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Local Politics
May. 3rd, 2012 01:59 pmDon't worry you should feel free to skip it, a lot of British people are going to.
I'm in Birmingham, which places me in the lucky position of being able to vote on whether or not we want Birmingham to have a mayor, one with actual powers as opposed to the present Lord Mayor who has no powers.
Now there's all kinds of problems with this vote, not least of all that the government are refusing to tell us what kind of powers this putative mayor would have. I'd see no point in voting yes if they had none, but at the same time, there's a limit to what useful powers a mayor of Birmingham could possibly have.
It's almost like whoever set this up wanted a 'no' vote. (I think it's also telling that Doncaster are having a vote to see if people want to get rid of the mayor (and mayoral system that goes with the position) that they voted for last time round.
We've also got council elections at the same time, which have been their usual dispiriting selves. It's never 'if we get in we plan to do this', it's always, 'we've done this cool thing and they tried to stop us doing it'. I don't like the constant bashing, and I really wish there was a 're-open nominations'/'none of the above' option. That might wake all the parties up.
I'm in Birmingham, which places me in the lucky position of being able to vote on whether or not we want Birmingham to have a mayor, one with actual powers as opposed to the present Lord Mayor who has no powers.
Now there's all kinds of problems with this vote, not least of all that the government are refusing to tell us what kind of powers this putative mayor would have. I'd see no point in voting yes if they had none, but at the same time, there's a limit to what useful powers a mayor of Birmingham could possibly have.
It's almost like whoever set this up wanted a 'no' vote. (I think it's also telling that Doncaster are having a vote to see if people want to get rid of the mayor (and mayoral system that goes with the position) that they voted for last time round.
We've also got council elections at the same time, which have been their usual dispiriting selves. It's never 'if we get in we plan to do this', it's always, 'we've done this cool thing and they tried to stop us doing it'. I don't like the constant bashing, and I really wish there was a 're-open nominations'/'none of the above' option. That might wake all the parties up.
