Off Topic Snap Election Called

Having always voted Labour at every GE since the 70s, this one is a bit of a ****ed up choice.

I think Labour have decent policies, but that won't be enough in this day and age.
If I don't vote Labour, it won't be due to Corbyn, more that I don't trust them on Brexit.

Which doesn't leave me much choice.

Lib Dems have no agenda that suits me.
The Tories will probably give me the Brexit I want, but at what price.

Then there's UKIP...

Choices?

 

I think it is important that the government is in the strongest possible position to see us through brexit.

This could be achieved more effectively by having a proper opposition in place but the labour party has lost the plot. I would vote for them otherwise.

Mrs T has seen the opportunity and is taking it. It's going to be a long way back for the rest I feel.

 

It's dire isn't it?

 

Ain't it just.

Tories are a non-starter for me.

I'll end up voting Labour, in the knowledge that it's a wasted vote, just like it was under Foot.

 

I hope someone pulls their finger out and forms something credible in opposition soon, because this Tory party will drag the UK into a US-style market economy with no social safety net and massive worker exploitation given half the chance (which they will get without the EU to hold them back). I'd even accept a centrist party like Merkel's CDU in this country, if it meant that the Tories were drained of their support. They're cruel and incompetent, and unwilling to admit any failure. If Heath and Macmillan were still alive today, they wouldn't recognise the Tory party in its current form.

 

Will the gerrymandering boundary changes planned for the 2020 election come in to effect now? If so it would further see the Tories chances of gaining seats enhanced.

 

I wonder how many people have even read any parties policy documentation in any depth, the Green's makes interesting reading, a blend of ecological and communist philosophy with a quite scary world view that ignores reality in many aspects, one of Corbyn's 10 commandments stands out to me, he promises full employment at a notional cost of £500 billion. None of it's easy to read and is in many ways very "Dry" with a lot of the how exactly and what impact these ideas will have buried in complex language structures or just not even there, I look at it in some ways like some of the jobs that I have taken on, you interview and submit a business plan with a 3/6 month action plan along with longer term targets, when you walk in the door and get to see the reality of the job all of that gets chucked out the window as you realise the actual challenges you face.

 

No. As one Tory supporter put it "We don't want to cash in Corbyn AND the boundary changes all in one go"

 

I'm kinda of waiting for Farage to make a sensational comeback to Ukip so I have someone to vote for!

Sick of Tories and their cost cutting

Corbyn is a joke,

Lib Dems are a joke party as are Green

I might just skip this whole election, pay no attention and not vote. I think a lot of people may take that option

How much does an election cost? How much did the Brexit referendum cost? large sums of money being thrown about by the privileged whilst people struggle to feed their kids

Also why do we have the same format of politics as 100 years ago? shouldnt changes be made? the country has changed yet its politics and the format of an election remain the same?

 

Well we had a referendum in 2011 to change to an AV system and the Great British public voted it down by over a 2:1 majority. Unfortunately only 42% of people bothered to turn out for it.

 

Yup I completely missed this! being 23 at the time I probably would have been concentrating on something a lot more fickle!

 

Sorry but the Green party are not a joke - in fact have very good policies but sadly aren't deemed popular by the masses who suck either Labour or Tory despite both parties ****ing over whoever they see fit and neither party doing what is best for the country.

 

I'll probably be voting the Lib Dems... no idea what kind of **** the Tories will try to pull if they get an overwhelming majority. Never voted before but i'm not sure i agree with even more austerity measures which the Tories are deffo going to be up to (they've backtracked a few times already) and their snoopers charters

 

Lib Dems

 

We need a Brewster's millions style 'none of the above' option to shake **** up

 

I found out about this about 2 or 3 years after. Was discussing the need to change the system at its' core, group of friends and family all saying that an AV system would be their preference too, so someone went on their phone and discovered a vote had been held. You do get the feeling that they kept that one off the radar and ensured that everyone who benefits from the current system went out and voted....but then I do like a good conspiracy.

That said, the system doesn't work. It's ironic because it's not "representational" in the slightest. This whole thing was brought in to ensure the will of the people was carried out across the land. That was when "the land" meant about 10 million people in 1730 when "modern" politics began with Robert Walpole. I don't know about you, but I suspect things have changed a touch since 1730. The system hasn't, save for offering further protection to the 'haves' and further isolating, yet weirdly relying on the vote of, the 'have nots'.

