Glenrothes
From Fs_wiki
It seems that the next byelection will be in Glenrothes. See below. My email is julian@goatchurch.org.uk
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Objectives
The objective of involvement in any election campaign is to shed light on the actual issues that are decided by these elections -- as demonstrated by votes in Parliament.
Political parties rarely make any statements about these issues during an election campaign because they distract from what is "on the minds of the voters" at that moment in time. This is why citizens are generally misinformed when they cast their vote, yet they seem to know a lot more about the issues between elections when the resources aren't being devoted to influencing their opinion.
The goal is to break this mold and encourage a small number voters to do their own homework by researching in detail the actions their representatives have taken in their name in order to raise questions about these actions at the only time it matters (at an election).
The real target is the General Election, but someone has to try things out on by-elections if the big one isn't going to be a waste of time. Lessons about what does and doesn't work needs to be found out now. I don't know of any else intending to produce a voter guide webpage who is doing this necessary homework. There are going to be dozens on the day, from places like google, and smaller NGOs who all hurry something out onto the net like they didn't have 3 years to get prepared.
Past work
All of this is based on data derived from http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/
Crewe and Nantwich
For the Crewe and Nantwich byelection I produced this webpage:
- http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/election_crewe_and_nantwich_2008.php
This first leaflet:
This second leaflet:
And this press release:
- >-- /wpblog/2008/05/the-public-whip-crewe/
Libdem party leaflets:
- http://by-elections.co.uk/crewe/Lib_Dem.html
David Davis
For David Davis's byelection I produced this webpage:
Glenrothes
Pledgebank volunteers
Newsdump webpage:
- http://www.glenrothesbyelection.com/
Voting information
The "policy comparison" pages on publicwhip are not great, but they give enough indications.
The vote is primarily going to be between Labour and SNP.
The former MP, John McDougall (Lab), was 100% loyal to the Labour Party Whip in his voting record on all issues. Therefore, a new Labour MP isn't going to be any different to this unless he makes an official statement (eg he will vote against ID cards or nuclear weapons). This is different from Crewe where Dunwoody was known to be rebellious, but most people didn't know on what issues.
Corroboration:
The SNP has a different voting records on many issues, probably fairly close to the LibDem record, though I haven't done the analysis.
No research done for other parties standing.
Last election details:
- http://www.alba.org.uk/nextge/glenrothes.html
Other online voting quizes
- http://www.quizrocket.com/who-should-i-vote/
- http://www.votebyissue.org/election2008/
- http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/
- http://london.votematch.co.uk/
Needs now
Things that would be nice to happen:
- Constructive criticism about the above two voter selection webpages and how they could be improved.
- Systematic research through the votes in Parliament and any evidence whatsoever of citizen engagement with the MP for this constituency about a particular vote:
- Design of a leaflet
- Arrangements to distribute the leaflet in the constituency
- Some kind of press notification
- And most importantly: someone who responds to the information and poses a questions of the candidates in a public forum about issues that are decided in Parliament, but are totally outside of the campaign narrative.
