UK politics, voting n' stuff

[Johnstuff]

I'm suprised there's not already a topic about this.

It sounds like the tories are gonna get in next election (whenever that is).

Do you think they can be stopped?

I didn't vote last time (wasn't registered) but I probably will this time.

I'd usually vote for the green party but I've heard of people voting labour just to stop the tories.

IMO labour sucks but would it be better to vote for them rather than green to try n' stop the tories?


They're already talking about cuts, rasing tax and rasing the retirement age!

[Konstantin]

I think its a good idea to find out about the candidates in your constituency. I voted Green in 1992 and regret it. The Lib Dem guy lost by about 60 votes to the Tory MP, got in next time and has done loads of stuff against the meat industry, vivisection and encouraging openness and honesty with MP expenses (before it all became news). I wish he'd been in 4 years earlier.

In some areas voting Labour to stop the Tory guy is pointless as the Lib Dems might be the main challenger. Then again, the Tory candidate may match your principles better than the other candidates.

This group is good:

Protecting animals in democracy

[spike]

Despite being an anarchist I imagine I'll be voting Labour to help keep the Tories out.

I think they will get in though. People have such short memories!

[Gelert]

I'm left confused and despairing.

I was brought up to never vote Tory. I remember the UK under Thatcher and Major well enough.

But having seen how the Labour party have broken this country even more after promising to fix it, well, Wilson was before my time but it seems we've just described a full circle to the late 1970s in so many respects.

It seems we're trapped in a vicious circle of these two parties. I'm deliberately ignoring the Lib Dems - locally my experience of them is all the snideness and corruption of the other parties but without principles to back it up. Tactical voting to niche parties seems daft too.

All I know is that we have a choice* between a mentally unstable person who wrote a treatise on courage and yet pisses himself in terror after a press conference, and a group of people who think as public servants that it's OK to pass on the bill for having their moat dredged. Hardly inspiring, is it?


*At least we have a choice. Just wait and see how long that would last if Mandelson supplanted the dear leader.

[Antonf26]

Don't vote - it only encourages them

[runner]

think it doesn't make much sence to vote on second or thirth best option for strategic reasons. it's not like one vote makes the big swing.

best to vote your favorite party, this way the 2 party system can change into a more plural system (if that is what you prefere).

I would vote for animal(s) count if I would life in the uk

[Hiking Fox]

best to vote your favorite party, this way the 2 party system can change into a more plural system (if that is what you prefere).

We don't have proportional representation here, so there's no chance of that, the way things stand.

[Hiking Fox]

In some areas voting Labour to stop the Tory guy is pointless as the Lib Dems might be the main challenger. Then again, the Tory candidate may match your principles better than the other candidates.

Such as all the greens in London who'll be voting Tory for the first time ever, to help stop the expansion of Heathrow airport.

[Antonf26]

In some areas voting Labour to stop the Tory guy is pointless as the Lib Dems might be the main challenger. Then again, the Tory candidate may match your principles better than the other candidates.

Such as all the greens in London who'll be voting Tory for the first time ever, to help stop the expansion of Heathrow airport.

yeh... fuck connecting environmental issues into wider social and class issues...

[bob_summers]

Such as all the greens in London who'll be voting Tory for the first time ever, to help stop the expansion of Heathrow airport.

been here before. anyone remember voting labour in 97 to support their hunt ban manifesto?!

[skoptic]

To my mind New Labour are just as evil as the Tories in many respects.

I do vote for the smaller parties rather than voting strategically for the 2 main parties - I'm here for the long run and want to see this country turn into something more than a 2 horse race. 1 vote should make a difference, just like 1 vegan makes a difference (roll on proportional representation ... it's only a matter of time until we adopt it)

If more people had voted SDP / Lib Dem / Green etc. from way back then they would bigger players now.... but I understand that without PR .... it's a tough call.

[littlepurplegoth]

I'm left in nasty situation - namely that my way of life (and my childrens' , and by time the bare civil liberties of *all* of us) is currently being stamped all over by the current administration. Want your children interviewed alone at home without being able to insist on a trusted adult being present? Enforced medical 'care' against philosophical choices? Long long list of other things... Well, go ahead and vote labour. Or Lib Dem for that matter... I'm far from keen on the conservatives but they are currently the only party actively supporting the stance that parents are *not* automatically abusers.....

And don't even get me started on Every Child Matters and how the 'five outcomes' are impossible if you don't go to school, get vaccinated, and eat the DOHs idea of a 'balanced diet' and have the full range of gadgets etc at home... oh - and if your parents earn less than the 'average income' well that's an automatic 'fail' as well (sod that they might actually do more with less and not need or wish to earn the 'average' income).

[Johnstuff]

Yeah I geuss no one actually likes labour.

I think I'll likley vote for a small party. Maybe if people didn't think "can't vote for them, they'll never get in" they might stand a chance.

This proportional representation sounds like the way to go!

[morg]

Therers not too much between the tories and labour these days, but the tories will overturn the hunting ban as one of their first jobs if they get in power so for that reason alone Id vote for labour to keep tories out.
In local elections I vote green, but for nationals I dont believe its worthwhile as they cannot get in.
One thing is for certain though the NAZI BNP should get nobodies vote.
Although they have tried to change their outward appearence to try get more votes, they are still the hitler worhiping racist thugs they have always been

[Gelert]

I'm left in nasty situation - namely that my way of life (and my childrens' , and by time the bare civil liberties of *all* of us) is currently being stamped all over by the current administration. Want your children interviewed alone at home without being able to insist on a trusted adult being present? Enforced medical 'care' against philosophical choices? Long long list of other things... Well, go ahead and vote labour. Or Lib Dem for that matter... I'm far from keen on the conservatives but they are currently the only party actively supporting the stance that parents are *not* automatically abusers.....

This is a scary, scary thing that's happening in our country - the increasing assumption that behind the visage of every parent/care worker/teacher/figure of respect/ visiting children's author/next door neighbour lies the next Ian Huntley. Sure, child abuse is a terrible thing, but stultifying kids into a dysfunctional relationship with every adult they meet (heaven forfend they interact with someone without a CRB check!) out of paranoia is going to create a lost generation. God knows what they'll think when they themselves become adults.