where i live has always been a labour voting place.
unfortunately the local voters have lost their way, or the plot.
so looks like i’ll be canvassing to get the TT out (Tory Tw.t)
let’s keep the red flag flying!
carole x
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Ooooh. OH left the telly in when he went to make dinner. And those awful words were spoken “and now a party political broadcast by … the Conservative Party”. I don’t care, I don’t want to see it, hear it, dream it. A desperate launching of the body to the farthest reaches meant I could just about get to the remote control and get it turned off.
Aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhh.
And it’s going to be like that for weeks. At least we won’t get any door knockers. Everyone knows all the Tory t**t candidate has to do is be selected by the party and they’ve won. So no one else would bother to do any more than shove the odd leaflet through the letterbox.
Sue
The Tory leadership is clearly uncomfortable with democracy. Mrs May wishes to quash division in parliament. Reality check: all governing parties require effective and rational opposition in the chamber otherwise we end up with authoritarianism, as is happening in Turkey.
Furthermore, she leads a party that only represents the 52% which voted to leave the EU. A cardinal rule of democracy is that the government represents all people not just the ones who voted for you or your cause. Mrs May believes there is unity in the country but division in parliament. She needs to get out more if that is her belief.
The natural home for the forgotten 48% is the Liberal Democrats. For all their faults, they do offer a cogent set of principles and policies. Ideally, they would prefer to revoke the decision to leave the EU, as would I, but they have accepted the referendum result and will work towards staying within the single market at least. Furthermore, they want to introduce Proportional Representation and the legalisation of cannabis.
I may be a nerd, but I am excited by this election because I do not think it will go the way opinion polls have so far suggested.
Allow me my futile dream.
Alun
Hmm… Alun, I thought Theresa May scheduled the general election to distract from expenses scandal of the last GE.
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come on Alun - how can a party (Lib Dems) ‘accept’ the referendum result and then ‘work’ to revoke the democratic decision to leave the EU?
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In most cases, the general population do NOT vote for a candidate - they vote against the party his/her opponent represents.
Now see the posts above by whammel (no 6) and ggood (no 10).
Remember that neither party “leader” has won a general election and can only claim a very limited mandate.
One party will win, and the “leader” of the other one will be replaced.
Teresa May is gambling on a win - so keeping her position - and she should be thinking about keeping Corbyn around to make herself look half-way competent.
The interesting seats will be where there is an alternative candidate to whichever one of the big two parties you hate the most:
Vote UKIP, or LIB-Dem, or Monster Raving Looney, as long as they have a chance to beat “that lot”.
Tactical Voting Rules - OK
Geoff
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Yes, PJDay, the prospect of the expenses scandal reminds us all of the days of political sleaze back in the 80s and 90s. I presume the Tory high command will attempt to push local constituency committees to deselect the offending candidates to avoid any further embarrassment. We await developments. UKIP and the SNP are focussing on this.
Krakowian, most people have accepted the eye-popping transformation by Mrs May from lukewarm Remainer to ardent ‘Brexit at any cost’ Leaver. It has been explained away as masterful pragmatism in the wake of the referendum and the so- called desire to ‘get on with the job’.
The Lib-Dems are being equally pragmatic but with a different slant. They are prepared to accept the dreaded ‘will of the people’ and support the negotiations but with a significant caveat. If the negotiated deal is poorer than remaining in the EU, they are prepared to think again, unlike the Tories where Brexit at any cost is their mantra.
Today we hear that the Labour position is very similar to the Lib Dems. In one way, it is attempting to take the moral high-ground by securing the position of EU nationals already in this country. This is very laudable as using people as negotiating tools is reprehensible.
Interesting days ahead.
#NODAPL!
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Thought you might be interested in these web sites:
and
http://www.progressivealliance.org.uk/about
I’m very passionate about people voting, not so much who you vote for, as exercising your democratic right. If you spoil your ballot paper, you still count in the turnout - if you don’t even vote, you’re just classed as apathetic - and that’s not necessarily the case.
Interestingly, in the Brexit referendum, the proportion of spoiled ballet papers was quite low for a UK ballot - but there were still 26,033.
Jo x
And to repeat the advice given in the first link above:
Do not make any mark in any box, on the voting slip.
A returning officer will try to find an indication of voter intention - any indication - and any mark in a box will be counted.
Yes, I have seen it happen - even when someone wrote “W@nkers” across his form, and the k happened to fall in the box for the sitting candidate.
Any mark in a box must be considered.
Geoff
Re: General Election
Really soddin confused about who to vote for as there is nothing out there that points as to who is best for us MSers?
