Opinion Polls - Welcome

Here is your opportunity to vote on all the topics which concern you.
You can vote immediately without having to register.
You can also raise new topics which are important to you and see if the public agrees.
All the topics are individual opinions and are not necessarily true or accurate (even if a lot of people agree with them!)

Useful contacts for local issues:-

Andy Large (Former Borough Councillor, Alsager West)

Phone : 1270 882231
Fax: 07092 383 796

Andrew has kindly agreed to provide a question and answer forum for local issues:-
see Ask Andrew  (See also Andrew's website at www.largelistens.co.uk )

Background

Democracy is a delicate balance between the silent majority and the vocal minority.
The majority turns out once every five years and votes red, yellow or blue without knowing the implications in terms of the issues which are important to them. Because of this and the inconvenience of the voting process the turnout is low.

The vocal minority organise themselves into groups and go down to the Council Offices to stage a demonstration which is often successful even though only a small number of people are involved. The street protest is an important part of the democratic process although its not really suitable for the elderly or sick who are at a disadvantage when it comes to taking on the riot police.
However it is reasonable that a minority should be able to overturn a policy which has very severe effects on them if they are willing to work hard and make a commitment.

How the voting works

One vote is allowed per day. This means that one person voting every day has the same effect as seven people voting once a week. So the motivated minority can make an extra effort by voting more frequently for the issues which are important to them and have more influence on the result. At the same time the majority can see the trend of the voting and if the policy is too extreme they will start to vote more frequently and it will be rejected.

Will anybody take any notice?

It is not realistic to suppose that decision makers are going to make policies purely on the basis of the numbers that appear on these pages especially if the numbers are small.
However it is realistic to suppose that they will read the arguments for and against and because they are rational people these can make a big difference. So one good argument can have as much impact as 1000 votes! If you decide to create a new topic the arguments should be considered carefully.

Its worth mentioning that local councillors are very interested in the views of the public about local issues. The usual methods for getting this information are expensive to organise and unsuccessful:-

  • questionaires (very poor response)
  • public meetings (poor attendance, non-representative)

Further Action

When you create a new topic you can include your email address.
This allows like-minded people to contact you and gives you the opportunity to organise a protest group.

There are plenty of boring opinion polls already

They are boring because:-
  • It takes a long time to fill them in
  • You cant insert the questions that are important to you
  • They dont give you the arguments for and against
  • You never see the results