It turns out that I have no photo ID. My drivers licence is ancient and has no photo. My passport expired. I have no bus pass or rail card. I have a smart card for work but that photo is unrecognisable.
Good luck everybody!
Are you voting today?
by 90 Comments
I worked as a poll clerk for a while and continued with my postal vote from then, because we are away my wife applied for a postal vote which was accepted. Mine arrived but hers didn’t, we rang up electoral services last week on Wednesday to be told it had been posted on Monday and if it hadn’t arrived by Friday to ring them up again.
Still hadn’t arrived on the Friday, drove in to pick up a new postal vote, when we left on Monday the original still hadn’t arrived.
Maybe it won’t, maybe our postal votes may never arrive to be counted.
Just about to cycle to the top of the lane to the village hall. Last year I presented them with my driving licence. They did accept it, but I don’t think they’d seen a licence to drive a train before. But, bless ’em, they are usually so excited to have a voter, they probably daren’t turn me down.
No offence but there may be other reasons why they daren’t turn you down.
The only election where I am is the Police and Crime Commissioner. I have no idea what any of the candidates propose to do with the job, nor what the current one does do, really don’t know if I can be arsed. I’ll pass the polling station on my lunchtime walk but would have to remember to take my passport with me, which I don’t usually do for a 20 minute stroll.
Mine too, and I’ve just found my postal vote in the
messy pilein-tray on my desk, so I’m out. I have no idea who any of the candidates are, anyhow.My local (tory) MP is forever delivering leaflets telling me what a wonderful job he’s been doing. He wasn’t very pleased when I pointed out that he’d spelled hospitals as “hopsitals”. I’d much rather he spent his time doing MP stuff rather than delivering leaflets about it.
Same here down in the Brighton area.
Purely because electing a local Police and Crime Commissioner feels like a strange novelty (I look forward to selecting the local dog catcher in a democratic process) I have attempted to search out online for more about the candidates and what they stand for, but have been able to find next to nothing. I assume wanting “less crime” is a given for all of them but none seem eager to inform us how they intend to achieve that. It’s not even clear whether any have a party affiliation. So it essentially comes down to selecting the one whose name I like best, and for that reason, I’m out. It feels like we’d be better off projecting the bat symbol into the night sky over Brighton and Hove if we want our local crime to be sorted out.
I’ve just looked up the 4 candidates in Essex and their statements to voters. The candidates are Conservative (the incumbent), Labour, Lib Dem and a fringe party called English Democrats. See if you can work out whose is whose. Good luck, as you would be surprised if any of them said anything different.
Answers below, look away if you’re playing along at home
Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative, English Democrats, in order of the candidates surname.
I got that right. Logic is the Lab have focused on listening, LibDems aren’t commiting to anything, Tory is finacially driven and English Dems is ill thought through and rather basic.
Is there a prize?
Yes, congratulations. You’ve won a night out with your local Police Commissioner at the crime scene of your choice, all expenses paid!
@Slug forgot to add, all expenses paid by you.
I’ve just voted. The deciding factor in my contribution to the democratic process is that the polling centre is in the library at the end of my road and I received notification that I had a reserved book to pick up.
@Gatz
You still. have a library?
Where do you live – Narnia South?
News to me, and relevant to @tiggerlion . Passports and so on can used as ID even if they are expired.
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need
I’m shocked and stunned – I thought they would have closed that loophole!
I’ll have to fish it out of the bin!
Young people are unlikely to have expired passports, you see.
At £88.50 online for a passport, a huge number of young people won’t have one at all if a parent hasn’t paid for it.
Hmmm, may be worth getting your driving licence into the modern age, @tiggerlion. It is odd set up, as while your green paper licence is, of course, a valid document, an out of date photo license isn’t. I was chided for that by a cop, when stopped for an insurance check. It may be that, if not compulsory, if you do have one, it is compulsory for it to be in date.
What is daft is that your NHS photo card, possibly on a lanyard around your neck as I write, is not valid ID. As the fella working at the polls last year agreed with me, he being a social worker with an equally invalid document around his neck. But I also had my now valid DVLC photocard.
Given that Insurance companies will seize on any excuse to avoid
settling claims drivers would be well advised to get that DL updated
in case they have an accident (or experience an accident situation as
modern parlance has it).
I still have an old paper driving licence – I left the country before the photocard ones came in and recall that as I don’t have a permanent address in the UK, I cannot upgrade.
When I come back to the UK, I actually find it easier to hire a car using my Singapore driving license.
