well maybe if they local government had more power people would care about it.

seriously, the politicians would find (local) sponsors to support them.

candidates could also be required by law to submit an public profile (to a simple website) which would allow any member of the public to view their information... (whatever is deemed useful information) and no-one be allowed run without a public profile...

I had a laugh - our local area is safe Tory, and we've only had their leaflet, complete with No to AV, one person, one vote strap line - only we all get 3 votes, and there are 3 candidates from Tory and Lab.... I really suspect they can't see the irony

I had the Green candidate come try canvas my vote. Wasn't impressed when he found out his list was out of date and none of the 5 people he had listed currently lived here, and that none of us were going to vote.

In Ontario we don't have partisan local elections, therefore local elections is all about the personalities of the people that are running. The incumbents usually have a good chance of staying elected though.

I don't think the Ontario system would work well over here. None of our candidates have personalities...

I believe it's the opposite: the candidates in Ontario are forced by the system to have personalities.

Oct: It's pretty laughable that the Labour leaflet mis-spelled the candidate's name. You should send that in to Private Eye, they love that kind of thing!

Just out of idle interest when you say "my best efforts to find out" what lengths did you go to?

I can't comment for my area (County Durham) as we have no local elections here, this time around, but it's dissappointing to hear that there's so little campagining taking place in your area.

@ orathaic: "well maybe if they local government had more power people would care about it."

Local Authorities in the UK - especially unitary councils - have quite a lot of power, if you ask me. They provide a huge range of public services, many of which they are not statutorily obliged to and are provided at their discretion, based on decisions taken by (or at least, in practice, endorsed by) elected councillors.

@Jamiet

More than what is reasonable. I asked my neighbours, who had no idea. I checked the internet (BBC, local council, and even a few political party siyes) and found nothing aside from last year's results. I kept my eyes firmly open for any signs or hints of anyone campaigning, and saw sod all. It'd be nice to think they'd make an effort to talk to us...

Don't the local districts in the UK have a Board of Elections or some such where you could get the candidates' names and campaign office addresses?

Because it's the local (town and county) elections, I usually vote for the people who live nearest to me on the grounds that they wont put a motorway (freeway) through their own backyard. For instance, today I had to pick 9 out of 12 candidates. Two were from a party of complete dick-heads, Two were from a party I don't actively hate and eight were from a party I am not fond of but at least they're not dick-heads. The 2 from the party I don't hate both live within a mile of me and 7 of the 8 all live nearer than the 8th (who lives several miles away), so those are the ones I voted for. I honestly didn't look at the locations of the 2 from the Dick-Head party.

I am saddened that there were no candidates from the party that I usually vote for in national elections, otherwise I'd have voted for them regardless.

All local District, County, City, Borough & Metropolitan councils will have a Returning Officer.
All nominations & details are lodged with them by a certain time & date for each stage of the elction process, including details of proposed candidate, their proposer & nominees details, their agents details, any party affiliation details & also an expenses return after the election.
Any mistake or ommission is checked for including whether they are qualified under legal requirements as eligable to fullfill the role of councillor, should they be elected.

Most councils only ever have 1/3rd of the council up for election as they all serve a 4 year term in office & one year is a fallow year.
So the reason you may not have seen any activity on the election front, may be that no one was up for election in your district or location.
Town & Parish council elections are also taking place at this time & their entire councils are up for election or re-election on mass once every four years.
However, you rarely see any of them contested, because the residents of those town & parish councils can't be bothered to take an interest in the running of their own communities.
So standing councillors are elected back into office unopposed (so no need to hold an election).
My own parish council with 12,000 residents should have 15 councillors to represent it, over its 5 wards.
However, only 13 candidates offered themselves for election, so they are all elected, unopposed & are still 2 councillors short.
They will be selected & co-opted on to council by the 13 councillors that no one can be bothered to stand against.

How about the AV referendum?

... and besides more AV, tell us where the Monty Pythonesque Slightly Silly Party is on the swing and the swung PieChart

In my area of the US, the local public radio gives all local candidates five minutes to introduce themselves. At first, the Republican and Democratic candidates didn't do it, but the returns made them decide they should. Of course, it's somewhat haphazard to find them...I don't think they store them on their website.

USA papers say LibDems have egg on face with 12M to 6 millions vote slamming down the electoral procedure proposal in the Alternative Vote referendum.

And the Scottish Nationalists took a majority in the Scottish Parliament. Good-bye to the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? N. Ireland still counting votes, according to the print journalists. PM going to fight disunion with "every fiber" of his being. NExt, disestablishmentarianism?

Any antidisestablishmentarians out there? "republican" in UK means E II R is no longer Regina Defender of the Faith.

@taylor4. While the AV referendum was thumping, it's hard to call exactly how much is a) people who genuinely prefer FPTP b) people who voted No because they wanted electoral reform but not AV and c) people who wanted to give Clegg a shoeing.

I tend to think that a) would ahve won the day, and c) has made it the massive margin that it is.

With regards to the SNP, they have attracted a number of votes on their policies which may well not translate into a win on independence (recent polls show Scots about 1/3 in favour and placing it 23rd in a list of 25 priorities). I guess we may not see it this term, but if they can repeat the result in 5 years time, they might push for it