If there was a GE today who would you vote for?

i can understand your perspectives, but not everyone that goes private is wealthy, i presume

Not immediately but why should ordinary 20% tax payers have to subsidise the mainly extremely wealthy parents that expect a discount on their school fees?

That 1.7bn can go towards rebuilding RAAC schools for example.

@Mountaineer0009 I'll be amazed if there's any more to it than

"No one but the batshit will now vote for us so we are hitting all the batshit bases to ensure that the batshit vote for OUR batshittery and nobody else's"

It's like a Greatest Hits of what works for the Far Right in various countries, climate change denial, conspiracy theories and fascist tropes.

could be to mask one strategy ?

That may be because someone has thrown batshit all over it?

or we dont understand the bigger picture ?

I think one would find more sense and logic in batshit to be honest.

but how will the vat etc on private suddenly make state better ?

It's batshit.

It must be some kind of conspiracy theory I assume.

I also assume theTories know the only demographic they have left is the people who believe batshit lies.

Hence all the baffling batshittery for those of us who have some kind of grip on reality.

On current form the Tories seem to want higher taxes for you and me, poorer services, but tax cuts for those who have more money than they know what to do with.
How can a sensible country be led by a millionaire who pays a lower proportion of tax than teachers and nurses do?

You listen to speeches, interviews, newspaper articles and see the direction of travel of the various parties.. Cons want tax cuts and hence lower standards of public services.... No country has low taxes AND better healthcare etc.

Labour appear to want better public services, that might mean higher taxes but whats the point of lower taxes if you die waiting for an Ambulance or your Mum does? or your kids school falls in on them?

Its nice to the see the government concentrating on the important issues of the name. Namely again making up proposals to say they oppose them.
This time on councils allowing you only to shop on certain days and then strangely no Minister being able to point to anywhere that this is proposed. How odd.

@badbadbunny few indies round here are Greens or single issue which I don't want to encourage....but I shall consider it. Still think a stronger message really is going to the trouble of voting but then not actually voting. IYSWIM.

Labour- I work in a state school.

Conservative.

Apart from Labours views on what a woman is the local candidate for Labour is an absolute arse and I would not vote for him ever. I live in a key marginal and we are always inundated with leaflets and doorstep canvassers. I’m never voting for a party that think it’s ok for convicted rapists to be put in a women’s prisons. I used to work with women who were survivors of DV so it is the single issue for me over everything as much as that pains me.

I'd vote for whoever can win in my constituency who isn't a Tory.

Just vote for the best independent on your ballot paper - that way your vote "counts", but none of the major parties benefits from it. Far better than spoiling your ballot paper.

That happens in both parties too, though, doesn't it?

Alan Sugar used to support Labour (he is/was a Labour Peer), but very publicly resigned from the Labour party some time ago (2015 or thereabouts).

I'd spoil my paper.

DH would vote LD unless Labour get their actgether, but they won't. Not round here anyway.
DD might spoil her paper too, fingers crossed.

I know someone who's trying to get a 'Campaign to Abstain' going (he's in central London so no idea how it'sgoing). Seems pointless to me, if you don't vote despite massive public campaign, huge crowds on Abstain Marchor whatever, they'll just tell themselves "no one's interested in politics oh dear woe is me" etc, but they can't do that if you go down the poll, mark your paperin favour of no one. Last time I wrotein big letters "none of theabove" and held it up in the booth for anyone coming into see (illegal but hey).

Might do similar this time.

As for the Tories, the BBC has an interesting article about the boss of Iceland leaving this morning. Apart from the interesting angle on how MPs are selected, he asks exactly what the conservatives are conserving at the moment.

I was briefly a member of the Green Party. At one time they had alternative economic ideas and a real focus on environmental issues. Some of the writing from that period took on real economic thinking. They also used to refuse whips because they wanted to enable a diversity of voices, which is laughable to think of now. Then they started aiming at students and all attempts at thought went in favour of whatever was currently trendy or politically correct.

Conservative. I live in Wales and Starmer has big problems here thanks to Welsh Labour. I've never ever seen so much hate for the Labour Party, they always get in no matter what but I think the Welsh will punish them in a general election even though it makes no difference to the Senedd.

I’ll vote conservative.

Starmer has lost my vote for his woman and private school issues.

Starmer also had the opportunity to get the splinters out of his arse over all the Ulez crap but once again stayed firmly on the fence.

There is no way I could vote for the Green Party because, much as I admire them for keeping green issues to the fore, their wider economic policies seem more at home in a JCR than a national parliament