I am not voting for Labour or Con…

I like tbe Greens but will prob vote lib dems to get the Tories out in my area

I think the Torygraph is quite likely to be sympathetic to their cause, don’t you? I could understand your skepticism if it was The Guardian.

The best of the Independents I suppose. I'll do my research then make a choice. I refuse to vote Tory or Labour

Perhaps we can’t rely on information based on ‘.. the [insert ‘news’ source] understands that…’

You don’t need the link I quoted what it said. Ms Atkins appears to be quite inconsistent.

That link didn’t work for me Bloss but it did lead to this article

The Telegraph understands that Ms Badenoch, the equalities minister, had wanted to back large sections of the Bill but was prevented from doing so by Cabinet colleagues.

Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, and Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, had raised concerns with the legislation.

Government sources denied claims that some Tory MPs had been urged to keep talking on the earlier private members’ Bill, which was about the import of dogs, cats and ferrets.

Well yes there were more tories present. But that’s not quite the point

What matters was time spent talking bollocks to waste time. And Labour politicians did by far most of the talking in the session.

I don’t need to read the breakdown. I watched the whole debacle.

Although if you read the breakdown more tories spoke than labour.

@cardibach

"Labour aren’t extremist. Why aren’t they in your list?"

Because OP seems to be turning away from Labour. I was trying to make the point that it is worth voting even if you don't like either of the main parties.

(I might well vote Labour)

Wouldn’t be so sure. There are many Labour stalwarts up here in the North who are turning towards Reform. I would say that more Labour supporters are leaning towards Reform than Tory.

Quite. If ever there was a time to suspend party politics and use all the talent available it was then. But, no - the King of the World knew best.

What rot. Starmer absolutely challenged Sunak and BJ about all the covid cock-ups they made but it doesn't matter how much they challenge it, the Tories had an 80 seat majority while it was going on and still have a sizeable majority now, so there's nothing Starmer can actually DO. Blaming him for that just shows a lack of understanding of how our system works.

You know Johnson refused to discuss covid policy with opposition parties? Blame him, not Labour.

Labour aren’t extremist. Why aren’t they in your list?

I agree re covid. There are 3+ million votes up for grabs from those excluded from covid support. Starmer and Reeves couldn't even be bothered to properly research the reasons for why so many were excluded and were completely ineffective in Parliament when attempting to challenge Sunak as to why he excluded so many people. That's 3 million votes that Starmer could have counted on had he bothered to make a good performance which may have led to changes, but no, both he and Reeves made a couple of half hearted challenges which were easily deflected by Sunak and they both retreated with their tails between their legs because they hadn't done the research to kick back against Sunak's lies and half truths. Chocolate fireguard is a very amp description!

I'm old enough (60's) to remember both the Tory and Labour party spending decent amounts of time in office and each one seems to spend a fair bit of their time looking back and blaming the other for the state of the country.

During COVID I did think it was Starmers time to shine and show me what he was made of and that he could pull together with the Tories and ask how can we as leaders help best to guide the country through such times unknown to us, but he was a useful as a chocolate tea pot.

I'm not even sure now a days you can openly express why you won't be voting for a particular party as your opinion will be seen as some type of 'ist'

This year I too am undecided on who to vote for but for sure I definitely won't be voting Labour.

So Labour derailed the PMB that was supposed to happen this morning, concerning women’s sex-based rights. They can’t even discuss I’m the issue because they fully understand they cannot justify their stance on women (having penises, allowing males in women’s spaces etc).

Confirmation if any were needed that Labour are not a party to vote for if one values women’s sex-based rights.

The question is now - who do disenfranchised Labour supporters vote for?

OP, I completely understand.

However, personally I think it's important to cast my vote for a non-extremist party, even if they don't have a chance of getting in. Votes are still counted and considered by politicians even if they don't make a difference in the first past the post system. Eg if loads of votes go to Greens that tells the two main parties to pay attention to that demographic. So any vote for a "mainstream" party ie Greens, Lib Dems, is still a vote worth casting. Also I like to vote, as a vote against fringe parties that I don't agree with (ie Reform).

Actually given this year it seems tories will be out, maybe now is a nice opportunity to vote for whoever you like most without having to worry about tactical voting - if that has previously been a consideration for you.

Here it’s always a toss up between Con/LD - Labour come nowhere. Currently LD. TBH I think the LDs are pretty hopeless, but I suppose I’ll have to vote for them, to keep the Tory candidate out.
I will never not vote, though.
I did once vote for the Monster Raving Loony candidate, when I was utterly pissed off with the lot of them, but we haven’t had a MRL candidate for ages.

Except...they aren't illegal immigrants. At the point that they arrive, they're asylum seekers. It's only once they're processed and their application dealt with that they can become illegal immigrants.

I don't understand why so many don't seem to comprehend this.

The problem is that the UK government seems determined to avoid putting in the work to actually sort out the system for making that determination. It's almost as if they don't want the problem solved, because if they leave it hanging in the air it's a really handy rallying cry for the election.

...and Labour thanks you for half of your vote :D

This captures it.
Yes, we probably want labour in, at the pretty low bar that they can't be any worse than the current lot
But we also want a strong opposition, so don't want a complete landslide victory. When a party feels it can do what it wants without critical review from another standpoint, thats when things move yo the extreme left or right, which isn't helpful. Equally having such a small majority that they can't get anything through parliament also isn't helpful as nothing moves forward.

You could be correct. Social media is a relatively new thing. That and the internet’s ease of enabling corruption and lies.

You need to look at the vote swing in your constituency to see if there is another party where your vote will 'count'. Tactical voting is a bore and a shame, as is forever being in a two-horse race, but we are where we are.

Whatever party you definitely do not want to see in majority, I would vote for the other one. It may not give you any sense of convictions, but it is realistic.

Saying all that, voting for ANY party you have conviction in, even one that will never gain a majority will never be a wasted vote.