Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Digital Newsroom Assignment Two: Article One

Don't Miss The Election Bus

By Richard Blackledge

Preston City Council are hoping to encourage voters to participate in the local elections on May 1 with a series of adverts printed on buses.

Preston Bus have co-operated with the electoral services to promote voter registration on 10 city centre buses. The adverts feature the message “1st of May is election day, use your vote”, together with the council logo and contact number.

Susan Harrison, head of electoral services, said: “We thought that advertising on the back of buses is very visual and that people would see the adverts and actually go out and vote. Hopefully people will realise that they can influence decisions that are made in their local area.”

The campaign is intended to boost low turnout in local elections. Last year’s turnout stood at only 35.6 % of the electorate.

Susan said feedback has been positive so far, but councillors should also help to boost turnout at the polls. She said: “People have actually rung up and said ‘I saw the advert on the back of the bus, that jogged my memory that an election was coming up’, so they’ve come into the office to check that they’re on the register or, if they want a postal vote, to see if we can sort that out for them.

“We will do everything we can, certainly getting people registered, but politicians also have a duty I think to make the public aware of why they should vote.”

Elections are held in 19 wards across Preston this year. The College, Moor Park and University wards will not be involved in the elections.

Take part in the local election poll!



The Digital Newsroom Assignment Two: Article Two

Why Has Britain Stopped Voting?
By Richard Blackledge

Preston City Council’s recent advertisement campaign, in which a message encouraging people to vote was displayed on the back of buses, highlights the ongoing problem of low turnout in elections on both a local and national level. But what are the reasons for this increase in voter apathy? And what is being done to combat it?

In the 2005 general election, only 61% of those eligible to vote did so. The picture for local elections is even bleaker. In 2007, turnout averaged only 31.2% nationwide. The public interest in politics has also hit a new low, with Hansard Society figures released last month revealing that only 41% of people questioned had discussed politics or political news in the past two to three years.

Labour candidate Salim Desai, who is standing for the Preston Town Centre ward in the 2008 election, said that one of the main reasons for people neglecting to vote is a lack of time: “Usually it’s in the evening that they go out to vote. People come back from work, then they’ve got to have their tea, and there’s probably a bit of catching up to do on the TV too. So it’s just finding time really.”

Voter turnout can be affected by several factors, including the social or economic mix of the electorate. In areas of above average unemployment, turnout tends to be lower. These tend to be safe Labour seats.

Voter apathy could also be blamed on a long-term decline in the belief in civic duty. Turnout among older people is far higher than younger members of the electorate. This raises the possibility of a generation of non-voters.

Sam Younger, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, said: “After two historically low turnout general elections some people are now out of the habit of voting. If the first few elections adults experience are crucial in shaping their political outlook including the value of voting, then all of us with an interest in the health of our democracy need to redouble our efforts to reverse this trend before the next general election, or we risk losing that generation for good.”

A number of new schemes have been tested in an attempt to lure voters back to the polls. Postal voting is increasingly popular; at the 2005 general election, take-up of postal voting was three times higher than in 2001. However, while more people are choosing to vote in this way, 46% of voters consider it to be unsafe, as did a fifth of those who actually voted by post in 2005.

Salim Desai thinks postal voting is a positive development. He said: “I think the postal votes are really good. Voters can have them delivered just a week or so before the elections, and they can have time to sit down and think about the other candidates. It’s just so simple. You just put your cross and send it off again.”

In 2003, a pilot project in Swindon saw people casting their local election votes via interactive television, the internet and telephones. Eligible voters were given a PIN number that had to be entered in order to cast a vote. The trial resulted in a 3.6% increase in voting.

The Electoral Commission, however, is cautious about the merits of such pilot schemes. An Electoral Commission spokesman said: “We don’t think any electronic pilots should take place until we can guarantee that the system is secure. The Government ran some pilots last year and they left some questions to be answered about the security and integrity of the system, so we don’t think they should be used in this country for elections until the Government has addressed them.”

The Commission has instead concentrated its efforts on getting people to vote in the traditional way. Its campaign, promoted by the tag-line “If you want to vote, make sure nothing stops you”, is intended to remind people to register their details on the electoral roll.

An Electoral Commission spokesman said: “The campaign is in three phases; the first came to an end last week. It encouraged people to ensure that they were registered before the deadline of 5pm on April 16.

“Now we’ll go into the second and third phase which will be looking more at making sure people know exactly where their polling station is, what they need to do in order to vote and what they’re going to be confronted with when they walk into a polling station on May 1.”

The Government has promised an overhaul in the way elections are conducted in this country. Proposals announced in March included a new alternative voting system, whereby ballot papers would allow for a second preference, which would be transferred from the lowest-scoring candidate until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote. This would mean that the number of seats gained would be more proportional to the number of votes cast.

The Government are also considering opening polling stations at weekends. The possibility of compulsory voting was also raised.

Salim Desai said: “I think compulsory voting would be very dangerous, because you’re forcing people to make a decision that they’re not passionate about. We want to move away from people voting just for the sake of voting. We want people to vote because they’ve got an opinion, they want to make a difference.”

