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Nearly 200 years after the people of Hartlepool hung a shipwrecked monkey for being a suspected french spy, the people of Hartlepool have elected a man in a monkey suit called H'Angus, mayor of their fair town.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1965000/images/_1965569_monkey.jpg

― Ed, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Who Voted yesterday? My vote was utterly wasted.

― Ed, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I voted! But like there was no Natural Law candidate, and only one Green.

― jel --, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I voted - helping keep Croydon under Labour control.

Earlier in the day, in Downham (I'm not sure how I ended up there; I had a bus pass, a 136 came along Lewisham Way, I was curious, so...), I was approached by a BNP supporter. "One of us, eh mate?" he said. Fumbling for something smart to say, all I could come up with was "Stick yr leaflet up yr arse, racist pig". He just grinned at me.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Peter Mandelson's face at the count in Hartlepool was a picture.

More seriously, BNP won TWO seats in Burnley, and there is a re-count going on in a third.

Oxford rejected idea of an elected mayor in a referendum (thus bucking a trend). Any Oxford ILX-ers bother to vote out of interest?

― Jeff W, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

was going to vote but then realised that a) no candidate had made ANY effort to tell me what they stood for, not that any of them would be good anyway as they're all RUBBISH, and b) that i had curry to cook and wine to drink. and c) that my annoying boss had been going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and ON (... you get the picture) at me ALL DAY about "oh you must vote how are you going to vote?" and generally annoying the crap out of me even more than she does normally. so i didn't vote to spite HER hahahahaha!!!

― katie, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

TRUE: election pledge = free bananas to skoolkidz

NORTH-EAST KEEPIN IT UNreal Yet Again

― a-33, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

now this looks like the kind of guy that would go over well in france.

― geeta, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I voted. I always vote as I am an excellent citizen. We had tons of leaflets from various wannabe Islingtong councillors + a visit from some Labour people who said 'we were just talking to your neighbour and the Labour council got her a new bathroom!' which is a great policy to be campaigning on, sadly I had to explain that we aren't council tenants but a new bathroom would be great as ours is rotting.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ahl thiz week: lerkyl charvers haf zet fyre tee purst-boksez tee bllx up tha purstal vertin

― a-33, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm in Oxford and I voted against a mayor. No one seemed to be campaigning particularly hard either way - I didn't see a single piece of election material. It just seemed like it would make no difference and cost more.

I hope I wasn't wrong...

― liz, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't get a polling card - were they dished out this time or was there some hi-tech alternative?

― Jonnie, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not registered to vote in Oxford. I'm registered in Surrey for some reason, where my Mum lives. Since I don't live there and won't be living there for the next 4 years it didn't seem fair to vote for local representatives for that area.

― Tom, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was all set to vote, then discovered that the letter from Hackney that had been sitting on my kitchen counter for weeks contained a ballot card that could only be sent by post. I wish it had made that clear on the front of the envelope. It said something about being able to drop your vote off at the town hall if you hadn't posted it in time, and also the municipal offices on Church St. So I went there and the woman ahead of me was being told by the receptionist that you could only do that up until Wednesday and now you had to take it to Mare St. I hadn't got time to do this so I gave it to my fellow voter, who said she might make it. So I don't know if I voted or not.

At work today, a fellow Hackney resident said exactly the same thing happened to him, and to an Observer journalist he got talking to this morning. Maybe we're all just idiots, but I don't think this 'postal vote only' thing was publicised very well. I see that the turnout in Hackney fell from last time. I'm not surprised.

Still, it's better then the mayoral election, when I didn't even receive a ballot card at all. I was told at the polling station that lots of people were in the same vote cause the company employed to deliver the cards had dumped them behind a bush somewhere. Great. Hurrah

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is this another upshot of you never opening your mail Tom? I know Carsmile voted agaist the mayor in Oxford too.

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Er, you could have opened the envelope? Or would that have ruined your ongoing efforts to become Tom e.g. the beard?

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Oh dear that was aimed at N but Pete has confused matters)

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Of course I could have opened the envelope, but the fact that I and the only other two Hackney residents I have talked to about it didn't do so suggests that this it is fairly normal human behaviour to leave such envelopes unopened till polling day.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well then I am an abnormal human as the minute I get post of any description I tear it open with great joy only to find another fucking credit card bill or offer to help sell my house. I really think you + your fellow Hackney residents have no-one to blame but yourselves.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also if you put "IMPORTANT - YOUR POLLING CARD" on the envelope the dodgy postman who wants to diddle the election might steal it.

That's why they don't write "ITS A CREDIT CARD FOR YOU!!!" on credit card envelopes.

I think The Barnet Ape should run against mayor Ken.

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I could haf voted but was scared off by the possible powerfreakery I might have gained from doing so. And I had no idea where the polling station might me.

― Graham, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I walked right past the polling station and felt pangs of guilt. But if the sods in Haringey can't be bothered to send me a card then , er, stuff.