My older boy is now resident in the UK and I know he had issues with the UK driving licence – he can apparently use his Singapore one for a year, but officially than has to convert. The issue is that to convert he has to send in his Singapore one (which he won’t get back) which obviously he doesn’t want to do. The advice he was given (officially I believe) in the end was that if he leaves the country and comes back it resets the “can use for a year)…. go figure.
Just voted – despite his best intentions and all his leaflets Andy Street had to own up to being the Conservative candidate on the ballot paper
Just voted in the London elections. Went for Sadiq Khan despite being unhappy with the way he’s messed up the roads. I’d like a more balanced approach between the green measures and keeping the traffic moving, but none of the other candidates convinced me they had a credible outlook on the issue, and in effect it’s a race between him and the Tory, who isn’t much bothered about facts and has been joining in the racist dog whistles.
There’s an election today? God, I hope Biden wins. Not the most inspiring of guys, but better than the alternative
Just voted. It was only for the Police Commissioner and so I voted the way I will vote in the general election – Lib Dem, because Labour has no chance here in Jeremy Hunt territory (but the Lib Dem candidate has a real chance of unseating him). Surprise, surprise, a bus pass is sufficient ID, as long as it has a photo.
Only an older person’s bus pass (over 60) though.
I’ve found it very difficult to decide which London Mayoral candidate is least awful. Count Binface’s manifesto is very appealing. He should get a lot of votes.
https://www.countbinface.com/2024-manifesto
I’m just back from voting Binface.
I eagerly await the bosses of Thames Water being made to take a dip in the Thames, GP surgery holding music “less appalling”, all outstanding Covid fines to be paid by Boris Johnson, bans on speakerphones on the tube and the reintroduction of Ceefax to everyone within the M25
Hard to disagree with any of that. If he had “STFU at gigs” I’d move to London to vote for him.
I’d also like to see shops that play Christmas music before December shut down and turned into public libraries. And surely all right thinking people favour the banning of loud snacks in theatres?
I’d go further. Food and drink in theatres should be banned. I saw Frankie Boyle recently (passably funny) but he clearly stated that anyone leaving during the act would not be let back in. It stemmed the flow (pun intended) of the loo brigade. However a fair few people walked out and happily didn’t come back in. A good rule though.
That’s a good point. What about drinking during gigs? It can be awful being stuck near people who’ve had too much to drink and aren’t really paying attention to the music. If they couldn’t come back in after visiting the loo the venue would probably lose a load of bar revenue but the gig would be improved for the rest of us.
No booze in the hall, every time for me. The British audience can’t handle it. They immediately think they’re in the pub.
Well. As the rest of the world knows, The British do not handle their drink well.
Despite doing a lot of it!
Practice does not make perfect after all.
Expired photo ID is accepted as long as you look like the photo
It always seems an effort to vote. Particularly on a wet and windy day here in Devon. But we’ve both voted and of course it’s worth it to ensure that the corrupt and malevolent bastards (the Tories, natch) get the message.
I voted earlier. I know elections are not supposed to be exciting but our council election was for one seat and had two candidates – Tory and LibDem. Only the libdem candidate was present and he was very polite – thanking me for coming out and voting. He was also the only one who campaigned (that I noticed). He should be a shoe in – it worked for me.
I also could vote for a crime commisioner (isn’t that basically what a Mafia Godfather does?).
6 people I have not heard of with policies I have not seen. When I eradicate the ones I am allergic to, I was left with a choice of two. On the basis that I’d given LibDem a vote already, I gave it to Labour. I am slightly unsettled that this was the best logic I could come up with.
When I told my uncle I wouldn’t be voting given the candidates available, “Well that’s how Hitler got in” his response has stuck with me. About the expired ID; I hired a van to move house and only found out on the morning of the move that my licence was out of date, I spent most of the day in an absolute panic trying to find someone to drive the van.
Voted this morning, after a severe thunderstorm and torrential downpour, at “The Green Building” on the allottments around the corner, for the incumbent Labour local councillor (our town council is LibDem-dominated with 25% Labour and NO Tories!). Don’t want any additional LibDems in the town hall. They’re doing a reasonable job but we need to keep them in check. And keep the Tories out.
For Police & Crime Commissioner, I voted for the Labour candidate in the end. I was tempted to vote LibDem as their candidate was a PCSO for a while a few years back. Not sure it really counts for anything. I did consider leaving that voting slip blank or spoiling it.
The current Tory commissioner is retiring and if we absolutely have to have one* I’d rather he was a LibDem or from Labour.
*Not really. An absolutely unnecessary, invariably politicised post, IMO. Should be replaced by a Pothole Commissioner & a Fly-Tipping Commissioner. Both with draconian powers.
