Thanks everyone – I will switch off the live blog now but keep on talking below the line.
We will be signing off soon, but you can continue to discuss below the line. Thanks everyone
Swearing makes you stronger
For anyone who has ever done any endurance challenge, be it running a half marathon or withstanding the daily assault of a horrible boss, the value of swearing is probably well-known.
But now psychologists have found that swearing actually makes you temporarily stronger. A study done by experts at Keele University found that when people cursed their way through the half-minute bike challenge, their peak power rose by 24 watts on average.
So next time you’re at the gym, maybe it’s worth screaming some profanities. Although, this may get you kicked out. What do readers think about these results?
Your views on compulsory voting
Yes, compulsory voting. With a "none of the above option". If the five year term was a waste of time (as many of us said it was at the time) it might be better to set possible voting dates well in advance, say every six months. Then at least we can do all the voting in one visit.
Food disasters: exploding cheese, lethal beer, ocean-wrecking treacle
It turns out there’s only so much being knifed, bitten and swallowed whole that food will take before it fights back. Last week, following the dayglo environmental disaster that was the flooding of a Russian town by tropical juice I wondered whether there had been any other food-based (un)natural disasters? Not only did it turn out that there had (exploding cheese, lethal beer, ocean-wrecking treacle), and that being submerged in delicious porter isn’t so much a brilliant Saturday night out as an awful way to die. But it also transpired that some foodstuffs are more damaging to the environment than the noxious materials of heavy industry (black treacle + ocean = way worse than an oil spill). Probably best not to think about the consequences of this for your insides.
Got me wondering, though: what would be the worst foodstuff to leak into the environment? Thoughts?
We are going to be moving on from election stories now, but please keep posting below the line. Next few posts will be on swearing and food disasters.
Who will young voters support at the election and why?
Looks like efforts to get young people to vote are starting to pay off. 9 in 10 students entitled to vote in June’s election have now registered, according to a survey this week. And 55% of them intend to vote for Labour – an increase on 23% back in 2005.
Whether the boost is entirely due to a groundswell of support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is unclear. Analysts say it’s probably more complex than that: tactical voting after Brexit will be another factor, after 85% of students voted Remain in the EU referendum. The other anti-Brexit choice would be the Lib Dems, though their brand has likely been tarnished among students ever since the tuition fee rise in 2012.
What do you think is driving the surge and will it make a difference to the final result? Share your views
Too bored for the election? That's what they want
Many of us are feeling wiped out after a year of non-stop politics. So it’s safe to say enthusiasm for another election is at rock bottom. I asked Anushka Asthana, our politics editor, to do an In my opinion video when the election was announced and she decided to focus on this national feeling of apathy. Her message was that political strategists are using this mood to their advantage. We chose soundbites and clips that highlighted how robotic and corporate the Conservative campaign has been, and Anushka argued that they know they can get away with it as no one has the energy for a battle of ideas.
Should we really make voting mandatory?
Trumbledon asks how that would work exactly.
The idea of compulsory voting is absurd. What would the penalty be for not voting? A fine? Jail?
So what happens when a single parent on benefits doesn't turn up to cast a vote?
How useful would it be for people to vote ‘none of the above’?
I couldn't be more opposed to compulsory voting. I am not in the least impressed by Polly's high- handed and arrogant dismissal of this as "right wing libertarian."
Forcing people to tick a box labelled none of the above would be as pointless an exercise in form- filling for its own sake as I can imagine.
What's needed is an electoral quorum.
For TeaDrinking, it’s just filling in a form in the grand scheme of filling in forms.
Yes it should be compulsory. It's bizarre that people accept the government taking a third or more of their income as a necessary part of living in a modern society, but they think bring required to fill out a form once every couple of years at intolerable tyranny.
Compulsory voting would be quite helpful in case you forget though.
I forgot to vote to be honest was only when a friend mentioned it in the evening that I realised. No flyers through the day ahead of the vote. Nearest polling station is several miles away, so happy for it to be compulsory but should be able to vote via some means other than in person, some kind of two factor authentication, fingerprint scanning, photograph the polling card (QR codes), something better than postal votes which are easily manipulated.
Don't worry though, I'm ready for the 8th June
And a good way to get young people to vote.
On compulsory voting - I am not sure it is the answer.
As a 28 year old I am really interested in why young people don't bother to vote. We complain that no parties represent us (true) but if we don't vote why would they bother tailoring any policies to us?
The only specific policy I think that could benefit me and has benefited my peers is Help to Buy on new build flats. My sister has bought one with her boyfriend in Bristol and it has been a massive help to two young people on not great wages.
How do we get young people out to vote if not through compulsory voting?
Why voting should be compulsory
Citizens have duties they can’t avoid. They must obey the laws democratically set by parliament, pay taxes parliament decides, and serve on juries when required – 90% of our law is enforced by volunteer citizen magistrates.
All these things depend on another duty of citizens: the duty to vote. I would make it compulsory to mark a ballot paper or face a penalty: there would have to be a “None of the above” option, but people would have to turn up. When I suggested compulsory voting yesterday a howl of protest from mostly rightwing libertarians said it would be a abuse of their freedom. Nonsense! People are harming their own freedoms by failing to vote. Only 14% of the 18-24s says they’ll definitely vote, while 79% of the over 65s will vote. That’s why the government does nothing for the young, their housing, their university fees, while giving very expensive triple-lock pensions to the old.
Australia has compulsory voting, and no one says they aren’t a free country. For their own sake, for the sake of our declining democracy, its time for all citizens to vote.
We will shortly be moving on to discuss whether voting should be compulsory – watch this space.
At least we have dogs at polling stations
Some would say exercising your democratic right to elect your representatives is the best part of voting day. Those people are wrong, because clearly spotting dogs at polling stations is the best bit about voting.
