I've lived in a marginal and in a safe seat & it's swings and roundabouts. I don't normally vote but one time when I lived in the marginal I wanted to send a signal about a big issue of the day and voted accordingly. It didn't go the way I wanted but there were only 9 votes in it - that's power! But in a truely safe seat you are totally spared the need to consider tactical voting. I live in a safe seat and was cheerfully able to vote Libdem this time. Due to the polls I don't think I'd have felt able to do that in a marginal, I'd have had to vote for a party I consider damaging in the hope of stopping a party I consider more damaging.
Pros and cons to both.
As much as I would love to believe that even a slim 'win' for either of the two main parties would be a wake-up call for them to realise that there are fundamental problems with both the voting system and the country, the current lot of self-serving assholes in charge _will_ take it as 'proof' that their approach is the best and that they have a mandate.
I look back across the North Sea (metaphorically) and see a country that is destined to repeat this in a cycle, getting more and more fractured and polar as time goes past, but without making any attempts to heal the underlying problems. Why? Because that would be unpopular.
It would just would be very much more motivating if my little vote was added up to all the other who felt like me and I knew it contributed to someone being selected to represent me.
Yep, I guess I will only be in that position if I move to Brighton and live with all the hippies
Lots of idiots at work are voting Con.
Please don't call people idiots just because they have a different view of the world.
Proportional representation for the win
*Somebody* taped a Vote Labour poster to his gatepost last night…
We did this to my aunt once - fervent Tory campaigner, so we popped over to her posh house one night and swapped her dozen verge signs for the Labour equivalent, throwing in a few Socialist Worker for good measure.
Proportional representation for the win
Agree. I've been in favour of FPTP all my life but when it stops delivering workable majoritys you might as well just go down the PR route.
Of course, it's unlikely to happen since it reaquires a party that has won an election under FPTP to change the system that allowed them the win.
Please don’t call people idiots just because they have a different view of the world.
Agree. Tory voters are not idiots, they are just selfish and lack empathy mostly based on not having/wanting an understanding of why less fortunate people are less fortunate and most of the time not really caring.
‘My’ Tory MP Margot James resigned this year, have no idea who the Tory candidate is, I hope that this may sway some to vote for other parties.
I’ll be voting labour, not my party of choice, but I hope we wake up tomorrow with them leading the counts, I think our country depends on it
They give away FREE SWEETS at the polling station you guys.
SNP marginal here. 1k lead over Conservatives.
Scot Tory pamphlets have been amusing. Basically "SNP bad", but not a peep about Brexit.
The Scot Tory surge two years ago will recede the the absence of Ruth Davidson at the helm. She had a broad appeal that none of the current lot can match.
I also think that as Brexit opinions have become more entrenched/radicalised on both sides, floating voter Remainer Scots will be far less forgiving of the Conservatives now than they were in 2017.
I know these people personally and most of them are lifelong Labour voters that have switched to Tory because they simple believe everything they see/hear in the right wing press. Maybe not idiots, definitely gullible, one in particular is just a massive racist.
most of them are lifelong Labour voters that have switched to Tory because they simple believe everything they see/hear in the right wing press.
Why would a lifelong Labour voter be reading the RW press? Mirror, Socialist Worker, Guardian, Independent are all available or if they want straight unbiased reporting just stop reading papers and choose an approprite news media. Christ, most RW people don't read the RW press why would LW people be?
Come on guys, some people on here are calling Tory voters idiots and others are calling them selfish.
Can't we just compromise and call them selfish idiots?
I don’t think any UK election has ever been won by less than three votes.
NE Fife was won by 2 votes last time around. 😮
If you would like to feel slightly optimistic about getting Boris out, have a read of this.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/12/the-largest-vote-swings-in-british-general-election-history-censored-out-by-the-bbc-and-mainstream-media/
Why would a lifelong Labour voter be reading the RW press?
I don’t know why ANYONE would read, and especially buy into the likes of the Sun and the Daily Mail. But so, so many do. And completely fail to see the bias that is staring them in the face. It’s massively depressing to me, that otherwise decent people become tainted by the vitriol.
My in laws, in a slight non stereotypical shocker, are really nice, gentle, Christian folk. But they buy the Daily Mail, believe the stuff that’s presented as fact, and take it personally when anyone dare suggest that that rag is an evil, hate filled, xenophobic mouthpiece of Russian billionaires that once ran stories supporting Hitler. Don’t ask me how I know this... 🙄
My point I suppose, is that lots of people don’t even realise how much they are being influenced by the drivel that they read.
A lot of them are just voting Boris , not really Conservative - but Boris/GeBrDo. , and if he gets in he will mess about a wreck quite a lot of things before shuffling off to write amusing lies for news papers with a huge salary , one of the saddest things is that he will get a protection team for life.
If you would like to feel slightly optimistic about getting Boris out, have a read of this.
God, I hope he's right.
Off out to do my civic duty now. If I can help halve the majority of the Tory incumbent then it will at least give him a shot across the bows.
