Who are you voting for?

Yes I did, not being a million miles away from you. Don't care if this is outing, I am so upset at what the red tories and their naked greed and corruption have done to my home town, it has directly impacted me and my family and was to a large extent avoidable, regardless of the blue tories. I hope the voters take a wrecking ball to the red wall, but the number of turkeys voting for Xmas means this is unlikely and we will have to sink even lower.

@Churchview yeah Labour love the blame game. unfortunately our local labour council is very corrupt and they gave the empty library building over to a councillors spouse to open a cafe 😂. This is the tip of the iceberg with Labour. Anyone see what happened with Labour in Liverpool? Fraud etc

Funny you should say that, in our case they closed a much-loved and heavily used library, simply because they are massively corrupt. Apparently it needed selling to developers, as the council had no money. It has now stood empty and neglected for 4-5 years. The year after they closed it, they announced a £9m (at least) newbuild of council offices, despite there being at least 5 existing unused viable buildings that could've been used for the same purpose. Those buildings are also empty blots on the landscape. This is a largely Labour-run council. Labour MP that opposed many of their horrendous decisions now deselected. The party is a disgrace.

Green, as our local candidate has a brain and uses it.

The "Labour" party forcibly deselected our local socialist MP, who understood local issues and actually gave a toss about our town. And the Labour leader of the local council is the biggest tit you've ever seen, is massively corrupt, and is actively harming the local economy. So the Starmtroopers can fuck off.

Local councils are closing services like libraries because of 15 years of chronic underfunding from the Tory party.

I’ll vote Labour as the tories are a disgrace. We’ve been financially crippled and I can’t imagine it improving with another stint of them.

All of the other choices seem like wasted votes.

None. They're all crap, so we are doomed whatever imo

@AmpleFatball

well I care about all the people that died in Iraq because of Labour - not just English folk.

Labour also made some terrible decisions that ruined the NHS, namely signing up to expensive contracts.

locally Labour are terrible. I live in a Labour stronghold and they do shit things like close library’s.

torys are no better though. Both are dreadful

Oh, right. I assumed you meant “horrific” for people in the UK, or something else that would be relevant to the current election.

I don’t think there’s much prospect of Starmer going to war against Iraq, do you?

@urbanbuddha i don’t want tories in either they’re awful too.

Iraq war was absolutely horrendous. Labour have an awful track record

I’ve no idea who to vote for but people ihave short memories. It was horrific when Labour were last in power! If they get in it’s out the frying pan into the fire

This trope is such tosh.
The people who do welll under a Labour government are poor children, the people who do well under a Conservative government are rich pensioners.

@AmpleFatball Iraq war for starters!

What was horrific about it?

I’ve no idea who to vote for but people have short memories. It was horrific when Labour were last in power! If they get in it’s out the frying pan into the fire 😟

Every child should get to go to a school they want to.

So if every child wanted to go to an academically selective private school they should be enabled to do so regardless of academic ability or ability to pay.

Or

Popular schools should expand indefinitely to accommodate any child who wants to attend.

Or

All schools should be consistently welcoming, with an engaging, varied curriculum, accessible to children with additional needs, with personalised support for learning so that children actually want to go.

The last option would be my choice, but I don’t see any party committing the money that would be needed for that.

"You do realise that it isn't the 70's or 80's anymore don't you. Politics, people, attitudes and the rest are constantly evolving. It would be impossible for almost anything to stand still. Politics has to represent the world of the present (and hopefully the future) not what was happening in 1973"

@ginasevern what a trite statement, you sound rather like a party political broadcast 🤔

SDP

Has never flattered an invisible robe for social or political brownie points

Understands that neither the free market nor the state can be trusted with all the things all the time.

Seems to have a much better grasp than many parties on what makes humans tick, to incentivise more of what benefits communities, while understanding that life has not, will not, be a perfectly level playing field. And some people will need to state to provide some landing pads and some security so they can build meaning lives too. Lives that enrich their communities even if the value of that enrichment can’t be strictly counted in pounds signs.

Nothing and no one can be perfect. But the above are my tick boxes of “stuff that matters most to me”.

I would vote Labour If they didn't have that stupid policy on tuition fees. Every child should get to go to a school they want to. In other European countries you get money paid by the government to the school of your choice. This should be the same for every child in this country! We pay enough taxes as it is. So unfortunately Keir is a no for me.

I think Scotland has oil though, and the chance they wouldn't get so involved in military spending, probably increase taxes on the wealthy

I’m a little mixed on Reform.

Yes, for immediate purposes I’m happy to see people vote for them, as it helps ensure a Labour majority.

That said, I think I prefer the old right wing (wealthy people trying to preserve their standing) to the new right (populist conspiracy loons, who also want to preserve inequalities).

I don’t imagine Reform will be of any relevance in 10 years time but the the right becoming increasingly extreme and stupid isn’t a great pattern.

Scotland doesn't have a shortfall in the sense you want it to mean. The Scottish government is given a percentage of the income it generates, and has to balance its books within that budget. The rest of the money it generates is retained by Westminster to spend on whatever Westminster decides it wants to spend it on, with no consultation with the devolved countries. This WM expenditure is often in excess of the money it actually has, leading to WM borrowing heavily. This results in the UK being trillions in debt. WM then divides this debt pro-rata amongst the UK countries, resulting in Scotland, Wales and NI each having a nominal debt which is not of their own making, which they were not consulted on, and which, were these nations independent, would likely not have accrued at all. For example, the majority of Scotland is anti-nuclear weapons however WM wants them so they are forced upon us, and their costs are billed to us even though we neve asked for them and don't want them.

Having the powers of a normal independent country means that Scotland and Wales (not sure about NI) could control their own spending and borrowing rather than being forced to take a share of their neighbour's reckless debts.

Doubt it. People vote sensibly in general elections whereas protest votes are common in by elections. Turnout tends to be a lot higher too.

Here's my take:

I highly doubt that, but anywhere with one less Tory would be welcome.

Probably Labour.

I normally vote SNP, but I'm really scunnered with them just now, and TBH I think getting a bit of an electoral kicking just now would be a good thing for them in the long term.

I plan to write to my local Labour candidate and ask her whether if she wins she intends to be saying anything along the lines of "this is a rejection of independence" - because if she does, I'll not be voting for her (and it's a seat where both of those parties have a chance, so I'm hopeful I'll get a response)