General Discussion
Register To Vote: Government To Trigger ‘Emergency’ Law To Extend Deadline By 48 Hours
The deadline to apply to register is now midnight tomorrow (June 9).
I wonder if the Remain camp had a 10 point lead in the polls, instead of lagging behind, that the extension would have been granted?
Why did they all leave it so late, enough info has been given out about the deadline, should have stuck to their guns
No one could vote after 10pm due to the site being down I believe.
@burneside i was waiting for the conspiracy theories lol
It's just making us look like a banana republic, with electoral law being made on the hoof. It's a shambles.
Definition of a banana republic
"typically has stratifiedsocial classes, including a large, impoverished working classand a ruling plutocracy of business, political, and military elites.[1] This politico-economic oligarchy controls theprimary-sector productions to exploit the country's economy.[2]"
Remind you of anywhere........... ?
Erm, what makes the conspiracy theorist nutjobs assume that extending the deadline is only going to enable Remain voters to register? It could just as easily work in favour of the Abandon campaign.
I'm pretty sure the Brexiteers would have registered long ago, we have had nearly four month's notice of this referendum, after all. It's a bit of coincidence that in the last few days there's been a concerted Facebook campaign to get younger voters registered (who are thought more more likey to vote Remain), and now because of a glitch in the dying minutes before the process closed a two-day extension has been granted.
Like I intimated earlier, if the Remain camp had a decisive lead in the polls right now, this extension would not be happening.
Meanwhile, despite cross-party support, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, Ian Liddell-Grainger,
has denounced the decision to extend the registration deadline.
The MP faced calls from within his own party to be deselected as a candidate in the general election last year because of his "...divisive behaviour" and for "setting people against each other instead of bringing people together". So no change there then...
So this MP disagrees with the extension, he's perfectly entitled to his view. Lots of people are unhappy about this abuse of electoral law, you only have to read social media tonight to realise that.
Was the site closed so as to get more time to younger voters to register that may give the
remain vote an advantange?Trust old Dave?
Most of the social media I am in tune to Burneside, think it was the only sensible, democratic option.
I can imagine why the Brexit camp are unhappy - they know very well that it was an upsurge in young people desperate to register to vote that has caused the registration website to crash. It would have been unthinkable that this group - with most of their lives ahead of them - could have been disenfranchised by a computer glitch.
This referendum is already proving to be one of the most divisive forces this country has ever seen, pitting the ideologies of generations against each other and brother against brother. We do not need the ill-considered words of a Tory malcontent to fan the flames.
Seeing as the outcome of the referendum (note to Farage, it's not an "election" as he called it the other night) is more going to affect the younger generation, rather than the average 70-year-old Ukipper, then fingers crossed they'll be voting in their droves. It's their future not ours.
Its not just the future of the younger generation, weareall living longer so it could be the future of my next 30years (God willing). Kippers are not the only group that are voting leave so why single them out, I thought Tories were leading one group ?
Interesting to see three generations on TV news last night, Lynne.
Grandmother wanted out, but could not be persuaded by her granddaughter to reflect on how her decision would affect those with most of their lives ahead of them. The last shot of Gran was at the postbox with her 'leave' postal vote .
Granddaughter was very concerned about her future and the restriction of opportunity that leaving the EU would bring about. Her mother could see both sides of the argument, but was either undecided - or keeping mum.
As for how sisters are doing, granddaughter was later shown with other representatives of her age group all with a broad view of opinions.
Not all of our young are Europhiles it would seem. Then again not all grannies and granddads are Europhobes.
A microcosm of the state of the nation, perhaps?
And it will be interesting to see how the tory party family unite (or not!) post the referendum because my, my, what a lot of name calling and such has gone on between them.
Your right Lynne. Family rifts will be difficult enough - the Tory party's seem terminal.
But will UKIP become the dominant force in English politics in a post-Brexit world?
Scarey thought...
Yet again this country shows how out-dated we are in how the electoral system works , why have we not updated the whole platform where by everyone is automatically registered when reaching the age for vote as other countries do.
But then answering this myself maybe that it will show all the flaws in that the goverment has no idea on who's living here and who's eligible to vote or not !
If the vote is to leave the EU then I see the Tory party shifting to the Right. An alliance with UKIP perhaps?
I suspect that some who post on here would be delighted with that.
My fear though is for those who will find themselves on the receiving end of Right wing policies, like the poor, the sick, the unemployed, the low paid.
And as for council/social housing provision. .................... dream on ('cos in your dreams is the only place they'll be).
I think the importance of voting and a basic understanding of politics should be taught in schools. Oh and voting should be compulsory too.
How nauseating that the IN campaign is trying to tar all Brexit supporters with the UKIP brush. They should be aware that the Vote Leave campaign has supporters from across the political spectrum, and from professional organisations too, and yes, even workers in the NHS have spoken in favour of Brexit.
For those who speak of a future UKIP government, well that is just plain nonsense and scaremongering. Should Brexit happen then UKIP will be a spent force, it will have no reason to exist any longer. UKIP MEPs are in fact voting to make themselves redundant, it's not every day you witness politicians trying to makes themselves unemployed,
I do not agree with compulsory voting, but if it were to happen there should be a "non of the above" option, and what if that option received the majority of votes, what would happen then? Perhaps that is a discussion which needs a thread of its own.
Well Burneside, having had inter-leaved leaflets through the door yesterday from the Brexit bunch, it is clear to me that a win for the vote leave campaign would lead to UKIP's influence continuing to rise up the political agenda.
The country should not be lulled into thinking that a result to quit the EU would be the last anyone would hear from Nigel Farage and his divisive disciples.
Voting in General Elections should be compulsory and you should have a none of the above. If the none's win then the MPs have truly failed and we would have a hung parliament.
@Lynne "My fear though is for those who will find themselves on the receiving end of Right wing policies, like the poor, the sick, the unemployed, the low paid." - and these are the people I see duped into voting out of the EU
I see the UKIP slur across social media all the time, and even some on here like to slip in the Farage/UKIP references whenever they can, as though it is guilt by association.
@burneside I agree the Leave side should not be tarred with the UKIP brush. however, UKIP, in general, are a bunch of idiots!