Which issues are the ones likely to swing a general election result ?

[Georgeduhamel]

Seems to be a big difference in real life outside MN and MN.
Most people I know are frustrated by the state of public services and the lack of money despite sky high taxes. Local schools are falling apart, NHS non functioning despite best efforts of the staff and our town centre is now reminiscent of an East European backwater in the 1970s with barely any shops and homeless folk on every corner. We also have a particularly inept Tory MP so I anticipate people will want to get rid of him.
Which things will affect your vote ? What’s most important ? In some respects I guess it depends on your personal situation and where you live. Leafy affluent home in Surrey life might not have changed, council estate in Rochdale you might be more eager to get rid of the current lot in government.
On MN, maybe understandably, gender ideology and labour’s uncertain stance seems to be a hot topic but does that trump the cost of living crisis or the lack of GP appointments or 24 hour delays in A/E ?
Fwiw I’m in agreement with most of the GC arguments but that won’t influence my vote for Labour.

For most swing voters choosing Labour, I'd assume that they are voting for Labour because they aren't the Tories or the SNP. I don't think their policies (or lack of) will play a major part in their success in the next election.

I think they will have policies. Why wouldn’t they. No opposition party has gone into a GE without a manifesto.

• the economy
• schools
• housing
• crime
• gender bullshit/discrimination against women
• VAT on school fees

We have a LD MP and she's very good as an advocate for our area, but I don't agree the LD stance on many things, particularly that they think men are women if they say so. Here, it's a choice between LD or Con. I will be voting Con.

I think many people will feel disenfranchised. Most people want the Tories out, but Labour are struggling to put together coherent policies that appeal. Theres no other party that has any credibility.

I imagine there will be spoiled ballot papers too.

From my point of view, women's sex-based rights, taxation (we shouldn't be giving tax breaks to higher earners at the expense of the lower-paid), and last but not least, the integrity and honesty of policiticans - well, I can dream!!!

It’s difficult because I agree with the OP that a lot of people are worried about funding in the NHS and education ( and possibly also social care). However, I don’t personally think Labour has made a case for how they’re going to resolve those things. The UK is not a low tax economy as it is. There are structural issues ( demographics) that make it increasingly hard to fund these from taxing the working population. I feel like Labour need to be more imaginative with some of these big issues. Eg I don’t think in person secondary school necessarily needs to be a thing for kids who would prefer online. It would certainly be cheaper to deliver and I think it’s worth exploring, even if the conclusion is it’s unworkable.

While there will undoubtedly be a nationwide-swing towards Labour, in terms of securing a majority, the most impactful thing will be the collapse of the SNP.

Issues are irrelevant. Our political system is broken. We are almost all disenfranchised. Forced to choose between only two parties in government. Locked into a binary, confrontational system. It’s just shit.

Yup.

And it’s not the lack of other options, it’s the fact that other options have no place in our current system.

I find it quite mad that from 1997-10 we had the closest we’ve ever come as a nation to political consensus and now that political ground has been effectively abandoned by both parties. Possibly it was of it’s time and Blair got lucky with the geopolitical background but even so…

In terms of the general population, the perception of immigration being to blame for all our ills will probably get the Tories back in

This sums it up perfectly in my area too.

I haven't heard of any Labour policies other than keep what is already there (tax), and damage private schools. including all the non-fashionable ones that are educating SEN kids.

Keir Starmer backs anti-semites until the outcry makes it clear that's not acceptable, and then he changes his mind. Labour promised environmental investment and have now changed their minds. Honestly, the man has the backbone of an amoeba.

We badly need change but anyone who thinks Labour will deliver it is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Yeah- I’ve always been a bit agnostic about PR as worried about weak coalitions and nothing getting done and also possibly extreme parties getting representation but I’m more in favour now.

NHS, public services and environment. I would support higher taxes and prefer Scandi system of fantastic childcare, health care etc in return for higher taxes to make life fairer for all, also reduce mental healthproblems which seem endemic.

Will vote labour but don’t really like them, prefer Greens on most issues except men in safe spaces, but they never get in so despairing and really really wanting to see a fairer society with less gap between rich and poor. Unfortunately live in Toryland😞

Correct

For me its not about tax though, we need 3 clear things

A mass social housing building programme, to build 5 million social housing properties, without getting rid of more under right to buy
A mass programme of school provision particularly SEN specialist schools (this is against the current ideology about inclusion so this wont be agreed)
A mass programme of re training/procuring GPs, dentists and NHS staff with a focus on preventative health care, not crisis led health care (this is also not possible due to the way GPs and dentists are commissioned)

If Labour had a programme for all of those things and talked about it clearly, loudly, consistently, its realistic, there were timescales, and it was costed out, I would be over the moon

Instead they're falling over themselves about identity politics and bullshit.