Listen to interviews with Salim Desai and Preston City Council's head of electoral services, Susan Harrison, in this audio slideshow.

Monday, April 7, 2008

In Limbo

The Russian elections back in March were surrounded by some controversy due to perceived irregularities in the voting results; a similar, if not worse, scenario, has been unfolding in Zimbabwe over the past week.

The Zimbabwean Presidential poll results have still yet to be disclosed, a full nine days after the election was held. Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have ceded control of the country's parliament to the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change); however, Mugabe seems reluctant to entertain the possibility that his days as Zimbabwe's president may be over.

On the Guardian blog, the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai today writes: "Adept at stealing elections from the hands of voters, Mugabe is now amassing government troops; blocking court proceedings where we have attempted to seek an order simply for the electoral commission to release the final tally of the March 29 poll; raiding the offices of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC); and casting a pall of suppression and gloom over the country."

Also, the announcement of the Presidential poll results faced a further delay today, after judges postponed until tomorrow their decision on a petition to force their release.

Alan Bock comments: "If (Mugabe) had any dignity or regard for the country he has misruled for so long he would simply concede (perhaps after negotiating a deal to avoid prosecution) and leave in a way that might make people remember some of his better aspects instead of his worst. But it doesn't look as if he will go quietly. Poor Africa. So much promise, so many lousy rulers."

Instead, Mugabe seems keen to hold a wholly unnecessary "run-off" (i.e. another election), attempting to produce a result that he is happy with. Regarding the run-off, Daniel Molokele writes: "The opposition says it would unite behind Tsvangirai, which should, on paper, produce an overwhelming victory based on first round results. But Mugabe's control of state power, security forces and militia could make this much less certain."

The repeated delays, confusion and propaganda created by both parties in the Zimbabwean elections has resulted in a volatile political situation that is set to continue for the foreseeable future - Molokele claims that "there are suggestions Mugabe will use presidential powers to extend the interval before a runoff to 90 days."

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Preston News Map


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This a Preston news map that I produced during a Digital Newsroom workshop today.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

We've Got A File On You

In the same week as another data scandal, in which the details of suspected criminals were left mouldering on a desk at the CPS for the better part of a year before someone remembered to run checks on them, the Government has announced that they want the "personal details of every traveller". The Guardian reported yesterday that "passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects."

Given the Government's recent track record on handling it's citizens data, surely now is not the time to be gathering yet more personal information, especially data as ripe for ID theft as credit card details? Tomorrow's Fish and Chip Paper calls this making "the haystack bigger in the hope of finding more needles" - they go on to criticise the Government's obsession "with the indiscriminate (although it could clearly lead to discrimination) capture of ever larger amounts of information. This smacks of the early days of customer loyalty card schemes where the retailers scrambled to put together massive databases with no real clue how they were going to use them and of the implications for data privacy and security." In fact, few people seem to be in favour of a new database of information, even if it is being introduced ostensibly to counter terrorism - Signs of the Times comments that "mass surveillance measures do little or nothing against criminals but are a great tool for the control and management of the masses of innocent people."

Henry Porter, writing in today's Observer, is even more outspoken, saying "in the name of the great democrats who have occupied the benches in the House of Commons down the ages, what right has the government to know my credit card number, my cell phone number, my destination, or even when I take a trip abroad, or catch the plane to Inverness? Has this been debated in Parliament? No."

This data collection announcement appears to show desperation on the Government's part. Also, the inference the data may be used for "more general public policy purposes" indicates that they don't really have a clear idea what they're stockpiling the information for, but they still want it anyway.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

A Walk From Avenham Park to Foster Building

Nothing to do with politics, this, just a short slideshow I made as part of a digital newsroom workshop. If you're desperate for a political link, just imagine that you're walking with Alastair Darling or something.

Picture credits:
Avenham Park: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noel_leyland/1793197063/
Harris Institute: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyenglish/75276948/
Fishergate: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpicker/877623493/
Harris museum: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyenglish/265223774/
Pub: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyenglish/276728765/
Harris building: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cocoarmani/1749592199/
Fylde building: http://www.flickr.com/photos/havucnmycaml/244982452/
Foster building: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gallanwood/162511377/

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Taxi for Mr. Romney

In a week that his been fairly quiet in UK politics, it's probably not been the best time to begin a political blog, but begin I will.

There has at least been a strong focus on the US elections following 'Super Tuesday'. This was compounded today by the news that Mitt Romney has decided to 'suspend' (i.e. abandon) his bid to become the Republican nominee in this year's presidential elections, thereby occasioning the sad loss of the candidate with the best name. Richard Adams at the Guardian predicts that John McCain will prove to be the Republican nominee, with Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times claiming that McCain is "the Republican most likely to win the November election". However, he still unearths concrete proof that Barack Obama is at present the most likely to enter the White House...

Relevant magazine, which caters to young evangelicals, asked its readers: “Who would Jesus vote for?” Mr. Obama was the winner.

Well that's that settled then.