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How many folk here voted?

Posted by SueC <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=SueC' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 5, 2024, 11:31 pm

I didn't myself. Had a somewhat disturbing conversation with a bloke on a bus a few weeks back. He was, he said, counting the days until the Tories were gone and Starmer was in Downing Street. I asked why he thought Labour would be better - it's the Labour party he said, glaring at me. Sure, I said, but what specifically do you think will be better? What policies does Labour have, for example, that will improve your life and that of millions of others? It's the LABOUR PARTY he bellowed. So at least one person who voted Labour was voting for a party that hasn't existed since at least the 1980's. I suspect he'll be disappointed with Sir Hopey-Changey.

Re: How many folk here voted? Nice story, thanks.....

Posted by John Monro <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=John+Monro' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 5, 2024, 11:45 pm, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

.... voting for a party that hasn't existed since the 1980s? I think Corbyn's Labour was a small political nova that gave a bit of hope for a very short time.....

Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ian M <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ian+M' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 12:21 am, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously
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Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ken Waldron <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ken+Waldron' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 12:29 am, in reply to "Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Yup...I spent the day doing more important shit like transplanting plants about in the garden, pruning trees & splitting up the hostas...

Why " re-sowed" btw? The original sowing fail?

Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ian M <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ian+M' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 1:24 am, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Failed twice. Slugs got most of the original sowing, second sowing v. patchy and undermined by a mole so went through by hand filling in the gaps. Awful year for veg, my partner says the worst she's known, having worked in Scotland and NE England for several years. No huge disasters but the relentless rain, wind and cold (still dipping below 10C overnight in July, wtf??) means plants are mostly sitting there waiting for some warmth and getting picked off one by one by slugs. Income basically nonexistent since January besides a small amount from grass cutting, only able to start veg boxes from next week. Luckily Labour and the SNP are going to be making a special effort to support market gardeners and other small rural businesses - I'm really looking forward to all the big changes they're going to make...

Best wishes to the hostas,
I

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Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ken Waldron <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ken+Waldron' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 1:49 am, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Carrots...love sand. My old man used to have us dibbing and filling back with sand which also seemed to keep the slugs off...he also got massive straight results cos the sand also meant they didn't branch and feck up for the easy nutrients. Takes effort but worth it.

We've got a massive snail problem atm...they are huge and everywhere ...I'm seriously thinking about eating the buggers: why not? Same species as the froggies eat.

Moles...yea. They are cute, blind and utterly destructive: a month's work gone in a day...and incredibly hard to trap.

You have my sympathies trying to make a living at this. On the other hand the fruit tree are doing rather well. I reckon probably because the roots got so badly hit rocking by the winter winds that the trees are now ultra-paranoid and fruiting heavily in case they are for the off...

Did I say....? Welcome to Scotland!

Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Cockneymystic <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Cockneymystic' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 11:18 am, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Had a slug nightmare here in Stirling. Wind and rain has also caused havoc, but got a bumper crop of blackcurrants. Thanks for the tip on sand, never had much luck with carrots since we moved here.

Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ian M <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ian+M' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 6:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

@Ken - Interesting technique for the carrots, thanks, might try it as an experiment. Did you just go back over and sprinkle a few seeds per dibbed sand-hole? We had ok carrots last year, I think because the soil here is quite granular when cultivated, though not much sand in it as far as I can tell. Don't know that they'll amount to much this year though... Got some earlies in the polytunnel that have done ok at least.

re: snails, yeah why not? I think you have to starve them in clean water for a few days so they empty out their digestive tracts of any nasties, but if big enough to bother with, worth a shot, I'd say.

Thanks for the sympathies, we're considering our options and cutting back on spending and investments for now. Still a way to go before all our savings and pre-inheritance from parents gets frittered away. Part of it is not finding routes to market and locals willing/able to subscribe for boxes. And cost of living shooting way past what we're realistically able to charge. But this weather... starting to see why Roger Hallam quit growing to become a full time campaigner cos if the climate's f*ed then none of this is going to be viable, organic or conventional. Well, not as a business anyway, maybe back-to-the-land subsistence communes could still manage.

@Cockneymystic - commiserations about the slugs, didn't realise you were in Stirling. Yes, blackcurrants (and gooseberries) are one of the few things that have done ok somehow over here too. Going to freeze them and make jam in the winter when there's more time.

cheers,
I

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Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ken Waldron <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ken+Waldron' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 8:56 pm, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Interesting technique for the carrots, thanks, might try it as an experiment. Did you just go back over and sprinkle a few seeds per dibbed sand-hole?