 

Their 2015 manifesto promised to end austerity and create 1 million jobs! 1 Million, sorry this is not feasible just to pluck 1 million jobs out of the air, they give no information on how they propose to create this.

They will spend more on the environment, and renewable energy, They will make all education free, despite student debt being calculated to reach 100b by 2018. They will abolish bedroom tax, privatise trains and put an immediate 10% cut on fares also there would be free movement and no boarders.

so we would effectively be creating this cheap utopia where everything is free or cheaper, yet we are already in trillions of pounds worth of debt. But Green will increase spending?

I'm not a mathematician or an accountant, but I can calculate what is feasible and some of the policies they propose simply aren't. We would be bankrupting ourselves to provide the world with a host of services, we would turn into Greece within weeks

I'm deadly against tax avoidance, but also see how raising taxes for large companies can cause them to relocate elsewhere, I wouldn't wanna be held hostage by CEO's of multi nationals and alike, but the Green party would effectively force companies to relocate and pay tax elsewhere.

 

Now look back at the last 10, no 20, no 30, no 40, no well forever of Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems - none of them have fulfilled what every single one of their policies are.

Yes they have some ideological policies but look at the way Labour have ****ed up education, or how the tories sell off every public body etc etc We can all look for holes but people bleet on about either the tories being **** or labour being **** yet will not even consider a smaller party.

Also, if it went to proportional representation then the Green Party would be a much bigger influence in politics.

As for you not being a mathematician, I am and I know many who are and some of them vote for the green party just like I do. Sadly for me I live in an area (Romford) where the majority of people lick the arse of Andrew Rossindale (shudders)

 

You've probably seen this already, but here's an anti-Tory tactical voting guide:

 

Privatization by the Tories and not by Labour is a modern day myth.

• 1997-2001: New Labour's compromise
New Labour had made electoral capital out of the Tories' unpopularity over privatisation, but only pledged to stop the sell-off of air traffic control. Even this minor promise was betrayed. For, if Thatcherism had not won the argument on public services, it had so comprehensively demolished the militant left and trade unions that there was nothing to prevent Labour from adapting to neoliberalism. The major privatisation policy introduced in this period was thus an awkward compromise between a managerial leadership and Labour's electoral base, known as the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) – a fudge originally pioneered by Norman Lamont. Introduced into the London Underground, the NHS and schools, these policies raised money in the short-term without the need for higher taxes. But there was also a streak of pro-market evangelising involved. Both Peter Mandelson and his successor at the department of trade and industry believed it was the role of government to foster entrepreneurial culture.

• 2002-8: Aggressive PFI
The second and third New Labour administrations pressed aggressively for further state down-sizing and privatisation. Blair had based his 2001 re-election campaign on the extremely unpopular PFI. The calculation was that even if the measure wasn't popular, his victory would prove that there was no realistic alternative. Though there were few major sell-offs, the government's policies on the Royal Mail and the NHS had, as their logical conclusion, the privatisation of these services. Even the fiscal crisis in the NHS, resulting from the high costs of PFI initiatives, did not dampen the ardour. It was not until the credit crunch and the ensuing crisis that the pendulum began to swing, if only temporarily, in the opposite direction when Brown was forced to belatedly nationalise a string of failing banks. But even then, it was clear that the intention was to restore these companies to private ownership as quickly as possible.

New Labour, which for me isn't Labour, introduced some fairly right wing policies such as the above. Blair was never Labour he was just a politician who wanted power and would adopt any policy that might, and did, get him into power. He took Labour as far right as it's ever been to pinch the LibDem vote and the left wing of the Tory vote.

In doing so he took Labour away from it's core values and which ultimately started the down swing of political influence by Labour.

Key problem we all have is that no matter which political party is in power it needs a solid opposition. We don't have that. Labour with Corbyn won't win and won't be an effective opposition. LibDem's showed their true colours when they had the chance of power and shafted a lot of their young voters with tuition fees etc.

UKIP I can't see sustaining their last vote now that Farage has gone and the Greens just aren't a realistic option as far as most people are concerned.

For me the problem we have is not who is in power but more we don't have a strong opposition.

Don't have any opposition to PR but not too inspiring that the proponents of PR can't agree which is the fairest method and until they do it's not going to happen.

I accept politics fails to involve people but my view is if people want change then they have to get involved and realise any change is not going to happen overnight. First change in any event should be to "democratise" the House of Lords and then work from there.