Cycling UK Forum

Mick F wrote:... 75% didn't vote, therefore it wasn't a vote.

I voted in the first Charity vote but not the second. There may be some apathy but I think also a number of members who simply didn't know what to vote. I lost track of the argument by the second vote. In that scenario it's best to keep quiet rather than vote purely for the sake of voting.

I'll remain a member for several more years at least, and see how things go. Cycle touring wasn't the reason I joined anyway - everything you could possibly need for that is available on the web. I can't see much prospect of a New Membership Cycling Organisation taking off. There's too much competition.

Apparently voting is compulsory in Australian elections, of all places.
jonty

Compulsory voting just produces more spoiled ballot papers.

Instead of compulsory, we need a better sense of needing to vote and a realisation that not voting is a Bad Thing.

I had the vote in a political election within the UK when I was 20 when the age of the univeral franchise (the age of voting) was 21. Can anyone work out how? No one was ever got it.
jonty

You were a member of a political party and eligible to vote for your chosen leader in that party's political election?

Jonty wrote:I had the vote in a political election within the UK when I was 20 when the age of the univeral franchise (the age of voting) was 21. Can anyone work out how? No one was ever got it.
jonty

Grduate of a university with a University Constituency (pre-abolition by the 1945 Labour government)?

swansonj
You're the only person who's ever got it!
I went to Queen's, Belfast and the university vote - unlike the rest of the UK - wasn't abolished until the mid'60s. I graduated when I was 20 in 1964 and I voted in a Stormont election that year.
If memory serves me right, the MP I voted for was a Sheila Monahan, a liberal, who's ticket was to abolish the university vote.
This was achieved shortly afterwards.
jonty

Why should University Graduates get a vote before the General Public?

No wonder it was scrapped!

Mick F wrote:Why should University Graduates get a vote before the General Public?

No wonder it was scrapped!

I think the idea was that university graduates were an elite and therefore should have an extra vote. Not all that long ago women didn't have the vote in the UK.
Before 1832 very few people had the vote.
Personally I think that graduates of Russell Group universities should have 5 votes and people with an IQ of less than 120 should be barred from voting.
jonty

HEALTH WARNING
The above was a jokey, light-hearted comment and not meant to be taken seriously.
jonty

Jonty wrote:Personally I think that graduates of Russell Group universities should have 5 votes

Works for me - I'd get 15 if this was the case

Jonty wrote:Before 1832 very few people had the vote.

Post 1832, few people vote even though they can.

40% turnout?