Anyone voting SDP tomorrow?

SDP were my form of a protest vote

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I voted SDP too

I voted for them, I didn't even know they were standing until I saw the ballot paper!

I was going to vote SDP, then looked into them more closely and realised I couldn't.

I couldn't vote Tory as I can't forgive them for Brexit.

In the end, I voted "Rejoin EU" as we are in one of the small number of constituencies where they were able to put up a candidate.

My vote will make no difference to the outcome here, which is everything that's wrong with our political system.

I've voted for them but they don't stand a chance in this staunchly Tory seat. Some of their manifesto sounds great though some if a bit disturbing. Given there's no money in the pot so none of the parties will be able to make much meaningful change so I chose SDP for a tactical vote and a single issue vote (GC).

@ScrollingLeaves if you listen to this interview, he explains the SDP agreement with Reform. Starts around 47 minutes in.

www.spiked-online.com/podcast-episode/why-britain-needs-an-alternative/

I was initially hoping they would be like the SDP of old. I would have voted for them but withdrawing from the ECHR and refugee conventions, what effectively looked like residential units for single mums and fairly disturbing welfare policies put me off.

I saw that too, and was worried. However my constituency has both Reform and SDP candidates running, so obviously not in a pact where I am.

Yes, I just did.

I'm in Lib Dem "gendered souls" Layla Moran's constituency, and I'm not voting for her again.

Neither am I voting Tory, I just can't. I might have held my nose (purely on gender issues) and voted Labour, but fortunately an SDP candidate materialised (a female one!), plus leaflet through door mentioning sex-based rights - the only one that did.

I don't like everything about the SPD - I share others' misgivings on this thread, but there was no-one else I felt I could vote for.

I voted for them. I'm a Tory (with a heart ) but didn't want to vote them in again. Mine is a safer than safe labour seat so more of a protest vote

I’d love to vote for them but they’re not stacking in my constituency this time which is a shame. There’s only bad choices left!

@VeryQuaintIrene do you know where you saw that, or have more details? I have not come across that except in connection with something a few years back.

I'll be voting for them. I don't necessarily agree with every single thing they say but I can't vote for some of the parties with the gender policies how they are. I also like their education policy - take the disruptive kids out of schools and put them in units that give them the support they need while letting everyone else learn!

They are definitely most aligned with my thinking. The seat in my area will go to labour I'm sure but I won't let that stop me voting sdp.

I didn't vote for them in the end.

My St A friends think she’s awful 🤷‍♀️

I live in a solid Libdem constituency, wish we had an SDP candidate, I voted for them on the London mayoral elections. Strange thing is one our candidates is from the horrible George Galloways party, this is a pretty "naice" constituency, hope he loses his deposit.

"Daisy Cooper is driving me crazy, she seems like an intelligent, logical person but clearly ambitious"

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat what is about ambitious women that you don't like? Should intelligent and logical women know their place at home?

I'd love to have Daisy Cooper as an MP, I'm also in the constituency next door and I'm grateful that the Lib Dems are fighting for this seat. My friends in St Albans wax lyrical about Daisy, she's just really good and I hope she's party leader at some point.

But back to the SDP. First time in my life that my vote will count and I wouldn't waste it on a party who think single mothers are second class citizens.

Briefly considered it, read up on them, discovered that they had some potential arrangement with Reform, and thought no thanks.

that's really interesting, thanks for that.

Unfortunately for our SDP candidate (who has actively declined interviews), a cursory google of his name brings up a whole lot of previous which you can only surmise he doesn't want to discuss...

We have an SDP candidate here, but they don't seem to have put the slightest bit of effort in. We got no leaflets, and even when I go and search for the candidate online, the only thing I can find about them is their name.

Campaigners call this putting up a paper candidate. They persuade someone to stand and invest in a deposit but don't invest anything else. So no leaflets, unlikely to get much if any door knocking, even the candidate may well be knocking doors in someone else's constituency. Smaller parties will do this to increase awareness, national vote %, and guage support. Actual campaigning costs more £ and volunteer time and will be concentrated in constituencies they think they can do something. Even if in SDP's case "do something" might just mean get deposit back.

I read through their manifesto thinking, OK, this sounds... sensible, until I got to the section about prioritising the married family unit at all costs - and it feels like a manhole cover that would lead to a lot of less palatable 'traditional' values.

There's an SDP candidate standing in my constituency but so far he's refused to do any interviews or debates on local radio/television, hasn't canvassed or put up any posters, so maybe they're relying on people listening to The Rest is History podcasts about the 1970s to garner support?

Waving to you @GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat from up the road to you. Our constituency has been re-drawn, and what has been a safe Tory seat for decades seems to be the big prize for the LibDems, considering the amount of crap literature they keep putting through my letterbox, and the time bloody Ed Davey has spent here during this election period (he was driving around the common in a pink Cadillac with your MP yesterday, the bloody prat). Happily told the LibDem canvassers to do one the other day, I am so angry at the sight of them and their tinkly laughs and denials when you mention TR activism within their party.

Our old Tory MP (who is standing in what used to be part of my constituency) is someone I have mixed feelings about. Basically a good guy, but I sent him many letters about the GRC, and got nothing of substance back, just a form letter really that was full of platitudes and being kind sentiments. He's one of their up and coming stars, and I suspect toes the party line whatever that is rather than having his own principles on the matter. The new Tory candidate has been completely anonymous, I don't know anything about him and I wouldn't vote Tory anyway as things stand.

Lifelong Labour before I started spoiling my ballots a couple of years ago, and from an ethnic minority group. Labour stand no chance here, and it will be a dark day in hell before I vote for them again if they continue down the path they have been following. We do have an SDP candidate, and for all the good it will do, I will be voting for him. He of course has no chance of getting in, but I quite like their policies, and for me it's a protest vote without needing to spoil my ballot.