Vote early and vote often

We at Treasure Hunt Towers are in fever pitch of excitement about the election and just can’t get enough of speeches, hustings, manifestos, soundbites, battle buses and electoral reform. But even if you’re not as enthusiastic/sad (delete as appropriate) as us, it’s useful to know what’s out there on the web to help you decide where to put your cross.

First port of call on the Westminster Libraries Gateway (http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/gateway/) is the section on Government and Politics : National & International. A useful site is They Work for You – you can check out an MP’s voting record, expenses claims (my MP, now retired, claimed for a Zone 1-3 travel card and £6.541 for stationery )

Also useful is the UK Parliament site which includes far more than any sane person could possibly want to know about the workings of Parliament including the full text of Hansard, the record of Commons and Lords debates for the last 30 years. If you want to go further back (to 1803 to be precise), you can pay a visit to Westminster Reference Library to check up on some name-calling between Gladstone and Disraeli

One further site of interest can be found on the BBC website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/default.stm.
Just put in a postcode or constituency name to get a profile of the area (my leafy little suburb ‘has been a desirable place for young professionals to live for a number of years’) and a list of candidates

Of course, May 6th isn’t just a general election for Londoners – for the first time since 1979, we’re voting in a local election on the same day. Back to the Gateway and then to the link for Government : Local and you can find links to other councils and to the Greater London Authority and the results of the last local government elections. And check out http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/councilgovernmentanddemocracy/ for details of the current Westminster representatives


And for a bit of fun, try this quiz on elections in literature (I got 8/10, sadly failing on George Eliot rather than Jeffrey Archer. Oops!)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2010/apr/06/elections-in-literature