How will you vote in the Staffordshire County Council elections 2013?

ATJ

ATJ

Well-Known Forumite
It's no wonder that people are so apathetic about local elections when firstly, the people campaigning aren't actually campaigning and secondly, the general public doesn't know or care what the difference is between borough council election and county council elections, and what the difference between the services provided by the two councils is.

If people don't know what borough councillors, county councillors, MPs and central government actually do, or how they separately impact on each of us, how are they supposed to choose?
 
henryscat

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Part of the problem is that local politicians don't bother communicating with residents between elections. When I lived in Birmingham we had three Lib Dem councillors representing the ward. Every single month they put an A3 folded in half (ie 4 sides of A4 worth) newsletter through every letterbox detailing what they'd done the previous month. I would say they had a pretty good grasp of what was going on. In Stafford the efforts made by the Borough and County Councillors to communicate what they actually do is quite frankly worse than pathetic.

There are some councillors who we know are aware of this forum but instead of using it to positive effect they just use it for the occasional party political advert.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Withnail said:
Would that be the PFI introduced by the Conservative government, criticised by Labour in Opposition, then whole-heartedly adopted by them when they attained power?

Or the PFI extended by the Labour government, criticised by Conservatives in Opposition, then whole-heartedly re-adopted by them in Coalition?
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I think being an opposition MP would be a great job. Just shout what a load of crap to anything said by those in power, gorge yourself at the subsidised restaurant/bar then go back to your free house. Laughing.
 
Goldilox

Goldilox

How do I edit this?
henryscat said:
I'm sick to death of election leaflets that just talk about filling pot holes. If that's what people vote on, it's a pretty sad state of affairs.
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Fair point, but I can't see, 'Marx's theory of economic determinism as a mechanism for controlling the means of production and bringing the benevolent dictatorship of the proletariat to Staffordshire', as being especially easy to convey via 4 sides of A6....
 
henryscat

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Goldilox said:
Fair point, but I can't see, 'Marx's theory of economic determinism as a mechanism for controlling the means of production and bringing the benevolent dictatorship of the proletariat to Staffordshire', as being especially easy to convey via 4 sides of A6....
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Call me a bit whacky, but instead of pot holes maybe they could talk about Social Care or something like that?
 
Spelunker

Spelunker

Well-Known Forumite
The realism in local elections falls not much further that the end of the electorates nose.
And to be fair predicates on issues that are direct to the individual and rightly so.
Some even think that fat folk are to blame for the collapse of the local hospital......
 
S

stafford-resident101

Well-Known Forumite
proactive said:
Out of their minds, the lot of 'em.
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Had another leaflet today.

Conservatives promise that if they have to re-call parliament again (should another autocratic dictator ex- leader of many years ago that most people had forgotten about anyway, pass away) they will put a restriction on the amount each MP can claim back (currently up to £4,000 per MP) for returning back to London from their Jollies in the Caribbean, and make them fly back to their holiday destination following the re-call, by Easy Jet instead of BA. Every little helps.

We are all in this together!
 
Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt

Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt

Well-Known Forumite
henryscat said:
I'm sick to death of election leaflets that just talk about filling pot holes. If that's what people vote on, it's a pretty sad state of affairs. I've no doubt that cuts so far are tip of the iceberg stuff. We've already seen the creation of Distrust with Crapita to run the LEA function / flush it down the toilet. I suspect more of the same with other services may follow.
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To be fair at least if they are talking about filling potholes then they are at least talking about one of the few things Local authorities actually have a say over. Despite the Government's veiled "Localism / Big Society" bluster the reality is that more and more aspects of Government policy that effect our everyday lives are being controlled by Whitehall - the "room for manoeuvre" that Councils actually have is pretty small. Even Councils big ticket responsibilities like local education and adult care are delivered against a monumental backdrop of centralised rules and guidelines.
Take the hospital as a really good example. Almost all of the waste paper recycling local council election fodder I have had shoved through the door talks about said prospective Counsellor keeping the hospital fully open as their number 1 priority - as if what they say / do will make a blind bit of difference. This like so many other things will be decided for us by some expense laden Westminster bean counter.
 
A

andy w

Well-Known Forumite
Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt said:
To be fair at least if they are talking about filling potholes then they are at least talking about one of the few things Local authorities actually have a say over. Despite the Government's veiled "Localism / Big Society" bluster the reality is that more and more aspects of Government policy that effect our everyday lives are being controlled by Whitehall - the "room for manoeuvre" that Councils actually have is pretty small. Even Councils big ticket responsibilities like local education and adult care are delivered against a monumental backdrop of centralised rules and guidelines.
Take the hospital as a really good example. Almost all of the waste paper recycling local council election fodder I have had shoved through the door talks about said prospective Counsellor keeping the hospital fully open as their number 1 priority - as if what they say / do will make a blind bit of difference. This like so many other things will be decided for us by some expense laden Westminster bean counter.
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I imagine it's already been discussed on here before, but with ever dwindling responsibilities is there a real need for both borough/District councils and the County council.
Staffordshire is a massive county even with the City of Stoke having it's own unitary council, and the struggle would be to make a single council feel local to far flung places like Leek, Burton. Kinver, Newcastle etc.
Another option was to join District councils and take over the roles of the county council, this was discussed in the 1990's but came to nothing but I wonder if this will be re-visited in the future
 
RowanDraper

RowanDraper

Well-Known Forumite
ATJ said:
Have the Lib Dems come to a local agreement not to challenge conservatives?
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Not as far as I know. As I understand it the decision of the Parliamentary party has made two local Councillors go independent and they didn't have thousands of members in Stafford to begin with.
 
RowanDraper

RowanDraper

Well-Known Forumite
henryscat said:
Part of the problem is that local politicians don't bother communicating with residents between elections. When I lived in Birmingham we had three Lib Dem councillors representing the ward. Every single month they put an A3 folded in half (ie 4 sides of A4 worth) newsletter through every letterbox detailing what they'd done the previous month. I would say they had a pretty good grasp of what was going on. In Stafford the efforts made by the Borough and County Councillors to communicate what they actually do is quite frankly worse than pathetic.

There are some councillors who we know are aware of this forum but instead of using it to positive effect they just use it for the occasional party political advert.
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I'm sorry you feel that way. There are some Councillors who do try to communicate what they're doing: on the doorstep, through the letterbox, online, on social media and other bits.

Have you raised your concerns over communication with your local councillor(s)?
 
proactive

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
RowanDraper said:
I'm sorry you feel that way. There are some Councillors who do try to communicate what they're doing: on the doorstep, through the letterbox, online, on social media and other bits.

Have you raised your concerns over communication with your local councillor(s)?
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That's the funniest thing I've read on here all week!!!!!!!!


(Well, Marwood has been away for a while...)
 
henryscat

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
RowanDraper said:
I'm sorry you feel that way. There are some Councillors who do try to communicate what they're doing: on the doorstep, through the letterbox, online, on social media and other bits.

Have you raised your concerns over communication with your local councillor(s)?
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Well, you can try emailing them but they don't reply to people who disagree with them.
 
proactive

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Maybe the politicians could give us clear guidance on how they expect us, the voters, to interact with them. How and when, or indeed if, they would like us to contact them so that we cause the smallest inconvenience possible to their obviously Very Important Lives.
 
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