Yea. As I recall he mixed a little exhausted compost into the sand too. I think the issue he had to get around was heavy clay which has lots of nutrients but doesn't let the taproot down so you end up with inconvenient stunted or multi-forked abominations.

Interestingly enough, you can still find wild carrots usually growing on the coastline near the beach.

Its all trial and error in different locations to discover what does well and how. I suppose the issue is affording the luxury of time to find out.

Our garden is tiny so we focus on otherwise expensive stuff: fruit and herbs and otherwise just enjoy the flowers. Fruit is mainly Apple's plums and pears all on superdwarf rootstock...for jams and pie fillings.

The soil here is free-draining and the common crops are potatoes broccoli turnips sweet-beet kale peas broad beans and indeed carrots: a lot of which ends up unfortunately as animal feed... but its not worth us growing it when it's all around you and you can usually glean a few sacks easily after the harvest anyway for free...sheep kale is lovely stuff btw: heads picked before the flowers open rivals any of that expensive supermarket purple sprouting broccolli.

The present seasonal delight though is Elderflower lemonade...

Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)

Posted by Ian M <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ian+M' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 11:19 pm, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Ah yes, have grown a few barrel/octopus carrots in my time. Would be good to master doing them well,though always going to be cheaper buying them wholesale. Have seen a few wild ones about, usually roadsides so possibly seeds came in on vehicles, but still always a nice one to see.

Amen on trial & error. The good thing about market gardening is hedging your bets between a lot of different crops, and usually there's a few that will do well. Brassicas, leeks and, oddly, florence fennel are the winners here so far, and ridge cucumbers in the polytunnel. But their still way slower than even last summer - as poor as that was too.

Hey-ho, we do what we can. I'm going with elderflower wine this year, something to console come the winter!

cheers,
I

Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously
http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/

*they're* :-O (nm)

Posted by Ian M <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Ian+M' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 11:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously
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not I nm

Posted by dan <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=toastkid' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 5:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Nope, re-sowed a bed of carrots instead - might as well try & do something constructive... (nm)"

Re: How many folk here voted?

"Sir Hopey-Changey."

I thought it was just Sir Changey (-but no changey really...)...and the hopey bit had been lost?

-Anyways for me it was first time never.

The Tory promise on the leaflet was quite something. Apparently they were going to go into overdrive doing all the things they had actually opposed for my entire life:

Upgrade and repair all the roads in Scotland...despite presiding over the biggest deterioration of roads I have ever seen.

Provide 1000 Extra GPs..despite deliberately stopping the hiring of GP's so they can wangle in supposedly cheap " Medical assistants"

Reducing class sizes in Schools and expanding the curriculum...despite cutting funding to Education for 90% of schools.

And on top of that they were going to pay for it all by apparently cutting the tax bill for them " Ordinary Scottish workers"...

- I really had to double-check the leaflet to assure myself it wasn't the Socialist Workers...going through a " blue leaflet" phase but no. My prospective Tory MP was actualy offering policies I would approve of.

The only rational conclusion I could draw was that in fact he was a genuine fucking lying shitbag...who thought some idiot might fall for his schtick.
Seems they didn't. He got thirteen more votes than the Green candidate who came last. The fake Tory Lib Dums won.

What, no hopey? Oh, say it isn't so! - nm

Posted by SueC <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=SueC' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 1:03 am, in reply to "Re: How many folk here voted?"

Not in the slightest ..

Posted by t <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=TomskiD' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 3:00 am, in reply to "What, no hopey? Oh, say it isn't so! - nm"

All one needs is a workable plan hehe. It ain't as easy as one would like to think. It's just one of those things

Fnar!....nm

Posted by Keith-264 <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Keith-264' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 8:52 am, in reply to "Re: How many folk here voted?"

The last working-class hero in England.

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Re: How many folk here voted?

Posted by johnlilburne <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=johnlilburne' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 1:21 am, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

I voted Green.

Though I don't support their position on Ukraine. Their support for NATO yet opposition to nukes - which is inconsistent.

Despite some of them going along with the weaponisation of antisemitism against Corbyn and supporters.

The lack of a genuine 'left' candidate in my constituency.

Mainly, to help maximise the non Lab/LD/Tory vote.

Having said that, I have minimal faith in substantive change within the Parliamentary system.

It's not just the people, the parties, the whole system.

Totally inadequate to deal with the existential challenges we face.

Contradictory - yes. So be it.

Re: How many folk here voted?

You know me, I haven't even spoilt a ballot since 1987.

The last working-class hero in England.

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Re: How many folk here voted?

Posted by RaskolnikovX <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Raskolnikov' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 9:45 am, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

I did not. There was a local candidate that seemed to be ok but I didn't care enough to dig more deeply into what she was about.

