PR on a weighted STV system - four to elect, about fourteen to choose from, vote for as few or as many as you like.  Simples?

No.

No one party fielded more than two candidates, so the maximum party-related option was to choose two parties.

There were several single issue or I-would-never-vote-for-them-even-if-the-alternative-was Gengis-Khan candidates.

There are four 'mainstream' parties and several established minority parties.

So, not so easy.

Names have been changed to protect the guilty, and parodies are my own, not all candidates/parties are mentioned...

Raving-Fundamentalist party

Racist-Coalition party

I-really-don't-have-a-clue-but-am passionate-about-flowers-in-window-boxes-or-whatever party

Mainstream party who regularly annoy me

Mainstream party of choice

Mainstream party of of second choice

Mainstream party I could put up with because at least they are proper

Minority party with some good policies and I'll forgive their (ill-informed imo) stance on energy

Minoirty party I wouldn't vote for if you paid me

So there you have it.  I cast 8 votes, so hopefully some of those I voted for will get in, and some of those I really didn't like the look of won't.  You might guess how I voted but you probably won't, I am far too 'floating' a voter for it to be that obvious.  But at least I voted!  And at least I am permitted to complain if I don't like the outcome!!

The resort of the desperate blogger - photos of food!

Breakfast:

Five-a-day fruit and veg well underway.

Six potions (the biggest dose of the day, to be fair)

And a large mug of tea.

Yum.

An odd day today... ministry on a 'presence' model as there is nothing that requires to be done, and nothing really for which I can do any substantial advance planning.  So kind of an 'on call' day whilst sorting the last few bits and bobs ready to head south for Assembly.

Tomorrow various parts of the UK have various sorts of elections using various voting systems and with various numbers of candidates to be elected per area.  So maybe people are permitted to be a bit confused.

We have local council elections using a Single Transferrable Vote system and according to my polling card, four people will be elected for my ward.  Which mildly amuses me because all the adverts on TV have said there are three per ward.  Anyway, no doubt when I get there it'll make some sort of sense.

Anyway, wherever you are, if you have elections tomorrow, get out and do your voting... even if you spoil you vote deliberately (that's still in my view a vote)... just do it.  You have no right to grumble if you don't.

Nag ends.

For Pentecost I am planning on using the vision of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel as a jumping off point for an all age, interactive service.  Already a few quite exciting possibilities are emerging.

Today I decided to construct one of the visual aids - as it arrived flat pack - a small wooden model skeleton.  Anatomically well, not quite correct (not enough ribs for starters).  But glad I decided to do it rather than leave it for the children to do on the day (I have other ideas in that regard).  Whilst I'm slightly anxious that one of my resident medics will tell me the scapula is upside down or the pelvis back to front (the destructions weren't quite foolproof) I do wonder if maybe I should just have prophesied to the bones rather than fiddling about with them!

Anyway, one visual aid down, several still to go.

The online Baptist Times is now up and running and so far, so good, in my view.

A nice piece on here on the impact of 'sanitising' the Bible on the faith of those we try to protect.

Those of us who have actaully read the Bible front to back, who actually get past the confetti/doily stage, know all too well is that it is a complex library of books with stories that could occupy several soap operas for decades.  Anyway.  Pop over to the Baptist Times site and see for yourself.