Does anyone else feel disenfranchised?

Yes, I feel disenfranchised and not just because Chris Grayling is my MP and enjoys one of the safest seats in the country. So voting makes no difference either way. I did vote for him last time, more as a kind of ritual and also two words 'Ed Milliband'. I did think the Coalition did a good job on the economy after Ed Balls kept merrily predicting it would flatline and it didn't. But you couldn't vote for the Coalition. People deserted the Lib Dems and the result was the Brexit referendum that got called.

This has been the most depressing election campaign I can recall. It reeks of cynicism somehow and also feels oddly unreal. It is only happening because of Brexit, the only reason T May is PM is because of Brexit. It's like we've dropped through a time portal or something, an alternative less fun universe.

It's not even that I'm against Brexit as such, it's the way it dominates the news in such a nervy, persistent doomsday way.

The way May bangs on about 'strong and stable' because she's been told to sounds unhinged and actually insulting. It reminds me of that Line of Duty trailer that played incessantly on the BBC: 'YOU forced an INNOCENT man to be charged....'

George Osbourne bitching on about May's leadership in his role as editor of the Evening Standard means he's Ted Heath turned up to the max.

Kristal Tits and Alastair behind the scenes of May's campaign.

Corbyn's oratory reminds me of the feeble and unimpressive soothsayer in Life of Brian: 'And in particular be wary of those little things of no particular name that pop up in the night and irritate, funny things some of them have wings...'

Emily Thornberry at least has the virtue of making feel I'm not racist, as she's just as pompous as Diane Abbott.

But for the most part this is the Dark Ages of British politics. I mean, I have actually forgot about Tim Farron.

Captain, I'm surprised the terror threat has made you want to vote tory, this happened under Mays watch as home sec and now PM. You cannot stop every attack but with 20k police cut and more cuts to come after the election, I am surprised anyone still feels she is a safe pair of hands. She was warned by the police in 2015 that cuts would lead to more terror attacks and told them 'this crying wolf has got to stop' 😮

I was on the losing side of that referendum too 🙄😂

But we had a referendum in 2010 on AV, and the people voted to keep FPTP. Lord only knows why??

I am hoping to feel a bit less disenfranchised after this election.

I live in a safe SNP seat, and see little prospect of this changing, so on that level, I will still be disenfranchised.

I felt utterly disenfranchised after the last Westminster elections, when despite only gaining approximately 50% of the votes in Scotland, the SNP won all but three of the fifty six Scottish seats. I genuinely felt that no-one was representing me, and the SNP were rejoicing about this.

Sadly this is the reality for many people in safe seats of every political hue. I d wonder whether the UK needs to consider some form of proportional representation. In the Holyrood elections, some seats are elected constituency MPs, just as we have in Westminster, but the rest are allocated based on the percentage of the vote each party gets, on the part list system.

So if, for example 300 MPs were elected via the party list system, and party A got 65% of the vote, they would get 195 MPs. They would have a list of their candidates, numbered from one to whatever, and in this case, the first 195 candidates from their list, would be elected.

This would require bigger constituencies, as it would mpneed a cut in the number of directly elect d constituency MPs.

The system seems to work fairly well in Holyrood.

No.
I did when New Labour was the way the Labour Party went. There was no opposition only various shades of blue.

Now we have an actual opposition.

How so Peregrina? I thought the election was called pre Manchester?

Here's a hypothetical question sort of linked to Jux.

What if all the constituencies voted in independents? How would a government be formed and who would be PM?

I would so like to see an end to Party Politics. If we could each just vote for the person we feel would do the best job for the actual constituents. I can see why it wouldn't work as things are, but surely we could find a way to make it work. Gordon Browne tried when he first got into No. 10 but was scotched immediately because no other party would cooperate. We missed a trick, we really did.

Also don't think a new government right in the middle of an ISIS campaign through Ramadam is a good idea either.

It would still be a new Government, even if the Tories won. The only way for Theresa May to have avoided that would have been not to call an election.

Totally agree QuiteUnfit. I think you are a realist, not a cynic.