Went to vote in our #LocalElections2017 #dogsatpollingstations pic.twitter.com/0M7Ra5kPmK
— ᴊᴇɴɴʏ❁ (@webjenny) May 4, 2017
In case you’re out of the loop on this particular trend #dogsatpollingstations is an election day tradition in which people share pictures of dogs out and about (sort of) participating in democracy. Because every dog is a good dog.
Dogs in Splott doing their bit for the community 🗳🐶 #DogsAtPollingStations pic.twitter.com/ac9Wk8xXT1
— Rosie (@RosesBranwen) May 4, 2017
It’s a handy tradition for broadcasters, given they aren’t able to discuss a peep about the elections until polling stations close.
We can't talk about the local elections because of strict guidelines, but we can show you #dogsatpollingstations 🐶https://t.co/ofb4AHkgcg pic.twitter.com/e83wfZcbKO
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 4, 2017
The trending hashtag started at the 2015 general election and cropped up again during the EU Referendum and yesterday’s local elections. No doubt, it’ll be back in June, because it gives everyone an excuse to look at some nice pictures of dogs.
Phoebe voted for extra sausages ✅#dogsatpollingstations #MayoralElection #GMMayor @MENnewsdesk pic.twitter.com/Z3td93FD3t
— Sam (@SAMiCURE) May 4, 2017
Here are some of your views on what you think about the election.
Do Conservative voters really support May or is she just the lesser of two evils?
I’m curious to know whether Conservative voters see Theresa May as the best person to lead us into the most complex, multi-sided diplomatic negotiation of our lifetimes?
She went over to Washington and allowed Donald Trump to lead her around by the hand, while sporting her trademark petrified expression. That was the image of Britain beamed round the world. Can you imagine Angela Merkel or Xi Xinping allowing that to happen?
She then utterly and totally humiliated herself (and by extension the UK) at that dinner with Juncker, apparently mistaking him for an assistant she can bark orders at.
She then follows that up with a Trump-style nonsensical allegation that the EU are meddling in an election that she’ll definitely win. What was that about?
Every public pronouncement she makes is like an explosion of pure, weapons-grade awkward. She looks utterly terrified, all the time. And this is who we’re sending in to represent the UK, against the seasoned operators in Brussels?
This isn’t even about her politics, it’s about her abilities as a politician and diplomat. There’s a reason why no one ever spoke of her as leadership material before last year.
So, do Tory voters look at May and go “yes, that’s the person to get the best deal?” She may be better than Corbyn, but is she better than, say, David Davis?
Progressive parties need to work together.
In the best interests of the country ... it is time for Labour to embrace other parties and rerun the 1918 Coupon Election.
In December 1918 the UK had its first General Election since 1910. WWI had just ended and the coalition government, led by Lloyd George, wasn't in a position to make detailed manifesto commitments. Therefore, the coalition agreed to fight the election on a single underpinning principle ... that they would build "a land fit for heroes". The coalition stood a single candidate in each constituency, funds and expenses were shared, and each coalition candidate was issued with a 'coupon' signed by Lloyd George and Bonar Law which identified them as the coalition's choice of ideal candidate to help deliver the underpinning principle of "a land fit for heroes".
Today the UK faces its greatest challenge since WWII. The Tories are out of control ... they lie, they cheat ... and their lying and cheating will lead to the destruction of the UK if they are not stopped. It is time for the progressive parties to put party politics to one side ... it is time for them to work together, with a single underpinning principle of "removing the out of control Tories from government". A single 'coupon' candidate in every constituency, shared funds and expenses. Lloyd George and Bonar Law saw their coalition returned with a landslide (no mean feat given the savage losses that happened on their watch), today the progressive parties need to put country before party and get the Tories out of office ... they can do that if they work together.
Though this commenter’s not convinced. It might be a bit too late.
I've far from convinced there is any real prospect of 'progressive alliance' even amongst the parties or the voters. However if it is to happen, those parties need to come together for the next election (its too late for this) and stand on a shared platform for changing to a system of proportional representation and once that is achieved they dissolve Parliament and call new elections.
Updated
Will this odd election ever catch fire or is it tedium all the way?
Our Anywhere But Westminster series has now been on the road for two weeks. We started by travelling from the western tip of Cornwall to Bristol, and I’m writing this from the knife-edge county of Lancashire, where I’m about to find out whether Labour are about to lose control of the council to the Tories. So far, what’s pretty clear is the contrast between a divided, messed-up, often resentful country, and the sense that the Conservatives are once again about to win, and win big.
Despite Jeremy Corbyn’s efforts, when I snatch an hour or so back at the hotel and watch TV, there’s no sense of huge issues playing any role in what’s ostensibly at stake. What of cuts, foodbanks, closed-own libraries and children’s centres, or the crisis in the NHS? “It’s all just about Brexit,” one man said to me yesterday, with a pained grimace. And not even that issue is being debated in any meaningful way. Theresa May endlessly promises “strong and stable” government, while a lot of people I meet seem completely switched-off.
Here’s what I want to know: are there local contests where real things are coming into sharper focus? What’s happening in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? What of the possible progressive alliances between Greens and Labour people that offer a rare sense of grassroots involvement? Will this odd election ever catch fire? Or is it frustration and tedium all the way to June 8th?
Updated
Welcome to the social
Hey everyone and welcome to our weekly social. We will be discussing lots today, including what’s going on in the world of politics and much more. Share your views with us below the line, and let us know if there is anything in particular you want to discuss.
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Voting should be compulsory with the addition of two extra options on the voting form
1. Abstain - so that we can register our disapproval of all the candidates
2. A write in box to put in the name and address of anyone we think would be better than the listed candidates who could be allowed to stand (i.e. resident in the area)