The General Election's poor relation

You can't go anywhere these days without someone talking about the general election, or in Copeland, the mayoral election.  And it's right and proper tat we do, because it's a big deal, we get to choose who's going to be in charge for the next four years.

But we need to remember that there are other elections going on next month, and the people putting themselves forward will be making decisions that affect us directly -- of course I'm talking about the parish councils.

Thanks to the Vicar of Dibley, lots of people have a pretty dim view of parish council's, getting the idea that not much ever happens. But actually parish council's have a lot of powers and duties.

Click here for an idea of what parish council's actually do.

Most of the people sitting on parish council's are older adults, which is fine because they have quite a bit of time on their hands, but they're also not in the prime of life anymore...   While young people have loads of energy (usually)

But recruiting people all of the same age makes for a really bad team.  Consider the following:

A team of all young people won't get much done because of lack of funds; a team of all old people won't get much done because of lack of energy; and a team of all adults never happens because we're all to busy to join a team.

But if you combine young and old, you get to make use of the energy of the young combined with the funds and the wisdom of older adults.  It's a win-win situation.

And that brings me to my main point: parish councils are struggling to recruit people to join. Now, you have to be 18 or over to be a voting member of parish councils, but anyone can attend. And that means that anyone can (theoretically) give an opinion about the best way for a parish council to meet its duties and use its powers.

Anyone interested in getting involved in local politics, drop me a line and I'll get in touch with your local parish council and arrange introductions.

In other news

Yamini Karanam, a computer science student from Hyderabad, India, has had an evil twin removed from her head.

She'd suffered with headaches and confusion and no-one seemed to know what to do until her friends raised the $32,000 to get her to LA where a surgeon removed a tumour, complete with hair and teeth. The moral of the story: Friends are awesome.

And an evil twin is no laughing matter.

Registering to vote

There are just three days left to register an intention to vote in the General Election. So I'm going top take this opportunity to urge you to do so.

Anyone aged 16 and over can register to vote, and anyone 18 and over can vote.  Now, has anyone noticed a problem with those numbers?

• 
  

 It's not wrong: you really can register to vote two years before you can actually vote. Now, assuming those of us working in local and national government haven't lost our minds there must be a reason for that, right?

Right.

Now, I've heard all the reasons why you should vote, and I have a problem with a few of them:

• If you don't vote, then you can't complain. Well, that's just wrong.  I know lots of people who don't vote, and they seem to complain as much as anyone. Also, if non-voters can't complain, doesn't that mean that every person under 18 can't complain? Sounds like discrimination to me.
• People died for the right to vote so you should use that right. People didn't die for the right to vote, they died for the right to have the option.  For centuries, women couldn't vote, poor people couldn't vote, people under 21 couldn't vote.   That was unfair, but it's also unfair to force people to do something against their will.  I have no problem with people not voting as a form of protest, but it has to be a conscious decision, otherwise it's just apathy.
• Every vote makes a difference. That can sound like a pretty stupid remark in some ways. For example: imagine you were a Conservative voter in Liverpool Walton, a Labour safe seat.   

	Labour	Conservative
Without your vote	24,709	2,241
With your vote	24,709	2,242

That one vote wouldn't make a dent.

Same if you supported the Labour party in Chesham and Amersham (a Conservative safe seat)

	Conservative	Labour
Without your vote	31,658	2,942
With your vote	31,658	2,943

And it's worse if you support the Green Party: they got 767 votes in Chesham and Amersham, and didn't even have a candidate in Liverpool Walton.

[I reckon you can see why they call them 'safe' seats, if you're the MP there, your job is pretty safe]

They don't mean the other kind of safe seat...

Anyway, all those arguments aside. Registering to vote is different, and it's probably more important.

Governments can check the electoral roll, to see who's registered to vote.

I don't have that info, but I can see an estimate of who has voted, by age.

Until 2010, the number of 18-24 year olds was dropping election after election, and so political parties were less worried that they might vote for the opposition -- they weren't voting at all.

So the parties will do less to engage young people, because it's a lot of investment, for not much gain.

But...

If you register, if every 16 and 17 year old registers, all of the political parties will sit up and take notice, and they'll do everything in their power to encourage you to vote for them...