Safe Tory seat here but I've voted lib dem as a tactical vote. UKIP were second here in 2010 which sickens me. So my vote won't count but will lessen Tory majority

The leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party was on Daily Politics a week or so back. Jo Coburn stated that they had never retained their deposit and asked if it was an aim of theirs.

He replied "No, because if we retain a deposit our polices obviously weren't loony enough"!

I can't help but think they may well retain a deposit or two this time!

Totally agree with being disenfranchised. I'm totally obsessed about the election at the moment, because I just can't finally decide where to put my vote - although obviously my single vote makes no difference. My family's sick of hearing me moaning about it.

His manifesto really impressed me. I felt it was basically just what everyone wanted to hear, to get the votes. What's not to like about money for everything? Better for 95% of the electorate, so it's bound to garner votes. Or am I just a total old cynic?

I don't think anyone really wants to win this election, except TM, whose career is at stake, because Brexit'll be a disaster for whoever is in power.

Yes, as someone from
Northern Ireland who now lives in Scotland a general election serves to remind you how little your vote counts to the big parties at Westminster. (Am not pro Independence, btw.)
I live a safe SNP constituency and Labour and Tory main campaigns are both that they'll oppose a second Indy ref... which feels a bit divisive given not all of us put Independence or the union at the top of our wish list... Am heartened to hear others in U.K. feel disenfranchised, it's not just us then

What petalmepotts said, more or less. think I'll vote green or lib dem, then whatever happens it won't have been my fault...

I would love a hung parliment with parties having to work togzther where a range of views to represent the diverse and opposing views of the public can be debated.

Nice in theory. But don't forget the Tory/Libdem coalition which was pretty much a disaster. We seemed to get the worst of both worlds with two parties having to do some pretty shoddy negotiating behind the scenes to get anything done at all and then there being no consistent/cohesive decisions being made. Tax policy was a classic case in point where there were changes made which worked against eachother, pulling in different directions, which were clearly some kind of "tit for tat" rather than a sensible road-map. It also meant a lot of difficult decisions/changes just weren't made at all.

I felt as you did at the start of the election, OP, but actually now I feel happy to vote for Corbyn. His manifesto really impressed me. Presumably you've read it and don't feel the same, so YY to voting for an independent or smaller party.

We have a good Labour MP, who's likely to get in again. My DH canvasses for them, and the general line is 'don't think about JC, vote for the MP'. But I feel that is unbelievably naive.

Likewise we have a good Labour MP. Unfortunately, hell would freeze over before I will vote Labour because our MP is a member of Corbyn's shadow cabinet and I certainly can't vote for someone who sucks up to Corbyn. Shame really but our MP has committed political suicide and hasn't a hope of getting re-elected.

I agree with a lot of what you have said, OP.

I live in a safe Tory seat. My vote can only ever be used as a "protest".

Perhaps you could vote for one of the smaller parties who have no chance of getting in, to ensure they get their deposit back, and to increase their political coverage. (Remember, UKIP had only one MP, but are always on QT, because of share of the vote. If you want to hear from the Greens, or the WEP, for example, voting for them may help to give them a voice in the future.)

Is Lib Dem not an option for those who want to put more money into health and education, but worry that Labour under JC is too left wing?

It most certainly is. But my personal objection against Labour is not because it's "too left wing" for me. It's because I believe this country needs to put a lot of money into health and education (and policing)....so it makes zero sense for me to support a party that's going to take the country out the single (EU) market and make the country so much poorer.

Voting for Labour would be like planning to spend your golden eggs on really critical essentials whilst simultaneously slaughtering the goose. In my humble opinion.

I think it depends on your constituency. Here it's a swing seat between red and blue and UKIP (shudder) currently blue.

God I do not want UKIP in a libdem vote is not going to achieve anything.

There are so many reasons silky, but the fact that he couldn't work with most of his elected MPs kind of says it all.

Is Lib Dem not an option for those who want to put more money into health and education, but worry that Labour under JC is too left wing? Genuine question. I'm a Labour voter so not canvassing for the Lib Dems.