I would also vote for any party that had a clear plan to re join the EU

Housing crisis
Wealth inequality
Dire state of public services
High tax rates on working families due to the tories’ child benefit/childcare removal removing the incentive to take a better paying job

A mass programme of re training/procuring GPs, dentists and NHS staff with a focus on preventative health care, not crisis led health care (this is also not possible due to the way GPs and dentists are commissioned)

This is already underway - not before time! https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/

We have an excellent Labour MP in our constituency. I'm more than happy to vote for her.

Yes on this.

Which is a big shame as given the opportunity to do something beyond a gimmicky and damaging VAT tax they could actually have policies which change things and likely still get in.

Well what I mean is that scans/tests etc should be the thing that happens quickly and as a priority, annual health checks, measurements of levels being changed so that people dont have to be severely ill before getting treatment (thinking about various deficiencies where our thresholds are very differnet to other countries)

The thing is, the various wealth tax and politics of envy are popular talking points but they dont solve the actual problems

I dont think we're particularly low or high tax, I dont think tax needs to be fiddled with,w e have more than enough resources to make sure that people have affordable housing, that transport costs are lowered, that there are school places, that NHS waiting lists reduce

Its about how its used. The tories just use social income to prop up private business and socialise any losses.

This doesn't just require extra workforce but further investment in infrastructure - but it's certainly something I would support.

I think incumbent parties are being booted out across the world. I’m staggered that anyone could think we could close the world for two years, spend billions paying the world’s wages while producing nothing and there’d be no economic effect. So everywhere there is an election, people want a change but I don’t think it will make a difference. It will take decades to get over COVID.

That said, these are the things I would vote in but neither side will deliver …

1/. a sensible plan for the NHS. The boring and frankly incorrect bleat that the Tories are starving the NHS of money is quite frankly ridiculous. It cost 283 Billion a year for a population of 7 million. That’s 4K per person!! It is the 4 largest employer in the world (for a tiny island!!) 1 in every 11 people in the country and still it’s not enough. It’s fucking ridiculous and throwing more money down the bottomless pit is pointless. I want proper genuine reform. If most of Europe can make a part pay/part state system work, then we should be able to

2/ PFI - I find it totally scandalous that there hasn’t been a public enquiry into this. Labour literally sold the country off to the worst of the private sector. The horizon scandal and RAAC concrete scandal are just two of the utter disasters of this policy. Alaistair cambell actually admitted on his podcast that the Blair government could never have afford the expenditure they made if they hadn’t of used PFI. At one point they were signing of 60 a year!! They’ve saddled the country with billions of debt that we are still paying now (e.g. the nhs is paying off 80 billion for an investment of 13 billion!!). It needs to stop. I’m pretty sure any court would agree the contracts are a fucking rip off given the total shit they delivered. It needs ceasing immediately.

3/. social care - a proper policy that doesn’t see people loose there shit that the older generation which is currently the most well off might have to collectively pay a little more to look after them. I thought it was such a shame the press killed off Theresa May’s ‘dementia tax’ It was a really sensible partial solution

4/. Education- totally fragmented due to stupid academisation non plan (although started by Labour, this is totally a Tory fuck up). No system design just random trusts springing up with no sense. Either bring it back to LA control or don’t and make it an academy system that actually works economically and geographically.

They are my first three!! As they won’t happen from either party, it seems pointless to continue!!

Im talking about a number of different things though

Yes there is a need for extra workforce, we dont have enough GPs and dentists and there are over 100k vacancies in the NHS

The infrastructure issues need investment on top of that as you say

I live in a town with Braverman as an MP.

The town has become broken, crime risen and she's racist.

I will once again not be voting for her.

I'm hoping at some point the "I'm alright Jack" people from the affluent areas of our constituency will join forces!

I personally think all the current parties are as bad as each other, but think we do need a change in government so will probably vote LibDem as they’re the only party who stand a chance against the Tories here.

I’d actually like to see another coalition as at least then people have to talk to each other rather than just spouting bullshit to appeal to their core voter base in swing seats and ignoring the majority