Urgh! I will still live in a tory seat, how to make peace with that?

[BusyCM]

150 years of Conservatives here, no chance of Labour getting in. Closest competitor is Lib Dems but still a huge gap. Though we do have Lib dem councillors in now which was a shock last year so maybe I should put my vote there?

And no I can't move house!

Same here, safe Conservative seat and it’s usually the Lib Dems that come second but the Labour candidate looks like a reasonable guy. Our Tory MP is awful and unpopular enough that she might find herself ousted.

I’m going to keep an eye on the tactical voting sites to see where best to put my vote.

@Auburngal

Someone suggested that voting should stop at the age of 75, as can't do jury service after 75 due to diminishing thinking. If that was applied in June 2016, we would still be in the EU as every over 75 I knew voted Brexit. My DF is 75 and asked him would it bother him if he wasn't able to vote again. It wouldn't.

So take away the right to vote from old people?

Honestly this place.

Having recently been treated by the nhs I would hugely disagree they are no used to anybody.

Was this an emergency admission or routine/waiting list care?

Because I think the standard between the two is huge on the NHS.

In one of the marginals 2 miles away that can change the political direction. Currently it's Tory and actually, although the Govt is a shower of shit, the MP has been very helpful when I needed to bring them in on something.

Marginals just mean we get infested by bloody politicians for the next couple of months and we already had the prospective Labour guy knocking on the door a month or so ago getting round the houses early.

We had the chance to vote for PR and fluffed it - so we have to live with what we've got until we get that chance again.

Good at some stuff, failing at others - hell my team are consistently good, low waiting lists for my professional discipline, positive views from those we work with... but other teams in the same Trust are bloody chaos and there are some huge difficulties with the embedded culture on some wards.

We're in massive recruitment restrictions though - currently our team is running at 45% vacancy rate and staff morale is dropping through the floorboards as we are simply running absolutely ragged trying to maintain the service we offer, keep the waiting times as low as possible (because if we don't see people in a timely manner, our client group are likely to spiral and escalate) and just stay sane. We're also massively impacted by the difficulties in accessing good quality social care placements for people which means people stay in inappropriate placements and the shit hits the fan essentially.

I stay in the post because I love the job and client group - but it's battering the shit out of my mental health now.

It is a strange quirk of our political system that a relatively small proportion of the electorate are constantly targeted due to the demographics of their constituency.

I’ve always lived in a safe seat constituency and as a result I’ve never had a single person from any party knock on my door even once. I’ve never seen anyone campaigning in town and usually don't even receive a single political leaflet through the door.

I understand why this is as it would be a poor use of campaigning resources for any party to spend heavily in safe seat areas but it is weird when you see politicians on the news doing door to door campaigning. I’d love a Labour candidate to I knock on my door and discuss the VAT proposal on school fees!

I notice you haven't answered the question though.

Why can't you choose where you live?

OP is under no obligation to answer this. Perhaps she works for a government science facility that only exists at one place in the country. Perhaps she is a military doctor on base and doesn’t get to choose where she lives. Perhaps she is in negative equity and unable to sell her house.

Why do you need to know the specifics of her living situation to comment on a political post?

Me too.

It's grim but I find the edge is taken off by a lovely big pair of these, best worn at the village fetes and delightful cream teas in the leafy pub garden....

Fuck the Tories Hoops | Topple And Burn

Safe seats can be overturned. Look at Scotland. In the 2010 GE Labour had 41/59 seats in Scotland (and had been the leading party in Scotland since 1945), in the 2015 GE they had 1/59, and the SNP had 56/59.

Proportional representation will not solve the issues, again, look at Scotland where PR was introduced for the Scottish Parliament. People changed the way they voted and the SNP has been in power since 2007.

Half the people in Scotland don't support the SNP and yet in both the FPTP and PR systems the country is dominated by the SNP.

Under proportional representation UKIP would have had around 80 MP’s in 2015 as they had just over 12% of the vote. I’m in a key marginal that swings constantly so have lived under both. I just don’t let it get to me.

I just looked at the volunteering opportunities for Labour near me - out of curiosity really. Although my own constituency is firmly blue it seems a neighbouring constituency only needs a marginal swing to go Labour. So i might actually volunteer there instead. You can try that - it won't help your immediate community but if a neighbouring area goes Labour it could have a long term affect on your area, and would benefit the wider community.

How rude. I was simply asking what factors were preventing you from moving in case they could be overcome. Most people can relocate it might take some creative thinking but its doable.

The negative equity is the only one of those that ultimately prevents them moving. The others she can do something about.

I mean they've saved my life so that was handy

Same here. Think it maybe the safest one in the UK. Bloody farmers.

A Labour government benefits the wider community? I’ve read more believable fairytales at bedtime to my 3 year old.

We’re in the same boat, except it’s Labour. Our MP is useless, years of endless criticism about him on the local FB page, but it’s a safe seat and those who voted for him in the last election will vote for him in the upcoming one because they are life long, dyed in the wool Labour supporters. I suppose, as far as they are concerned, an effectual, self serving Labour MP is preferable to one from any other party.

Oh
My
God

<gives up on humanity>

At local council level our councillors are stymid because the cabinet makes decisions behind locked doors. I expect our MPs are kept in the dark too. We're not really in a democracy.

Sounds exactly like where I live. Even tacticalvoting.com has opted out of our constituency as the polls for second place keep flip-flopping between Lib Dem and Labour.