To feel completely disillusioned with the Labour Party?

@EatMyHead

OK so let's take you at your word. The Labour party is "for" winning this election. That's it. That's all.

So what can we look forward to after that happens? A party with a different name having power. That's it. That's all.

That prospect in itself doesn't motivate me at all to "get the Tories out", as people keep telling me I have to do NO MATTER WHAT!!! It simply doesn't contain anything that promises to make my life better, or the lives of others better or fairer.

The Labour Party manifesto isn't published yet, but in the interim they have published their key missions. Can you honestly tell me that these missions aren't going to help you or anyone else, or make your/their lives better or fairer? If you don't think this is what's required, what do you suggest they should be doing?

Labour's missions

It’s important to understand that, if you live in a constituency which is a straight fight between Labour & the Conservatives, a vote for any party other than Labour is effectively oa vote for the Tories.

Most seats in England fall into this category. It’s far from ideal, but unfortunately it’s just the reality of how our ‘first past the post’ electoral system works.

Exactly @cardibach it's not like they'll give her a promotion unlike the Tory party

They haven’t ‘embraced’ her. They’ve accepted her as it’s embarrassing to the Tories, will be helpful in terms of convincing people who are worried about asylum seekers that they have a plan (the MP for Dover thinks they are ok… will be the line) and on the condition she doesn’t stand for re election.

Do vote, @user6776 . I'm in Australia, where voting is compulsory, and yes they do follow it up. Not quite the point but not voting proves nothing.

I also have an overseas vote in the UK and as a lifelong Labour voter in, as it happens a secure Labour seat, am having qualms about their attitude to women and the embracing of such abhorrent shites such as Elphicke.

Maybe you should visit the Labour Party website to see what their aims are and then compare that to what the Tories have done in the past 14 years. If that isn't enough for you, I despair. The differences are clear as day to anyone not in blinkers.

For right now, they're doing what has to be done to get into government. All journeys start with a single step and all that.

Frankly, the absence from power of the nauseating, cowardly, lying, grasping, fill your boots mate Tories will be a vast improvement in itself. Let's hope the Labour party doesn't accept any more Elphickes.

So what can we look forward to after that happens? A party with a different name having power. That's it. That's all.

Why do you think that?

I keep coming back to ideology over policy. Hands will be tied post GE because they can't just pour money into the things they would like to until they've sorted out some of the big messes. The difference for me is the ideology of the two main parties. One has some dodgy members up to no good. The other is built on dodgy members up to no good.

OK so let's take you at your word. The Labour party is "for" winning this election. That's it. That's all.

So what can we look forward to after that happens? A party with a different name having power. That's it. That's all.

That prospect in itself doesn't motivate me at all to "get the Tories out", as people keep telling me I have to do NO MATTER WHAT!!! It simply doesn't contain anything that promises to make my life better, or the lives of others better or fairer.

I've been at the count on election night a couple of times, checking processes as a representative of my local Labour party. Saw some very interesting spoilt ballots - many illegible, some impassioned, a few frankly pornographic. 😁

But no, there was never any mechanism for noting their reasons and feeding that upwards to the party decision-making processes. You've got a whole bunch of activists even within one constituency each viewing the occasional spoilt ballot here or there, and then that's multiplied by 650 constituencies across the country. To do anything with the information it would first have to be properly and methodically recorded, so you can judge which objections are significant in number and which are just random outliers.

@QuickDraining if you think there is any serious chance of a Tory win in this GE, you are dreaming. Yes, the polls will tighten - though they have not in any way started to do so. Right now, Reform is taking votes from the Tories, which will benefit Labour in terms of getting a majority. It will be a big majority too.

Labour are currently mopping up the moderate centrist Tory vote. The Lib Dems are taking a share of that vote too. There will be considerable tactical voting.

Sorry to rain on your parade.

@pointythings agree that Reform will split the Tory vote. And as such will reduce the chance of a Tory majority, leading to the chance of a hung parliament.

However, my Mum hates the Tories, will buy some of the GB News crap, and the Tory disinformation campaigns. She hates Farage, but is too thick to realise that Reform are the Brexit party. She'll lap up the anti-migrant rhetoric. And as such might go for Reform. She's typically not a Labour or Tory supporter, but these are the kind of voters both parties will be chasing. She voted Brexit, now moans about the cost of living, can't put two and two together.

How is what’s already in place going to work properly with a government that does nothing? None of our public services are working properly, huge amounts of work are needed.

I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I’d just encourage you to think about why Starmer might say stuff like that about Thatcher.

To be elected he needs to win the votes of people who would usually vote Conservative. He’s not going to do that by scaring the horses with radical policies, or implying he’s some kind of left winger. That’s where Corbyn went wrong.

He has to be a sensible, sober, respectable, centre ground.

We really need the current shower out and trust me, Starmer is a vast improvement on the current lot, even if he doesn’t tick all your boxes.

Maggie ‘I don’t know what sex I am as o haven’t had my chromosomes tested’ chapman, green MSP. People thinking ‘I’ll just vote green’ did this. Just don’t vote if you only candidate is green. Take it from a scot, they aren’t environmentalists they are crazed nutters.

You might want to look into what the Green Party stands for first. They have been a disaster in Scotland, but thankfully seem to have take the SNP down with them.

Depends what the single issue is surely and how important it is to you. I won’t vote Labour because of their record on women’s rights. That’s a really important issue to me. I think the Tories, for all they have done many things I don’t agree with, have finally got it right on women’s rights

Voting green is a vote for anti women gender extremism. I really wouldn’t- they’re not environmentalists any more

Sometimes, doing nothing and waiting is the best option. I feel this is one of those moments. I can't actually (for the first time in my life) summon up a remedial list of policy. I think we need to wait and see what the GE vote delivers; how much of a mandate Labour wins will be crucial. Over 60% is decisive, over 70% says they can take a few risks on their wild side. Absolutely no chance at all that they will get 80% plus of the total vote. With an outcome below 60%, an incoming Labour government will have to get GE naysayers on board. Personally, politically, the very best thing an incoming government could do is as little as possible, I want what's in place to work properly. And fairly too.

A closely hung parliament would be a nightmare. Nothing would get done.

In fact, I would prefer a closely hung Parliament. All the parties have useful ideas. Make them work togther for the benefit of us all, please. I can cheerfully ignore the interests of squillionaires, and the cries of the able but work shy. If you are of working age, and can walk and talk, you should work at least part of the day. If you are too ill to do so, then you should be an NHS priority to get to back to sufficient fitness to work a little bit.

I will live with a moderate anything after the GE.

I don't know about the Tories, but I doubt very much that the Labour party is complacent - everything being reported about Keir Starmer is that he's warning against complacency. We've seen it before in elections, where polls suggest Labour is in the lead, but then when it comes to it, all the secret/ashamed Tories come out to vote!

That said, I very much do mind who we end up with, as I can't see any way that more years of government by the Tories/Rishi is going to be beneficial in any way.

I take your point @BIWI. But I still fear that the centre is a bit complacent. For the record, I'd like politics to stay quite centrist, and I am not very bothered whether we end up with Keir or Rishi, as long as the winner has a workable majority and is a competent administrator.

I think that's reassuring. Thanks @Blossomtoes.

My most fervent hope is that we don't lose sight of the middle ground in this election.