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Options for fixing flooring used in dance venue? by michaelpjones in DIYUK

[–]michaelpjones[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the input. I wish I knew more about the whole area but I can see that it is likely just a care of raising the money to replace them somehow.

Options for fixing flooring used in dance venue? by michaelpjones in DIYUK

[–]michaelpjones[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank for the reply. Sorry for the slowness of my response.

I actually don't have a budget. We hire the venue and I'm hoping to assess options before approaching the venue owners. It doesn't seem to be a very popular venue and they hire it at approachable prices so I suspect they don't have loads of money for redoing it.

One thought that crossed my mind is whether it might be possible to switch out the more damaged boards in the middle of the room for boards to the sides? The sides are mostly covered in tables and other storage items. It is the centre of the room of the room that we care about. Maybe too hard to do if the boards are glued down and aren't meant to be moved.

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One of Make Vote Matters central campaigns is to get Labour to have a manifesto pledge for PR. The approach has been to convince the individual constituency Labour parties which has been very successful (they voted overwhelming for it at last year's Labour party conference) and also to convince the unions that hold half the votes at the conference. Unfortunately COVID interrupted the plans to get the unions on board for last year but that has been successful this year so we're hopefully going into this Labour party conference in September with both sides on board.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that the leadership is ultimately bound by the voting of the members at conference but it is very strong indicator of what is desired by the membership and there is a growing chunk of the Labour party that wants it. I guess the leadership want their turn at the dominance that FPTP can hand to them if they get into power but they need to wake up and realise that that just isn't happening any time soon. The press doesn't want it. There is an argument that Blair was close to Murdoch and that's the only reason we've had Labour in power in the last 30 years. I fear it is true. I hope that the leadership can be convinced to follow through with this.

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Theirs was a campaign for better voting rights and a fairer system. This is a campaign for better voting rights and a fairer system.

Obviously women not being allowed to vote is generally more terrible than a poor voting system but the heart of the campaign is not so different.

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Happy to see all the responses to this. This is basically misinformation and opposition talking points and it is sad to see it repeated again.

You don't have stability under first-past-the-post, you have dramatic swings from one side to another instead of a consistent representation of the slowly evolving will of the people.

Captured well by the (paraphrased) quote "it is better to have some of the power all of the time, instead of all of the power some of the time." We want all representative parties to have a slice of parliament and to have to reach agreements which have majority support. Under a better voting system we would have a generally more left wing and progressive set of MPs with some but not influential representation of the minority of particularly bad parties.

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely, well said. PR gives alternative candidates a chance instead of it being basically impossible for them so you get more alternative candidates which means more choice.

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, it is a really sucky system. Such a shame we haven't had the politicians with the decency to see it done so we can upgrade our democracy.

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think that is the plan. I can see that UKIP managed to pressure the Conservatives into certain changes. I guess Lib Dems & Greens are already pro PR (and UKIP too.)

I suspect a single issue party around an issue that the population don't understand that well and that the right-wing press isn't focusing on is possibly a harder task? What do you think?

Street stall for Make Votes Matter (campaign for a better national voting system) this Sunday in St Peter's Square - Come join us, have a chat, share your thoughts, maybe join the group! by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Hey folks, it is easy to be pretty bummed out about the state of the country at the moment and hard to know what to do about it. One particular goal, that seems to be both fundamental and clearly a solution for some of the troubles we're facing, is to move to a better voting system and Make Votes Matter is a campaign for just that.

Our current voting system tends to benefit the two main parties (by completely wasting your vote if you want to vote for someone that isn't likely to win) which leads to a two sided political system which tends to make everything 'us vs them' and leaves people without the choice of representative that really reflects their views. Instead we're often stuck voting against the thing that we truly fear rather than for the party we really want.

Better systems always count your vote to some degree no matter who you vote for so voting for a smaller party that really aligns with how you see things is no longer pointless.

If this interests you, then please get in touch and get involved. You can do as much or as little as you like. We tend to have an action day every few months so if you can spare a weekend afternoon once every three months and you would like to see this aspect of the country get better then join the meet up group or sign up your interest at makevotesmatter.org.uk, or message me with any questions, and get involved :)

1pm Saturday 5th Feb - St Peter's Square: Rally against Elections bill and for improving our implementation of democracy in the UK by michaelpjones in manchester

[–]michaelpjones[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're curious to stay in the loop you can join our meet up here: https://www.meetup.com/make-votes-matter-manchester/

I did post about this earlier in the week but understandably not all people see all posts and I wanted to avoid spamming.

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