

The sad thing is that I believe, repossession does not end there, if there is a debt left owing after sale of home, the dispossessed are held responsible.

Also if they sell their home hoping to clear mortgage to some extent - they are deemed to have deliberately made themselves homeless. So Housing Associations and Councils do not want to know.

Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't.

One thing is sure that down through the centuries and various governments - the rich will get richer and the poor get poorer - in between they are hanging by their teeth.

Yes Chris, and it's down to many things, very few of which have to do with being in or out of the EU. I was just pointing out as you mentioned the '80s there were losers then also. Always it is those who have least chance of weathering out the uncertainties, be it a 'normal' recession or a political upheaval, who suffer most.

it has been easy to blame the EU for things that actually are the fault of successive governments. At some point in the near future that option will be gone.

For whatever govt' is in power it will be a case of "The buck stops here".

Rose - in recent years - apparently repossessions are higher than ever.

" I can recall in early eighties interest rates on mortgages of 14-15% but those interest rates encouraged savers."

so can I, I also recall the number of repossessions.

well - those full of doom and gloom over the future since Friday : it was all the fault of the Brexit lot - strange the FTS is higher already.

Apparently one pundit said yesterday that if interest falls any more pensioners will suffer. What interest?????? I can recall in early eighties interest rates on mortgages of 14-15% but those interest rates encouraged savers.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D