Greater Manchester has said a resounding NO to the congestion charge, with nearly eighty percent of voters giving a negative on their ballot paper.
After spending £34million on the Vote Yes Campaign and sending out the and receiving the ballot papers, Manchester City Council are understandably upset at the news. However, they are not going to take the rebuttal lying down.
"We've decided to take a leaf out of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty," said Councillor Martian Carnivore. "After all eight signatory countries held a referendum in that and they all said no, they waited a bit and are going to ask everybody again. We'll do the same. I expect we'll give it six months before asking everybody to vote again.
"Obviously we'll keep asking until the people of Greater Manchester vote 'yes'. I think that it should only take twenty or so rounds of getting people to vote before they realise that we're railroading them and vote the way we want them to."
About half of pundits had predicted the final outcome of the vote, with the other half getting it completely wrong. The pundits that had predicted 'yes' have come out and said that they believe the 'no' vote won because people against the proposal were more vocal in their voting than the yes voters.
"People who use public transport were not that bothered about another bus going to Didsbury, so they didn't bother voting, whilst just about every car driver asked voted against the proposal," said Carnivore. "We'll see how they like us pedestrianising the Mancunian way!"