The media coverage is insane. Pretending this is anything other than different furniture being put into number 10.

I commented on another thread about hearing in passing someone on the BBC talking about "this monment of history" in connection to the election and how ridiculous it was. Then later on in the day I caught another blast of their coverage and lo and behold, the same phrase, this time when Kieves met (not my) king. Then even later I heard it again. It's astonishing.

Then the fraudian blaring on about the "...first ever female chancellor" as if that counts for anything. And Polly banging on about "the end of austerity" as if that same first female chancellor hadn't already said she would carrying on the same economic policies.

Bizarro world.

...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.

Re: How many folk here voted?

Posted by Mark Doran <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Mark+Doran+66' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 10:30 am, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

"... I asked why he thought Labour would be better - it's the Labour party, he said..."

This is an example of Doran's Third Law: 'People live their lives according to 40-year-old rumours.'

Hence 'The Tories are the party of economic competence' and 'Labour is a party of the hard left'. In 2024, FFS...

It's absolutely demented -- and one more reason why I believe 95% of the electorate should be given ballot papers on which there is a special code that means they go straight in the bin.

I am sick to fuckihg death of idiots proudly rubber-stamping the rule of psychopaths.

M.

Re: How many folk here voted?

Posted by Auribus <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Auribus' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 2:39 pm, in reply to "Re: How many folk here voted?"

95% of the electorate should be given ballot papers on which there is a special code that means they go straight in the bin.

idiots proudly rubber-stamping the rule of psychopaths.

I like the cut of your jib Mark.

As I've said before, you can't cure stupid.

And beyond that, is the egregious role of the media and Leveson Mk 2 down the memory hole.

Anyway, Brit and Western society in general. Just so much hubris, arrogance and stupidity.

Re: How many folk here voted?

Posted by Shyaku <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Shyaku' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 5:14 pm, in reply to "Re: How many folk here voted?"

On US ballot papers, the party affiliation of the candidate is not given, just the candidate’s name.

Unless its a primary, of course, in which case the party is a given.

The Price of Freedom

Posted by Gerard <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=GKH' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 11:13 am, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

Once I had determined that "magic is consensus" I then extrapolated that "democracy is magic"..certainly many have given their lives either literally or figuratively in order that we should posses the (somewhat limited), freedoms we enjoy here today (I've not even heard of anyone being killed accidentally on their way to vote -RIP if otherwise-), freedoms we should understand as being part of the "process of democracy" as we should process The Mall for electoral reform. Being thus advised I voted to dislodge our incumbent Tory M.P by voting Labour. I did not vote for the Labour Party.
Politics doth indeed make for strange bedfellows to which the current situation of Reform, The Greens and The Liberals sharing a platform for electoral reform bears witness. It should also indicate where power currently lies...in the hands of the bourgeoisie who fear-monger (re: Corbyn), and use every other dirty trick in the book to retain their grip on power...an end to middle class green-wellied nimbyism and "our sh*t* don't" smell snobbery is what is needed; "Where one of my fellows is ignorant therefore I am ignorant also".
N.b those who currently claim to be Schumachian in influence merely exemplify the problem..Schumacher argued for a mixed economy where individual capital, community and society are a balanced triumvirate, however, our modern dilettantes, so terrified by the society in which they live, have espoused Thatcher's notion that no such thing exists and conflated the communal with the individual in a "kiss-of-death" for both. the tortured writings of such "individuals" has to be "seen to be believed"!

I voted for GG. He lost by 1440 votes to Labour

Posted by scrabb <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=scrabb' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 2:46 pm, in reply to "The Price of Freedom"

Re: I voted for GG. He lost by 1440 votes to Labour

Posted by Gerard <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=GKH' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 3:10 pm, in reply to "I voted for GG. He lost by 1440 votes to Labour"

Shame.....

Re: How many folk here voted?

Posted by Shyaku <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Shyaku' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 5:09 pm, in reply to "How many folk here voted?"

I didn’t vote :-)

Fnar!

Posted by Keith-264 <iframe src='https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/info/user=Keith-264' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on July 6, 2024, 6:59 pm, in reply to "Re: How many folk here voted?"

it's pointless to insult the intelligence of the electorate when voting is tantamount to rigging your own vote. Better to condemn the fascist electoral system than blame the victims.

The last working-class hero in England.

Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021

Threw the polling card away as soon as it arrived...

No point turning out. No political choice on the ballot. Plus I'm now treated like some fucking impostor who needs to do the "Ihren Ausweis, bitte" routine to be able to vote in my own local fucking school hall...

M.

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