to be honest i dont completely understand the distinction between local and national elections….
i thought national elections were voting for your constituency anyway? so aren’t you still voting for which party you want in power in your local area in the national elections too?
and do local elections effect anything nationally i.e. number of seats in the commons or owt?
the current round of elections determine who runs your county council
they (roughly) set your council tax and how it is spent… on stuff like transport and refuse, but they also run services like health, social services, youth services, education, they decide on stuff like town planning, housing etc
it has no impact on who runs the country except that when local elections go against the party that run the country they get paniky and try and win back voters in the national elections
general (national) elections are to elect local representatives (MPs) for central government, who decide on stuff like what becomes national law, who to start a war with, what system of taxation the country has, and set priorites for local councils (eg. reduce anti-social behaviour), that they have to try and achieve, regardless of what party has local power.
the paradox in my area is that we have a mostly lib-dem local government and have had for many years. they always been very efficient, financially. when labour set up current funding from central to local governments, they took money away from areas that aren’t labour and gave it to areas that are… robbing the people who live there for voting against them. so… local people criticise local government for wasting their tax money, when in reality it is being taken to spend in places that have inefficient labour councils. they do this to keep votes in traditional labour areas
it’s not unusual for people to vote for different parties in national and local elections. i vote for one party in the general election (that’s the national one) for one set of reasons (usually to keep the tories out) and locally I vote for the individual that i think is most committed, connected and passionate about local issues
it’s complex 😉
