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This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Sky-High.” My first thought was a picture from a plane but then I thought it was likely to be a bit of a cliché. Bizarrely I didn’t see many other entrants with the same idea so I went with the above image, taken on my iPhone landing back in London.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Summer Fun.” I’m entry number 279.

One common refrain after the BNP made an appearance on Question Time last year was that if only more people went out and voted then right-wing extremists would not get elected. Of course that’s not the whole story but there’s some truth in that. Since we will have a General Election this time next week this becomes a very important point.

This got me thinking about my experience with the British electoral system. As far as I can remember, I’ve voted in every election that I have been eligible except for those when I have not been at home. In fact I was in California in this last election when Griffin was elected to the European parliament.

This time I did try to vote even though I would be away. They don’t make it easy.

There are two basic options. First is the postal vote. Sounds ideal, right? Just pop my vote in the post before I get on the plane and I’ve done my democratic duty.

Not quite.

Checking the small print I found that they mailed out the ballot forms a week before the election. Unfortunately I was out of the country for just over two weeks and the election was towards the end of my time away. Chances were good that I wouldn’t have got the form in time. And, of course, we all know how reliable the postal system has been recently. Even if I was home, would my vote get back to be counted on time? (This, I should add, is just be being cynical. The only reason I didn’t go down this route was because I wouldn’t have received the ballot in time.)

There is, however, an alternative. You can also send a proxy to vote on your behalf. Sounds simple, right?

Again, I wasn’t quite able to get it together in time. You have to nominate someone who is eligible to vote and who is not representing more than one other person. I seem to recall seeing that your proxy also had to be resident in the borough but I don’t see that in the current wording; I’m not sure if the law changed or I just misunderstood.

In any case, your proxy needs to vote in the same place that you would, which immediately limits your choices.

(One point that I missed last year is that your proxy can vote by post. Maybe that would have made things easier.)

And it goes without saying that you’d have to trust your proxy. You’re expecting someone to both actually turn up to vote and to put the cross in the correct box. I don’t know why, but this makes me a little uncomfortable. Maybe I should become a more trusting person, but there’s something about the idea of an anonymous vote that’s significant.

Just to be clear, I’m not sure what the alternative should be. The voting system needs to be simple, reliable and something that can be trusted.

But whatever the current system it’s still important to try to vote. It’s just much easier if you’re in the country on May 6^th.

I’ve not been to Oxford for… um… since I was seventeen and applying to various universities around the UK. I remember having a fun trip last time but I have zero recollection of where we went and have no photos.

At first I thought that might happen again. Not because I’m suffering from amnesia but because when I arrived it was raining pretty heavily and, for a while, it seemed that the hotel might be a better option than trudging around in the rain.

Fortunately the next morning things looked very different. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the sun was shining but it was (relatively) warm and fine; you can’t really ask for much better around Easter¹.

I started wandering around the University Park, watching the ducks and the little kids running after them and almost falling in.

Wandering further south I stumbled across a building with the following message inscribed: “To Truth; To Liberty; To Religion.” I can’t help but think that the first two parts and the last conflict.

In a similar vein, I thought that the message that churches are open for all to worship together was at odds with the pass-coded security gate. The pictured lady tried to helpfully shift out of frame. I guess she wasn’t to know that I was trying to get her in it!

After that I wandered around the various old colleges in the centre of town.

Down the cobbled streets…

…and over Magdalen Bridge. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think in Oxford that’s pronounced “maudlin.”) Here I noticed the punts all tied up. Presumably it’s too cold or there are too few tourists to rent them out at this time of year.

Almost the last stop was for the Radcliffe Camera which, while it couldn’t help me decide which new lens to get for my Canon, was quite grand.

I’m glad I got to see more than just the hotel. I’m puzzled by how little I can remember from my previous trip which makes me happy that I have evidence of this one.

1. Well, three year ago in Knaresborough I got better but you shouldn’t expect better. [↩]

As ever I had trouble with this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Blurred.” I have plenty of blurry pictures but this implies something a little more deliberate. So, this image of a speeding car in Wimbledon.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, Pleasure.” I’m entry number 212.

I should probably apologise in advance for the puns.

This weeks PhotoFriday is “Cleanliness.” I came up with a number of ideas, a few of which I tried, most of which didn’t work. Then I decided that the various liquids kept under the kitchen sink might be suitable since they tend to be used to keep things clean. While fairly colourful it wasn’t quite enough. It needed something else.

One of the phrases I’d been thinking of was “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Ours is not the kind of household to have a copy of the Bible or Qur’an to hand so I had to improvise. This may require changing the phrase to “Cleanliness is next to godlessness” but it works. Kind of.

I didn’t have an entry in last weeks PhotoFriday so there’s no need to feel guilty for not voting for me.

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