don't know about us but I know about them / we will build Jerusalem

[raven]

Hey, you guys, I voted! I love voting: I mean, I love teeny-tiny polling stations staffed by genteel old ladies, I love how you walk in and everyone is so pleased to see you, I love how in every general election in my memory it's a cherry-blossom May, and full of promise. It's an illusion, maybe, but it's one I'm happy to buy into, for one day at least.

Politically speaking, I was doing fine until I read this: Welcome to Cameron Land - Johann Hari visits Hammersmith and Fulham, the council area which Cameron claims is the model in miniature for his potential government. It's depressing. (hat-tip: jacinthsong, foreverdirt.)

Still, we can but wait and see. I plan to stay up as long as I can.

edited to add this article on the BBC about what you can and can't do in a polling station is delightfully cheering. My favourite part:

"We wouldn't want people coming in with overt political clothing," says Mr Tonkin [Westminster's head of admin services]. However it is all about context. "There's a candidate standing in Westminster as a pirate. And if he comes in to vote in a pirate costume as is likely, we won't turn him away. The same goes for any supporters coming to vote as pirates."


Also, my exam results came out today and I got distinctions in everything. Yaaay. I was with a friend with similarly happy results, and we sat down on a bench in the rain looking out over Oxford, thinking happy thoughts, and she said, "Maybe this is a sign. Maybe this means the election will turn out well."

Then we looked at each other and laughed hysterically. I don't know, I don't know.

Comments

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

Yay! Congratulations on exam results!

(I love voting too! I feel kind of cheated that my mum gets to vote for me today.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And, yaaay, voting. You're lucky that it's a reasonable hour for you, though! It's 12.10 and I'm starting to flag...

[manynames.livejournal.com]

Well done on the results. I love voting too! I was only just too young to vote in the last general election, so voting in this one was extra exciting.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oooh! You're really unlucky that way; I was thinking that this election probably has some of the oldest first-time voters ever...

(and, thank you!)

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

I don't get the chance to do so very often (as a Libertarian here I am barred from voting in primaries and similar elections, which pretty much leaves only the presidentials) but I enjoy it too. Maybe things don't come out the way I wanted but at least I made the effort.

Congratulations on your exam results! Having been reading about TE Lawrence (*blush* Yeah, I know...obsessive fangirl), who also went to Oxford, I have a better understanding of just what that means now and how hard it is to achieve. You continue to impress and amaze me. Keep up the good work.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much, honey. You're very kind, and I do appreciate it.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Well done on the distinctions!

My sister lives in 'Cameronland' and has found her local Conservative councillors very helpful, but she doesn't like the council's plan to close the local library, and she was horrified by what turned out to have been going on elsewhere in the borough, as reported by Johann Hari.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

My friend jacinthsong does as well! I've been really intrigued by that article...

[marymac.livejournal.com]

Whee! Congratulations!

I am deeply weirded out, this is the first time I've voted and not had six pages of STV to deal with.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

(heeee! that's amazing.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[amchau.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I sincerely hope that you do manage to make the election turn out well with the immense power of YOUR BRAIN. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only, if only. :) Thanks, my dear.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

Well, nobody's declared Tory... yet. Are you staying up to see the results?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Trying to, trying to! Oxford East declares at 2.30, I may try and stay awake that long.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

Good luck - with staying awake and Oxford E going your preferred way.

[burnmybridges.livejournal.com]

"Also, my exam results came out today and I got distinctions in everything."

That's awesome!!! Go you!!! :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

thank you very much!

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

That article about Cameronland makes me want to hide under my duvet and never come out, omg.

But you are WIN. Many congratulations and hugs and alcoholic beverages your way!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! And, you know. I'm with you there in duvet solidarity.

[icepixie]

Congratulations!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[tau_sigma]

Yay! That is amazing, well done. :) (Are you done for this year, now, academically? That is very early, if so, but you certainly deserve it!)

[tau_sigma]

Also! There is so much to love in that article! The bit about the royal family is great - I love the idea that they're looking up whether they can vote or not on the BBC website.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! Alas, I am not done yet - three more elective papers to go. But still, that's lots of it done.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

Congratulations; I'm wearing my not surprised face.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you, dear. :)

[fyrdrakken]

Congrats on the distinctions, best wishes on the election!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much on both counts!

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

But did you vote in your pyjamas?

And congratulations on your distinctions.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I did not! I voted all out of breath and crashed my bike into the polling station fence, if that counts. :)

Thanks very much, dear.

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the distinctions!

That Hari article is certainly eye-opening. I've got my fingers crossed...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! My fingers are v. much crossed too.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

You! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

(Also, I have to admit feeling a little anticlimactical after voting: I missed putting all the little numbers in the boxes. I don't want to just *not* vote tory. I want to put the fuckers at the very bottom of my list)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ha! Oh, how satisfying that would be. :)

(And, thank you so much!)

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

You are awesome!

Voting by post is somehow not as exciting, but, well. It works.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you, honey! Which constituency, out of interest?

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

Stevenage. (It was surprising! Electoral laws are strange.)

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your exams and congrats on voting! I've never voted properly - just absentee in The Obama Election and in person for a senatorial runoff (there is nothing like handing the electronic card that contains your vote to a very Southern man in overalls who promptly shoves it in his back pocket. I actually very much trust that my vote was handled properly. The South may be bigoted, but they are honest. Even about being bigoted.).

Er, this point is that you should be VERY proud of your exams because you are brilliant and viva democracy.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I actually believe the same thing here: that the volunteers in the polling stations deal honestly with every vote they receive. I don't believe they don't make mistakes sometimes, but honest ones!

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

YAY for you on exam results! Well done.

I've been getting little bits and pieces of your election news filtered to me all day, because I'm running all over my workplace and the people in the doggie-daycare room have NPR world news on. It's an interesting perspective on international politics!

Also:

And if he comes in to vote in a pirate costume as is likely, we won't turn him away. The same goes for any supporters coming to vote as pirates.

♥

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you, honey! It's now 24 hours since the polls closed and I'm LOSING ALL HOPE, etc. Everyone keeps saying it'll be fine and coalition might still happen and all that jazz, but I just know we're doomed to Tory government. Waaaah.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. I am not at all surprised you excelled.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

[stained_glass]

YAAAAAAAY! Congratulations! Awesomeness! XD