In previous years there was a strong reason to vote for one or the other as one was stopping funding etc. but at the moment there seems to be nothing, can someone please recommend with a good argument.
cheers
george
This was in the Benefits & Work mail today.
MANIFESTO COMMITMENTS
We’ve now all had the chance to see what some of the main political parties are offering claimants in their manifestos.
It’s fair to say that there was nothing at all in the Conservative manifesto to cheer sick and disabled claimants.
The Lib Dems did rather better with offers to, amongst other things:
- reinstate the work-related activity component of employment and support allowance
- scrap the bedroom tax
- scrap the work capability assessment and replace it with a new test administered by local authorities
- raise the earnings limit for carers allowance to £150 a week.
But it is Labour who are trying the hardest to win over claimants, south of the border at least. They say that they will:
- reinstate the work-related activity component of employment and support allowance
- scrap the Bedroom Tax
- scrap the Work Capability and Personal Independence Payment assessments and replace them with a personalised, holistic assessment process
- scrap the sanctions regime
- implement the court decision on PIP, so that there is real parity of esteem between those with physical and mental-health conditions
- End the privatisation of assessments
- End the pointless stress of reassessments for people with severe long-term conditions
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i really dislike some of the posts slagging off jeremy corbyn and labour.
corbyn’s manifesto comes from his firm beliefs in social justice.
teresa may looks like a witch, acts like a witch, burn the witch i say!
somebody stuck a tory poster one the outside of my window to cover up my labour poster.
i’m going to ask for more posters and turn my whole window red.
sorry fellow msers but it means a lot to me.
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Are there more pwms per capita in Tory held constituencies than in Labour held constituencies?
Thanks mate. That helps.
TC
george
And Labour will also increase NHS funding.
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My inclination is to indulge in a degree of ‘tactical voting’; the major parties are usually so centralist in policy, and dubious in actual commitment, that the only real distinction comes from the colour of their rosettes!
Consequently, i always voted ‘Green’ recently. I know that Green has pretty much zero chance of acquiring any form of legislative power BUT… with the two major parties being so hungry to ensure that voters do not fall to the wrong side of the fence, they will see those ‘more neutral’ voters as being potential ‘lower hanging fruit’.
If these ‘low hangers’ are seen to be seduced by a more environmentally aware attitude, then this should in turn affect the overall policies of the eventual government.
typically, politics boil down to security (police and immigration) and money (budgets and subsidies) but neither of these will matter once the environmental neglect of recent years become helter-skelter.
it doesn’t matter if you are a climate change denier or even a flat earth believer, we need this planet to remain sustainable far more than any myopic four year (in)action plan.
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And my own personal dilemma is solved - we have a Green Party candidate to vote for.
No way could I vote for the Tories, and Mrs May is trying to turn this into a “Him or me” vote.
No way could I vote for Labour - I have seen too many complete screw-ups made in the name of Socialism.
Lib-Dems? Ha-Ha-Ha …
Personally, I think that Corbyn is the man who will make the Labour party unelectable for 20 years - just at a time when we need a strong competent opposition, like right now!
Geoff
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yeh and the moon will change to cheese.
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Labour no way. Not for me. Been there done that.
Really they can say they are going to do this that blah blah but they are also going to nationalise railways again and where will they get the BILLIONS needed to do that.
Labour jeez…corbyn…cheese…he can say what he likes cant he, as he has never had to deal with the national debt which if they get in will get even worse.
UNEMPLOYMENT is going down and down, its the lowest for 40 years.ht tp://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/15/uk-unemployment-falls-lowest-level-40-years/ It shows the country is getting stronger, and performing well, hardly a sign of a sinking ship.
I am not sure myself, BUT at the moment i am a pensioner, disabled, and i live ok, and have food on my table pay all my bills, are treated respectively by the NHS, have all i need so i am sticking with what we have. I am not going to waste my vote for empty promises. Corbyn wants to take us back to the early seventies been there done that it was horrific.
Maybe in five years when their party is more stablised i will rethink.
.I ust want brexit to get going then things will change.
I am not voting just because i am disabled there is much much much more about it than that, its not all about people with disability, its about a huge amount of other things. If anyone thinks Labour will change PIP again they are wrong. It wont happen they signed for it all in the first place. Its nearly over now, so what is the point. I am now BETTER OFF WITH MY PIP then i was on DLA, i got full enhanced, when before i was on high rate mobility and standard care.
Yes lots of mistakes made but it would have been carried out if labour had got in last time.
I just want to get brexit sorted out, and get out of EU, and start fresh as a british country again.
I am not going to waste my ballot paper. Like i said maybe in five years when labour have sorted themsevles out, but there is no way i want to jump onto Dr Whos tardis and go back to nationalistion and the way it was with Labour no thanks.
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