Sorry for the sexist pic, but you get the idea

 And finally...

Seriously worrying news: Doctor Who will be made into a movie, according to leaked documents from Sony.

Now to many of you that might sound awesome, but to those of us who are thirty and above, we know the last Dr Who movie ended the franchise for nine years. The TV show had already been cancelled in 1989, but the movie, was like taking a tired, elderly loved one out into the woods and finishing them off.

My suggestion for the new movie...?

   

Election debates

It's forty days until the general election, you can see a countdown here, and by this point the party leaders are all out on the streets trying to get people to vote for them.

It can be a little embarrassing.

The two men who could be Prime Minister: David Cameron and Ed Miliband have been on TV reaching out to as many people as possible with their party politics.

But as I've pointed out before, anyone under 18 can't vote, so the politicians won't spend a great deal of time trying to get your support.

That might seem unfair, but look at it this way: if you've only got enough money for one Valentines card, do you give it to the person who you know will never date you... or to the person who just might?

Cos believe me, nothing sucks like unrequited love...



Wow, I'm getting totes emosh here today.

Anyway, back to the point.

Some people reckon that David Cameron won the election debate, other think not, and many, many others look blankly when you even mention a debate took place.

*Sigh*

The real winner is supposed to be the people, as they get to hear what the people in charge plan to do with our money.

And so we come back to Copeland, and our election debate:

Friday, 10 April at West Lakes Science and Technology Park, we now have three mayoral candidates who are willing to answer the questions of the young people of Copeland.  They will tell you what you want to know; and the whole thing will be recorded so that you can look back on this historic event and say "I was there", or "I wasn't there but I watched it on YouTube", or "Seriously? It was the school holidays. I don't wake up before 3pm on the school holidays."

Friday the 13th

Seriously scary day today. It's not only Friday 13th February, but it's 2015 and 2 - 0 - 15 = 13. This is the first time we've had a situation like this for, well for a month actually.

So take care. Watch out for black cats, ladders, broken mirrors, and little old ladies (I'm not sure that last one is unlucky, but if you get them talking you'll struggle to get away this side of Saturday).

Still, it could be worse.  You could be this GTA player...

Anyway, one of the big stories this week:

Local News

Plans are underway to release lynx into the wild in Ennerdale.  To be clear, we're not talking about cans of deodorant, this is the wild cat that has been extinct in Britain for 1,300 years.

 

Lynx are useful in keeping deer under control, and they aren't afraid of massive rats either.

There are likely to be some objections from local farmers concerned for their livestock, so no decisions have been made as yet.

My week, this week  

So this week I've started the preparation for the Mayoral Candidate Question Time. Thanks to those who attended at Frizington, Distington and Cleator Moor for giving some good ideas for questions, and for educating me on some of the finer points of life.

This week I've learnt that the Queen's handbag really annoys some people because it's empty; that I look more like Steve Jobs than David Beckham; and that small £5 notes are cute, but small youth workers are dangerous.

And finally...

In my ongoing efforts to get people to stop staring at their phones and start noticing the world around them, here's a public safety video, highlighting the dangers of paying too much attention to gadgets.

 

Mayor's wages

The big news this week, the story that's got everyone annoyed, is that the new mayor of Copeland will be paid £30,000 per year, rather than £50,000 as suggested by an independent panel.

There are, as always, at least two sides to this story, so I'll try to give you the basics:

One argument is that the job of mayor requires someone with a number of skills, and that paying them £20,000 less than the suggested sum won't attract candidates of sufficient quality, so we'll end up with a mayor who isn't able to do the job.

The other argument is that the job of mayor is very similar to the previous job of leader of the council, which paid £30,000, and there isn't sufficient difference to justify the extra funds.

Where you stand on this matter is up to you, but one thing that I would encourage you always to do, is to check out both sides of the argument, because there really is two sides to every story

Mobile phone safety

As you know, I only have your best interests in mind when I send out these messages, so I want to draw to your attention the dangers of using mobile phones.

There was a time when we didn't have mobile communication, then there was a time when we did, but very few people thought it was any good.

But now that everyone seems to have a phone, we just need to remember that the technology is moving a bit faster than we can adapt to.

Be safe out there.