Tactical voting to keep out the Greens

[HeadDeskHeadDesk]

On my facebook feed I keep getting stuff coming up on local community pages showing me that the only way in my small city to keep out Reform is to vote for the Greens.

They show a graph that shows Reform in the lead, with the Greens very closely behind, then trailing way behind that is Labour, with the Conservatives barely registering at the bottom.

I am a natural but disillusioned Tory. I might well have voted Reform anyway, with a sense of sadness and bewilderment that it's come to this, but in the belief that a drastic change is what's needed right now and Reform are the only people brave enough to deliver it.

However, thanks to the Greens and their little graph, I've just realised that a vote for the Tory candidate in my area is a complete and utter waste of time anyway. I absolutely must vote Reform simply to keep the lunatics out. My city is full of lefty academics and alternative types at the best of times and has always been a Labour stronghold, but while Labour are sinking like a brick, it looks like my city has gone full-on 'Green, Trans Rights, No borders, Eat The Rich, Queers for Palestine' mental.

Even if I wanted to vote Labour I daren't. I'd still have to vote Reform just to keep the Greens out. No fewer than FOUR of the wards in my area have trans identified men as Green candidates. One of them is only 19 and leads with the information that they are autistic and like cats. WTAF can they possibly know about how to run a local government? And because they are in a ward with lots of students they stand a chance of winning. It's terrifying.

I am forever grateful to the Green party for bringing me round to the need for tactical voting. I shall definitely be doing that, just not in quite the way they hoped.

You're very funny. If you want incompetent 19 year olds in post, Reform do supply those. They're also fabulous at promising council tax cuts and then raising council tax to the max. But you do you.

I very much get the intent to keep the greens out but if we all end up voting against something we're just going to get more of what we already have - parties in power that nobody actually likes because no-one is for them.

Whilst the greens are particularly loony, some of their bigger ideas, like men can become women, open borders and huge welfare spending, are at least partially endorsed by Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, Plaid - and even by some in Reform and the Tories.

Personally, unless you really like a party leader, I'd just research all the candidates and pick the one that seems the best, irrespective of what party they are standing for.

The Greens are great at some things but terrible on womens rights
I’d tactically vote to stop them gaining power but with only Reform left as a viable option that’s a really hard one. I wouldn’t want them in either

Well that's all very nice, except at the moment it would be a completely wasted vote. Which was the point of the thread. This is an existential crisis of sorts. I feel far, far more motivated to keep the Greens out than I feel strongly about putting anybody else in.

The OP says one of the Green candidates in their area is a cross-dressing 19 year old who's main selling point is he is autistic. How can Reform possibly be worse than that?

Well it's not actually that hard for me, but even if it were, I'd feel there was no choice at the moment.

I get that - I voted for a candidate at the last GE who got something like 200 votes.

But unless it's a tie or there's one vote in it, all votes are wasted.

I absolutely must vote Reform simply to keep the lunatics out

That's an oxymoron if ever I read one 😂
Reform are the lunatics 😁

I am not a fan of the Greens and likely won’t vote for them, but I would rather shit in my hands and clap than vote for reform.

If I had a choice of Greens or Reform then I would vote Reform. The Greens are student politics at their worst.

Open borders for anyone with various immediate 'rights' for those people
Tax the rich. What does that even mean? The billionaires and even strong millionaires will leave. Some already have! They are highly mobile and not living next door to their Mum who does their washing and who they cannot possibly leave

What is a women?

No private landlords

Leave NATO

A leader who looks like he has slept in his clothes and has bad teeth. Its clearly a look tht works for him. Claiming to be Jewish but downplays any attacks on the Jewish Community. He previous role was an actor (not I havent heard of him either!)

I will vote for anyone to keep out the Greens. Anyone. If that means I have to vote for this current shower, then so be it.

I’m in exactly the same position as you, OP.
The Greens frighten me more than Reform.

I voted Green for decades. Not any more
In a choice between Green and Reform, I would just have to spoil the ballot.

YANBU.

I absolutely must vote Reform simply to keep the lunatics out.
🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂
ever heard that phrase "pot calling the kettle black"

The irony is that people on the left have invested years in trying to convince us that Reform are the fascists, the Nazis.Yet which party frightens British Jews the most, currently?

There is a very calculated and orchestrated campaign of the most vile and insidious antisemitism from the Greens. They think all the world's problems could be solved by cutting Jews and 'billionaires' down to size. They have groomed, snake charmed and brainwashed huge numbers of impressionable young people with their ideological claptrap, just like the Nazis did.

My Green candidate is more the old school Green. I feel sorry for him having to justify open door immigration and legalising drugs when he clearly disagreed with it. I won't vote for him as I need to vote Tory or Lib Dem to keep Reform out. No way in a million years will I vote Green in a General Election and give them the opportunity to be part of a coalition. I would say I wonder how Zack Polanski feels being a human shield for rampant anti semitism but he's probably too busy watching himself on telly.

We got 3 votes in my postal vote. I voted for the 3 candidates who look like they will bring the most to the table as councillors based on their own professional history, age etc. Our council is desperate for good people. Forget the parties behind it all and vote for the best people that your council needs. For example, in my area it was someone who used to be a head teacher and another an NHS consultant. Just do not vote for bullshitters who have zero skill.

Speaking of which:

When they get into office, rather than the privileged position of being the annoying mosquito that buzzes around those actually in power and having to carry out policy, I doubt the Greens will be any better than current office holders.

Ditto for Reform.

I sympathise @HeadDeskHeadDesk - we probably live in the same city, although I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Labour voter. The Greens will be appalling in power, as they will not be able to make the pragmatic, horrible brutal decisions (fund care homes or SEND education??) that need to be made.

And they don't know what a woman is, and think every Jew deserves to be subject to Hamas/Hezbollah - which is what "from the river to the sea" means.

I'm going to stolidly vote Labour - given the awful awful choices we have, I'm going to follow my heart as well as my rational view (although my local Labour MP doesn't know what a woman is either).

Oh, and I have in the past voted Green. When they actually cared about locdal environmental issues.

I also voted for the Women's Party, back in the day ...

Losing my rights and protections as a woman is too much to give up so I won’t vote Labour

@Stirabout I know ... but I cannt vote for Reform or the Tories, I just can't, for all sorts of other reasons.

I think it's like the situation when voting for Labour during/after the 2nd Iraq war: "hold your nose and vote Labour for the greater good."

It's not ideal, but we are where we are, and I'm sick of purity spirals.

There are many women whom I admire who will say that, in spite of everything, the value & benefit to the nation is greater.

I’d vote for the cat lover.

I do know what you mean
ive winced as I’ve put my cross in before

I suppose growing up in a staunch Labour family it was always the go to
But I don’t that anymore and for me the best of a bad lot is now the Conservatives 🤷‍♀️

Im just glad at least I have more of a choice unlike OP