It’s so long since I did a manual vote I actually ticked the box.
Good news. My passport worked. 👍
@Tiggerlion
Probably because you were flying to Rwanda
For the first time since I’ve been eligible, today I haven’t voted in an election.
Like others above, in my area it was only for a police and crime commissioner. The current incumbent seems to have done nothing of any use – I certainly can’t recall ever hearing of them in the local news, and I wouldn’t know them if they were sat next to me.
And none of the other candidates have made any effort whatsoever to win my vote. If you can’t be bothered to spend even a couple of minutes coming up with a list of policies and either posting it or knocking on my door to tell me about it or to ask what my concerns might be, I’m not sure why I should give you my support.
Part of me feels ashamed at not voting – I can imagine my late grandfather telling me he fought in the war so we could have the right to vote. But he would probably agree with me that our current crop of politicians (of all sides) seem so fundamentally out of touch that the whole system needs a massive shake-up.
I just read that a certain ex pm forgot his photo id and couldn’t initially vote, you would have thought he’d remember as he introduced the necessity. I do hope it’s true.
Oh it is.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-forgets-his-id-to-vote/
It is true…!
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/02/minister-sorry-as-veterans-find-id-card-not-valid-for-english-elections?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
I’ve just read he tried to use an envelope with his name and address on as photo ID. I’m surprised he didn’t say “Don’t you know who I am?”
I suspect they already knew exactly who he was. Lots of high fives among the officials I dare say…
Having been a poll clerk you have to follow the rules as set down, which I would imagine no photo ID no vote.
High fives I’d have cracked open the champagne. Schadenfreude and champagne.
I can’t help suspect the prick did it deliberately knowing it would keep his name in the headlines and trending on Twitter. It’s just the sort of game-playing the prick would do, the prick.
Oh definitely – little publicity seeking playing to the diminished “Classic Boris! ARCHBISHOP OF BANTERBURY” crowd
I just did 7 hours of canvassing and then voted Lib Dem. Cream Crackered now! Not a single Labour voter where I was though they have been very active elsewhere. I live in one of the few Lib/Lab/Tory marginals so everyone is looking to the local elections to get some hard data to drive the tactical voting sites (even though many people vote differently local/national). Last local elections in my ward we shifted a bone idle nasty old Tory with a penchant for closing children’s playgrounds so if Labour have split the vote and let the old scrote back in I won’t be happy.
Maybe the Lib Dems will split the vote…?
We’ll see. We have a Tory MP who got around 26k in the last election, LD 21k, Labour 9. They split the vote.
You said it was a ‘Lib/Lab/Tory marginal’ @Twang
Who they didn’t split the vote in my ward despite a good try. Tories got a shoeing in the locals which is good.
What I meant was all the available data shows 30/30/30 for the GE.
Locally we’re NOC again and back in coalition with Labour.
Papers today predicting a hung parliament which would be interesting.
Perhaps the Lib Dems will support the Tories again…!
Do me a favour. Perhaps Labour will start an illegal war. Let’s move on, eh?
Lets!
👍
On the local election front, the Lib Dems apparently now have more councillors than the Tories nationally, which I’m happy to agree is a good thing @Twang!
All we could vote for here was Police Commissioner….and I have no real idea what they do.
Easy their main job is to phone Batman on the bat phone.
We ended up with the Tory, LD second. Since Johnson moved the system back to FPTP it benefits the Tories which is why he did it of course.
Appears that, if anything, the Tories have split the vote this time.
The question is: are Labour doing enough? These results are not as peachy as they hoped.
Certainly there were a lot of independents standing against Labour to due their position on Palestine.
Our council is now “No overall control” though Labour has the most number of seats for one party.
I haven’t been following these elections much, but seeing Labour way ahead in the polls does make me curious as to whether they’re offering anything new or interesting (or is their simply not being the Tories enough?). And what exactly is their position on Palestine that’s so unpopular? (Looking on my computer’s internet I see Starmer did call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire back in February.)
And talking of independents, I was surprised to see George Galloway got elected recently. I find him pretty odious. Whereas I was very interested to see that in the next general election, Andrew Feinstein will be standing against Starmer in his constituency. I like Feinstein.
His call for a ceasefire was too late.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/10/labour-mps-facing-wave-of-independent-challengers-over-stance-on-gaza
galloway stood in my constituency I spoke to some of his supporters outside and said ‘He’s a bit of a w@nker” luckily they didn’t hit me.
galloway made our town his campaign headquarters for his ambition to start his party’s advance in West Yorkshire. Its interesting that Oldham has now crossed borders. Odious chap
So basically, Starmer half-heartedly called for a halt to the mass slaughter of innocents only when he realised not doing so might be a vote-loser? Nice.
