I could never vote Tory as my dad would haunt me. I couldnt vote Labour as Starmer is Tory Is there any alternative in the North East? Proportional representation is the answer, but the 2 big parties wouldnt want that
Our election is on 3rd May. I’ve always voted for the Australian Labor Party, probably a throwback to living in the UK. This time around I honestly don’t think I could, with a clear conscience anyway, vote for any of the main parties, the other being the Liberals/Greens coalition. As it’s compulsory to vote here I’m left with two options. Spoil my ballot paper or give my vote to a fringe party that has no hope of getting elected.
I was saying this last night, I'm a paying Labour party member but that is hanging by a thread with the way they are going about things...I'm waiting to see how we officially respond to the tariffs to see if I cancel or not. I do agree that we need to make savings but they are alienating a lot of their core supporters with the way they are going about it, and who they are targeting. I will never vote for Conservatives as they are openly corrupt and the reason we have absolutely no money and the economy is on its arse. I will never vote for Reform with that self-interested muppet looking arse licking Trump wannabe running their show and number of far right members. Greens?
No rush - you have about 3 years to decide It's not looking good in the North East with Reform already ahead of the Cons Maybe join the 49%ers who don't bother
Imagine if folk just decided all main parties were ****e. A lot of us think they are, but some blindly vote red or blue still. Imagine though if everyone openeded their eyes... We could have a political movement where 1 independent sat in each area. Someone actually interested in that area, and not Westminster or their pocket. A house full of independant politicians, but with a common goal to serve their community. Couldnt be worse than watching years of tory failure, followed by years of labour and on and on.
My own opinion is that it’s not worth voting other than Tory or Labour because it’s more than likely a wasted vote. I’m working class, my family are all working class and like most of the north they just blindly voted Labour no matter what but I’m just not sure Labour is the party for the working class anymore. And the tories certainly aren’t either. So putting moral values aside and basing it on what I think is most important, which is the economy, I’d vote Tory. Obviously there was the challenges of brexit and COVID which will be used as a stick to beat them, but let’s not pretend Labour would’ve navigated through that unscathed. The majority of local councils up here have been red for the last century and yet people still blame the tories for the state of their local area because a woman closed the pits. I think there’s very double standard politics when it comes to criticising Labour MP’s up here, as there probably is when it comes to Tory MP’s in southern council areas ie Tory MP accepts gifts, it’s bribery - hang them. Labour MP accepts gifts, it’s “networking” and definitely not the same. We’ve had challenging times last 5 or so years but the GDP was climbing at a fair rate until about a year ago. So it’s not that I prefer Tory to Labour for any other reason than I think Labour are hopeless with money and we’re going to see that over the next 3 years. It’s easy to throw stones in parliament when you aren’t in power and have the luxury of hindsight to see what went wrong and how you could easily find the solution. Oh, and they’re all ****ing spineless liars out to line their own pockets.
It's getting to there point where the monster raving looney party is looking like the sensible choice.
Don’t think “then” labour would’ve even thought about a referendum on brexit. Agree with every other word mind
May I just add a thougt to your post. When 'That Woman' closed The Pits, it had a number of repercussion's, one, no doubt unintentional, has resulted in many lives being saved. The is not just because the pits were dangerous places to work, but they were a disaster for the health of so many Miners. I doubt that there can be many mining families that have not had members die, way before their natural time, coughing their ladt breath, because of the dust in theit lungs. And after the pits closed no new victims. Generations of young men found healthier ways to earn a living, and can now expect a longer, and healthier, life. In exchange, they have paid the price of not having the comradeship that their, now, mostly dead , relatives enjoyed. I've known my share of mining Famiiy's over the years, but I've never heard of a mother who wanted her son to work 'down the pit'.
My grandad fought in WW2 then spent the rest of his life down the pits of the North East, poor bloke fought for every breath the last 2 years of his life. We have generations now including me that dont have a clue about how hard life really can be. Said it before, he was my hero. He was a staunch Labour supporter, would love to know what his thoughts would be about this shower we have in charge, they are targeting the very same people as my grandad, old, skint and poorly. Unforgiveable !
I'm the same mate, just found a website where you answer questions and it's put you on a graph, depending on your answers as to which parties policies match closest with your answers. I'm smack bang in the middle of where Labour and the tories sit. I don't want to vote for either, I think it just proves both parties promise what I want whereas neither actually delivers. The one thing I've noticed they are very good at is pointing out what the other party has done wrong
I would love to know how our grand parents and great grandparents would feel about the labour party of today. Especially in the north we have a tradition of voting Labour because they were the party that fought tooth and nail for the working man. Yet we have people voting Labour because they are a " Labour family" and its been instilled in them over the years to vote nothing but Labour. However today's Labour Party resembles nothing of the Labour Party that our grandparents were so proud of. The same people voted for JC and KS because they were leaders of the Labour Party. These 2 blokes had completely different outlooks on the future of the country.
The more time I spend reporting on it the more I think labor are incompetent but the liberals are simply unthinkable.
Great post, I regularly think about what my dad would think of the current crop, not much I guess. He was Labour to the core but had some conservative traits (with a small c), such as working for everything he had and not buying anything until he could pay cash for it. He believed that no one owed him a living and considered welfare and state handouts charitable and vehemently refused any handouts. His basic life tenet was that people should have a job when they leave education, access to health care when they needed it and a pension at the end. He also believed in the welfare state to provide the necessary support but was too proud to accept any himself.