@binners or similar arty types
IF Johnson were to lose tomorrow & have a resignation speech like Cameron could someone edit a video of No10 so that it was a fridge door & Johnson just opened it & walked in ?
unfortunately where i live is a tory safe seat (devizes) so i voted labour.
Sorry dazh couldn't remember whether you were in the consttituancy or just over the border. I think there's a good chance this year if unseating the odious twerp. Small victories!
Already voted Labour by post, although it felt like a fools errand in (I think) the 10th safest Tory seat in the UK.
Wish I could move to Scotland.
In that article about the hardly reported swings it mentions Wokingham , Redwood has not mentioned Brexit once in any of his leaflets , there is a big push by LibDem and its working , it was a 56% remain area.
They give away FREE SWEETS at the polling station you guys.
ooh get you! Where's that?
My polling station is the local social club. You get the free smell of bleach and stale beer
Why would a lifelong Labour voter be reading the RW press? Mirror, Socialist Worker, Guardian, Independent are all available or if they want straight unbiased reporting just stop reading papers and choose an approprite news media. Christ, most RW people don’t read the RW press why would LW people be?
Have you travelled by bus or train or airport in the last few years? All those free newspapers? Who owns them and which wing do they play on?
It's everywhere and it's normalised. Unless you actively avoid them, they're right in front of you, every day.
I think there’s a good chance this year if unseating the odious twerp. Small victories!
Yeah I'm trying not to get too excited, but there's a real difference this time after the tragedy of 2017. I've never seen people so fired up about getting rid of Whittaker. Mrs Daz has volunteered her services today to drive labour voters to the polling station. Think lots of others are doing the same. Also hoping the forecast deluge this afternoon keeps many of the older generation at home. The signs are good.
Already voted Labour by post, although it felt like a fools errand in (I think) the 10th safest Tory seat in the UK.
Which would have been an SNP seat a couple of elections ago. Every Scots seat is in play
I like to have a balanced view and see all the arguments for their worth. Everyone has a fair point. This guy sums up my view really eloquently, and he only mentions half of it.
I'm hoping that humanity sees sense today, and people aren't stupid enough to believe what the vile right-wing press are vomiting everyday, and that some balance can be restored to the force. I don't know why I get so worked up or hopeful about these things - I just end up utterly depressed, and then apologise to all the homeless people I meet in London, freezing on the streets. I shouldn't have to donate to food banks or Shelter in 2019, no-one should. It's sickening. As someone said above, see you on the other side.
"democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard”
Observed in our local FB group this morning:
“Does anyone know if you can vote online? There’s no polling station near me and I need to stay in today as have delivery coming”
FFS, where to start...
Nick, Daz… I obviously voted Labour, but I’m far less optimistic about the chances locally… a lot of 2017 Labour voters I speak to have been aghast at the last few years, and aren’t coming back. And Johnson has energised many of the people inclined not to vote last time to get out and vote Tory. Tactical voting might swing it, but it’s who turns up in numbers to vote that matters most (as is often the case). Let’s hope the teenagers make the difference.
I’ve found out this morning that the Labour candidate who doorstepped me and wouldn’t answer questions on Corbyn or Brexit and has sent 8 communications to my house is not actually standing in my area
He’s missed the constituency border by about half a mile
You couldn’t make it up
Just about to set off down the town hall with my Mrs' proxy vote but alas with an 18000 Tory majority I am only stating our preferences.
You couldn’t make it up
you probably did
Brexit was always a stupid idea, driven by right-wing factions and swallowed by foolish reactionaries.
But putting Boris in charge, officially, must go down as the most depressing political event of my life. I don't know if I want to live in a country like this anymore. We'll see.
So why isn’t labour dead against it?
No don’t bother, it’s been done to death
@BillMc - you get the govt you deserve. Evidently
That's me voted, voted for the party I'm a member of.
It was very busy at my local Polling Station...
Voted labour before work, really hoping my fellow constituents vote that utter **** Rees mogg out
I'm in one of the most marginal 2017 seats, really hoping we get rid of Royston this time, that 31 vote win has to be reversed this time... I hope! Too zombied to be ready to walk down with better half on her way to work, popping down a bit later.
Lib Dem at an edukated guess, Bikebouy, why be coy?
really hoping my fellow constituents vote that utter **** Rees mogg out
He's been hiding in his fridge for weeks now, he'll need thawing out
Why would a lifelong Labour voter be reading the RW press?
And more importantly how could a lifelong Labour voter vote for Conservatives? Understand they may want Brexit and see it as important for some reason but how could a person that has supported Labour values for their whole life switch to support Tory values? Especially at the current time where Labour are about as "Labour" as they could possibly get.
Answer, they didn't really support or understand Labour values and just saw it as the party they should be supporting because of their parents, because they are working class etc,.
Kerley - most people couldn’t tell you the actual policies of the main parties. Just because they’ve voted Labour all their life doesn’t mean they are really politically engaged.
Like it or not, the simplistic online lie campaign works.
They give away FREE SWEETS at the polling station you guys.
If it's the Tories giving out those sweets I wouldn't trust eating one...