― Jonnie, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

YOU DON'T ACTUALLY NEED A POLLING CARD AS LONG AS YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE. IF YOU DON'T GET ONE (AND IT'S NOT A STUPID POSTAL ONLY ONE LIKE HACKNEY) THEN JUST TURN UP WITH SOME PROOF OF ADDRESS.

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― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No proof of address. Plllwwwtthhhhhpppp.

― Jonnie, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

HOW ON EARTH DO YOU JOIN YOUR LOCAL VIDEO STORE?

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I would be able to if I was sent a polling card because then I would have a valid proof of address. In the meantime I end up watching Channel 5.

― Jonnie, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What you don't even have a bill in your name? Or a bank statement? I dunno, what with the ineptitude displayed on this thread + the not opening post one I am worried how you lot manage to survive in the world.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ditto N. i spose, grrrr

who won in hackney (obv not the bnp)? same old same old?

― mark s, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if you live in a block of eight and you get a delivery of eight identical letters then either it is YOUR CHANCE TO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY or some fool campaigning abt the colour of the railings in the square: i made a bad guess i guess (not that i remember guessing at all)

― mark s, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

who won in hackney (obv not the bnp)? same old same old?

No, you fool. LE PEN. My wife'll kill me etc.

It is my quest today to find a Hackney resident who did manage to negotiate the opening/reading/perforation-ripping/witness- obtaining/nested envelope- stuffing krypton factor round that was the Hackney postal vote.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

christ you are all mentalists! voting by post = way easier than voting in person; takes approx 30 seconds. i choose to vote by post at all elections cos it is zero effort.

― toby, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Quite right Toby. You are all grown-ups and if you are too lazy to open a bleeding envelope it is nobody's fault but your own. Obviously several Hackney residents did manage to figure it out. I am sure not all of them have genius IQs.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I did last time too but that was when it was my choice. I don't like being forced to without proper warning.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This has all the makings of another Miami Hanging Chad revolt. Could go all the way to the Appeal Courts or even the HoL!

― Jeff W, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's horrific, monkeys are terrifying.

― Nicole, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This Is London appears to agree with you. Hackney is the only postal vote only council without a significant increase in turnout: "However, the exception was Hackney, where an over-complex postal system and the council's reputation for mismanagement saw the proportion voting hit only 33 per cent." (as opposed to 52 in STevenage and 46% in Havering).

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Emma will not believe it till it hits the Metro.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nick - how would you like them to have informed you? by post?? it was definitely in the news that hackney was postal-only; i knew this and i don't live there...

― toby, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ANd you'd think that Dastoor would open the post on May 1st - what with it being his birthday and all....

― Pete, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I still think it's a rubbish excuse for not voting. Pete, presumably the polling info arrived well before May 1 so Nick wouldn't have thought it was a birthday card.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I opened the post on May 1st but it doesn't seem to arrive till the afternoon these days and seeing as it was my BIRTHDAY I didn't get in till late that night and anyway I wasn't going to mistake a three week old missive from Hackney Council for a birthday card.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i just read that hackney sent a free pencil w.the ballots, so now i feel more worse than evah! (where's me free pencil you bastards) (tries to think of le pencil joke but fails)

― mark s, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Could that not be construed as a bribe, seeing as Labour is currently in power?

I never got Le Pencil either. Maybe they were means tested.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Clearly they were means tested on the grounds of INTELLIGENCE.

Are you bright enough to open the envelope? Here, have a pencil.

Are you too dumb/lazy to bother? Sod off then. You probably have no use for a pencil anyway.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Are you suggesting the pencil somehow eroded in between the letter arriving and my finally opening it yesterday?

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes. If you do not open the envelope within 5 days the pencil self destructs.

― Emma, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This micro-explosive technology is a complete waste of taxpayer's money and I am glad I (probably) didn't give Labour my vote thus allowing Le Pen to run Hackney Council.

― N., Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Geez, Emma, it's okay. See look: :)

― nabisco%%, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

N, despite his computer skills with BIG LETTERS, is sadly talking bollocks. I should know.

― the pinefox, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's true! Unless they've changed the rules. I should know - I've done it.

― N., Saturday, 4 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's not so bad, I've got Bottler as both my local TD and Taoiseach, and probably will after the election as well.

― DV, Saturday, 4 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought Pete's 'STevenage' was a witticism until I saw he typed 'ANd' further down.

Unless 'ANd' just went over my head.

― David, Saturday, 4 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I did vote postally, solely to vote against the idea of a mayor in oxford, which was a bludy stupid plan, although if it had meant getting free bananas for schoolkids maybe it wouldn't have been so bad ;)

― CarsmileSteve, Sunday, 5 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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Monkey Mayor of Hartlepool

YOU DON'T ACTUALLY NEED A POLLING CARD AS LONG AS YOU ARE REGISTERED TO VOTE. IF YOU DON'T GET ONE (AND IT'S NOT A STUPID POSTAL ONLY ONE LIKE HACKNEY) THEN JUST TURN UP WITH SOME PROOF OF ADDRESS.