Ballot Box Sampling Spreadsheet

The 2017 GE counts will be the second outing for the West Kent Ballot Sample / Analysis Spreadsheet.  

This fabulous piece of work enables count coordinators and their teams of counting agents to take up to four separate samples from up to 60 ballot boxes. As the data is entered into the grey cells on the spreadsheet, so the "constituency total" is constantly updated, giving a minute-by-minute indication of the count total during the verification process. 

Obviously the accuracy of the figures will be wholly dependent on the skill and accuracy of the counting agents, but by way of example in 2015 we had predicted Tracey Crouch, Tom Tugendhat and Greg Clark's majorities to within 0.3% in each constituency.

Another joy of this spreadsheet is "auto completion".  Simply enter the candidates' names in column A and their respective parties in column B and this data (including party colour) will populate across the whole spreadsheet, saving you hours of repetitive ""cut and paste". 

if you would like a copy of our spreadsheet for use at your count, please contact me using the contact form to the right of this blogpost. if we do not know each other personally, please use your Association's email address so I know I am sharing our knowledge with our own team!

Andrew

  

A few thoughts on social care

25 years ago, when my dear Mum was dying of lung cancer, there was a brief period of remission. Understandably, she was desperate to “Go home” for the last few months of her life – though both she, and I, knew that she didn’t have the strength to keep house for herself and do her own shopping, cooking and cleaning.

My mother was not a wealthy woman, but was proud that in her latter years, she had saved from her pension and her part-time job, about £20,000 which she always told me was her “nest egg”, which she wanted to come to me. At the time I didn’t have two buttons to rub together, and that inheritance would have made a huge difference to my life too.

To enable Mum’s wish to go home we needed to arrange some basic home care for her; someone to cook and clean and do her shopping, and as her health deteriorated, to provide her with personal care too. Money for this came from what my Mum had saved. She would never have dreamed of expecting tax-payers to pay, nor for one single moment did I begrudge Mum spending this money on herself and her care. By the time Mum was readmitted to hospital for the final weeks of her life, all but £5,000 was spent.

Quite frankly I find the vested interest and selfish behaviour of those who expect tax-payers, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, to pay for their own parents’ social care so that they can inherit a fortune, to be simply vulgar. I acknowledge the arguments about those who have frittered their money on booze, fags and bingo – but ultimately we have a responsibility for ourselves and our families. It is wrong to rely others to pay our bills.

If Theresa May had not introduced this bold policy into the manifesto, and had tried to ignore the huge fiscal time bomb that social care carries with it, she would not only have been falling short of the office of Prime Minister, but would have been accused of ducking difficult issues. The reality is, the money has to be found. The truth is that we are responsible for our own lives.

The State is there as a safety net; not an alternative for self-reliance.

Kiss Greg Clark for £10 a go!

Can you tell them apart?

There was a time when candidates would kiss babies....

Last Saturday Greg Clark and his team were running a street stall in Tunbridge Wells town centre. Greg was happily chatting to a constituent as was his Association Treasurer William Rutherford, (above left). 

Suddenly a young bloke in his late teens ran up to William, flung his arms around him and planted a kiss on his cheek and shouted "I love you Greg". This took all by surprise, especially Greg who wondered what he had missed and William who knew what had happened but probably wished that it hadn't!

William and Greg watched in bemusement as the guy ran back and joined his mates observing from a street corner nearby, all of whom were applauding and handing over £10 notes for a successful "dare". Little did they know that rather than kissing the Secretary of State, their mate had actually planted a kiss on the cheek of a local councillor and bee-keeper!

I am not sure who came out worse.... but rumours that William has been standing in the same spot every day since have been strongly denied! 

Size Queens of Cornwall

Local councils are constantly complaining about lack of resources and the need to cut services and staff. This lack of resource did not however stop Officers of the former LibDem led Cornwall Unitary Council from turning into rosette size queens.

At 7am on Thursday morning (4th May) a good friend who was standing for election in Cornwall turned up at his local polling station for a spot of early morning telling, whereupon the Presiding Officer promptly appeared to measure the size of his rosette to ensure it was "compliant" and not 'over sized'.

How does one judge what is or is not "oversized" as I do not think there is case law on this? And what one person may think of as "huge" might be perfectly normal to someone else.

Perhaps things will improve now the Lib Dems have lost control.