Labour Party Press Conference - Am I being smug?

[Michael_UK]

Excuse me but I'm going to sound like a smug limey here. I'm watching the Labour Party Press Conference with Blair, Brown and Darling. They're being tackled over issues by the journalists. One thing has struck me. I know that there are big differences between a Presidential Election and a General Election, but it makes me happy to hear actual issues being discussed. There are no questions about where Howard was in 1968, or who Blair was hanging around with when he was CND.

Am I just being smug here?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. It does make me appreciate our electoral system a lot more

despite it's flaws.

[whirlygigspin]

2. issues are nice but...

"Earlier this week, a judge in Birmingham described Britain's postal voting system as something that would "disgrace a banana republic".

Counting votes properly would be much better.

[tjwmason]

3. The whole scandal there is because it's new

Also, it won't be used for the general election.

As part of a mad dash to increase voting rates (my suggestion, by the way, was give people something they want to vote for - fallen on deaf ears) full postal ballots were proposed. At the time people everywhere, apart from the Blairites, said that it would be open to fruad - lo and behold the first large-scale problem in goodness knows how many years.

Nonetheless, we're still talking about an entirely paper ballot - hand counted in the presence of observers from all parties.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. 'on demand' postal voting is available for the general election

just like Birmingham in that local election. What isn't happening is 'postal only voting' that was used for the North East, North West and Yorkshire in the last European elections. But Birmingham had the system of a postal vote for anyone who asked (or had asked for them ...), which the whole country has for this election.