someone asked me this the other day … Does the royal family vote?
Also, while ignoring the youth vote is normally pretty safe for the Tories, you can’t make the children of rich families worse off.
Even daily mail readers care about their own younglings (and grand-younglings). They don’t want them potentially at the front of the line in the event of a conflict, or cleaning up a town, as if on a community service charge.
(This might seem contradictory to my previous post. But I still think this policy, as dumb and unpopular as it is, is the kind of desperate gambit that is the Tories’ only hope at this point.)
I know there’s no comparison between the UK and the USA. Yet I must admire the brief election cycle vs my country’s perpetual marathon cycles.
Everyone but the King is entitled to vote. I don’t think any of them do, but presumably they are all registered,
It used to be the law that everyone entitled had to be registered, whether or not they intended to vote, but whether that still applies after all the fiddling/reforms of recent years, I don’t know.
I think it’s just convention rather than law that at least the “working royals” don’t vote - it wouldn’t look good, as it implies partiality, and would only provoke media curiosity/speculation. But at what degree of cousinage that wouldn’t apply - who knows?
Camilla’s nephew was Chairman of the Conservative Party at one time, but her son from her first marriage got into a spat when he tweeted the view that a particular Tory minister should be sacked in one or other reshuffle.
I’m sure theyd have little trouble getting their offspring cushy assignments with fashionable charities.
The opening scene of The Queen had HM talking to a portrait painter about the fact that she didn’t, and couldn’t, vote.
It may be like Canada - our Head of State, the Governor-General, is legally entitled to vote, but by long-standing convention does not do so.
I thought the monarch was the head of state?
Only when he/she is actually present, otherwise the GG represents the Crown for all purposes.
Are there any national referendums or similar issues voted on in this or other General Elections?
No. The few national referendums we’ve had have been special standalone events: second-guessing Parliament to micromanage government policy is against assumed constitutional conventions, so we only tyrn to referendums for added political legitimacy: to confirm staying in the European Common Market (1975), Scottish and Welsh devolution (1979 and 1999), Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement (1998), Scottish independence (2014), and Brexit (2016).
That said, there have been local referendums at the same time as local elections. At my last borough council election we also had a vote on whether to maintain an executive mayor structure, and a hyperlocal one on tightening up our Neighbourhood Plan to force developers to do various good things for the community as part of their permission to build.
Thanks for the excellent answer.
For completeness, I should say I forgot the referendum on changing the voting system in 2011.
That was an example of a referendum as a way of avoiding a potential split in the government (as were the two referendums on Europe). We now seem to have a convention that referendums are not for every general policy proposal, but for changing a fundamental rule of the political/constitutional system, or for a government to demonstrate legitimacy for some such proposal (but Brexit’s demonstration of Cameron standing on a rake is an awful warning for anyone wanting to do that in future).
Tory MPs - when they go these days, it doesn’t ever seem to be quietly:
Mr Logan said he had been considering backing Labour “for quite a long period” but felt the point he stood down as an MP was the right time to announce his support for the party “because the electorate did vote me in as a Conservative MP”.
The former businessman and diplomat, who was raised in Northern Ireland, added: “I believe as a politician it’s incumbent upon me to be able to say, to look people in the eyes in Bolton* and say that I believe that a Labour government is going to serve you better, your interests better, it’s going to be better for your pockets, it’s better for the economy, it’s going to be better for the UK.”
* - his (former) constituency.
j
Unfortunate photo of the week (just after he’d proposed to save money by cutting funding for “Mickey Mouse degrees”)
rishi-sunak-grilled-over-partygate-by-worker-whose-mum-died-in-the-pandemic-1863424394|690x345
And Janey Godley spots the image management at one of Sunak’s excruciating factory visits:
This is going to be fun for me as I’ll be in the U.K. from 29 June-12 July so I’ll be there for the election!
Can’t wait and hope to celebrate a Labour win!
Not sure where you’re from and how familiar you are with election day in the UK but for you and anyone else who’d curious here’s what to expect:
Some of the popular newspapers like to believe they have a big influence on the vote. I doubt they ever did, but Murdoch’s rag The Sun (known by many as The Scum) and a few others will be working hard on their election day front pages and will hope to make a splash.
In reality Murdoch just wants his newspapers to be seen to be supporting the eventual winner, partly I suspect because he wants to cosy up to whoever’s in no.10.
The broadcasters however have to play be very different rules. They are not allowed to report details of campaigning or election issues while polls are open and instead can only report factual events such as the appearance of politicians at polling stations and giving information that will help voters with the process of going to polling stations. It’s actually a bit boring watching the TV on polling day. Once the polls close at 10pm however any restrictions are lifted and you can expect exit poll results at a few minutes past 10pm and an exciting night of coverage.
Social media is much more interesting. There are no restrictions as far as I know and you will see all sorts of reporting and opinions.
A recent UK tradition has emerged at every election both national and local: #DogsAtPollingStations will be trending on X/Twitter all day and it’s everything you’d hope it would be.
One thing to look out for is that for the first time in a national election, voters will need to bring ID. This was not previously required so perhaps there will be longer queues. But you will not see people queuing round the block in the UK. There are many polling stations but voters should attend their assigned stations (with or without their dog).
Campaigning is allowed near polling stations but is governed by some rules and is strictly prohibited inside the polling station itself. You could probably walk in and have a look if you’re subtle about it and don’t treat it like a tourist attraction.
All 650 constituencies will be counted and announced separately by the Returning Officer in a local building (usually a town hall, or school hall or similar), although in some areas there will be various counts in the same location i.e. in a city with multiple constituencies. The first results will be between 11pm and midnight as some areas like to compete with each other on who will announce first. It’s usually somewhere around the north east for some reason.
The London pub/bar scene is great but it is truly pitiful into the late night. I’m not sure you will be able to find a bar that will be showing the results all night - perhaps a hotel bar maybe? If you’re interested in doing that some research will be needed.
I’ve probably missed lots of stuff so people feel free to correct me or add anything I’ve missed.
It’s sad, but in my 40+ years of voting… i don’t remember seeing ANYBODY else in
a polling station (apart from the polling station staff, obviously !)
I think I had to wait behind three other people once, but that was in the morning just before boarding a rush hour tube into central London. I’m not sure whether that’s a comment on the numeracy of the UK’s polling stations or the low turnout.