He bungled a radio interview which was then clipped and circulated widely, them to a few days to clarify. Clumsy. He sort of said it’s ok denying Palestinians did and water (though I don’t think that’s what he meant, as he subsequently clarified).
Yeah that was a proper mess, but whether he meant it or not depends on what you thought of him before he said it. It seems pretty obvious to me it was poor phrasing rather than a declaration of his support for and complicity in genocide, as the hyperbolic Left are gleefully interpreting it. But he hasn’t done much since to reassure me.
He’s also done a fair bit of rowing back on his vote-losing gender trumps biology stance
I’ve just looked that up and found him quoted as saying “99.9% of women don’t have a penis”. Ha! That’s brilliant! 99.9%, is it Keir? A very precise figure. You can tell he’s done his research.
He seems to have done a fair bit of rowing back on a lot of other things too, abandoning most of the pledges he made in order to win the leadership. Will he be better than the Tories? Yes, of course he will. But if that’s the best that can be hoped for, I would say what a pathetic situation (however, living in a fascist-led country, I’m in no position to criticise).
He’s aiming for the “not a Tory” vote, which is quite compelling TBH. As are the LDs.
He’s aiming for the ‘Not Jeremy Corbyn’ vote as well
Considering Corbyn attracted more members to the party and got more votes than any Labour leader since Attlee, that’s quite a brave approach. He must have great faith in the unpopularity of the Tories (and justifiably so, judging by the polls).
He’s absolutely snookered himself on that one. Any sign of belief in the old discredited biology and he loses the Yoof – any sign of gender woo woo and he loses the Tory voters.
Three things the Tories and The Mail will throw at him endlessly come election time; he doesn’t know what a woman is; Angela Rayner’s ‘Tory Scum’; and Liam Byrne’s handover note from 14 years ago.
I thought The Mail favours Starmer.
Front page of the Mail today; ‘New Rayner Bombshell.’
Well predicted, Chiz.
I remember we disagree regarding how influential the British press are when it comes to elections. I still think they are massively influential, especially The Sun and The Mail. I’ve no idea about The Sun but my impression was that The Mail aren’t particularly anti-Starmer, though looking now I see I was wrong and you’re right, they’re still rooting for Sunak.
(Looking now at the most up-ticked comments on some of their editorials, it seems their readership is fed up with Sunak though.)
@chiz
He’s rowed back on the woman thing and the Liam Byrne handover note is the sort of thing every outgoing treasury team apparently does.
As for Angela Rayner’s scum quote, I think the fact that the Tories have suffered four of the biggest five by-election drubbings since WW2, I think voters have already made their minds up about that one
@Tiggerlion
The other factor that shouldn’t be overlooked is that, this being a local
rather than general election, a lot of Tory diehards would have voted
tactically or not voted at all.
Wonder if they will be stupid enough to think yet another change of leader
Will be enough to save them
To be fair to The Tories, it appears their vote has fallen rather than Labour’s increased. They’ve got defectors to Reform and many not voting at all.
Ben Houchen clung on because he has “a big personality” seems to be the message we are told. Not because the years of neglect that this area suffered ended only when the electorate decided that “it’s all their fault” wouldn’t work again.
Having seen their membership fall from 1,400,400 to the current crop of 130,000 deluded twats who gave us Truss and about to suffer for probably the biggest electoral reverse ever, the Tories really ought to use their upcoming 5 to 10 years out of power to do some soul searching.
Was watching the news last night and came away greatly impressed by the dignified way that Andy Street handled his ascloseasthis defeat in the West Midlands mayoralty. If they have any sense, they will parachute him into a safe seat (assuming any of their seats can still be considered to be safe) and anoint him rather than Penny Dreadful or Kemi Badenough as their leader going forward.
Having lived in HK for the whole of his Governership, Chris Patten was the last Tory I can remember as having any kind of idealogical and moral backbone.
I see Andy Street lost to the tiger out of Life of Pi.
Not forgetting the other tiger in London.
Could this be an election tactic for the still rather colourless Starmer? And to the country I say I am the tiger, and I am coming to tea! Perhaps not.
@Gatz
Miao!
@Jaygee. There are mainly raving loonies left in the Conservative Party. No-one with any real sense. Look what Cruella was saying this morning. After the election, they will follow the trail blazed by MAGA up a right wing fundament.