to think your vote matters - but only in some constituencies

[OrlandoWoolf]

Important to vote.

Nice advert telling people your vote matters.

When John Major stood in Huntingdonshire, my vote made no difference at all. He had a massive majority.

We are in a safe tory constituency as well. The only other party in the running is UKIP. The only thing worse than Tory is UKIP. Who do I vote for? I want to vote for labour but that may mean that UKIP get in. But I can't bring myself to vote tory?!

Very secure Labour seat in my constituency, for years.

BUT...I've always voted labour and this is the first time ever I think I'm voting Conservative. DH too. So we can't be the only ones...crossing my fingers anyway.

Secure Conservatibe seat here. I will bite as I would never give my tacit consent to any govt. I want PR. We were told it would bring weak, coalition govt. We have that anyway. PR all the way.

Absolutely sooty

Thats why don't you spoil your paper then? At least it shows you've turned out.

YANBU, if the Labour Party put forward a dead rabbit as a candidate people around here would vote for it

Yanbu true blue round here. The saying goes even if you pinned a blue rosette on a donkey people would vote for it! I will vote labour, as always.

I am in a safe Lib Dem seat, but they are a constant presence 12 months a year, not just when the elections happen. They are the only representative to knock my door to ask who we are going to vote for. Locally, they do amazing things.....nationally, I'm tempted to vote for another party as they just don't cut it, ( although my dh bears a very strong resemblance to Nick Clegg ).

Voting, even when it seems pointless, can change seats over time. As that huge majority becomes a bit smaller each time.

I'm in a bind, i don't like the Tories, but I don't trust Labour. I think I'll end up voting for the genuinely local candidate. And I'll tell canvassers that. Because if no-one tells them it matters, how will they know it does?

Safe home counties tory seat here. My vote is genuinely worthless. Whether i vote , spoil my ballot or don't bother will not make any difference. PR is the only way to get a government that truly reflects the will of the people. We were offered a poor version of it before and predictably the establishment used their influence with the press to keep the status quo that gets them elected every few years, guaranteed.
I can't stand UKIP but how can it be right that they will probably get double figures percentage vote and about 10 seats. It works in Germany but it is too unstable/ we are too stupid to have it!

Yanbu I live in a marginal seat, a handful of votes in it one year.

However on the flip side - what do I do if my local candidate i prefer to be my mp is not the party I want to win??

I'm apparently in a Con/Lib marginal according to the Tory propaganda that arrived this morning - "A vote for the Lib Dems is a vote Ed Milliband as PM" . Why don't you tell me about your OWN party?!

All you Labour supporters do realise that under PR UKIP would have around 100 MPs. No doubt you would all be screaming how "unfair" it is.

This is not about Labour - I am sure that people living in Labour areas feel the same.

615 MPs- should the number of MPs reflect the vote in the country?

15% UKIP - so about 80 MPs.

In the 1983 (I think) election the Tories won a majority of seats but in terms of votes got a lot less which is still talked about and historically makes a point even though it didn't at the time. And it did weaken their mandate.

Labour always win in my seat but I intend to vote Tory as a protest vote anyway.

It doesn't make any difference anywhere. The establishment will be in power whether Labour, Conservative or LibDems win. Only a fool wouldn't realise this.

YANBU.

Alan Duncan is our MP. He has over a 25% majority. He couldn't give a flying fuck about some of his constituents, or the young people around here. DS2 went on a school trip to the House of Commons, he was supposed to be running a Q&A session with them. He couldn't even be bothered to turn up. Absolute waste of space.

Do you still live in Huntingdonshire? I've just done a quick wiki on the constiuency. Yes, it's 'true blue' - but at the last election the Conservative candidate won with 26,516 votes, the next closest was the Lib Dem candidate with 15,695 votes - but around 24,000 people on the electoral roll did not vote! If those 24,000 people had turned out and voted LibDem, or Labour (who got around 5,000 votes), the result would be different.

The problem in seats where the same party have been returned over and over is people get like you are now, they don't see that it's perfectly possible for someone else to win. Little effort is put into winning these people who don't bother to vote, and lots of people who would vote for the other 2 main parties don't bother because what's the point, the party who always wins will win - and then they do.

Some people vote in a tribal way, they have voted for a particular party their whole life, their family all vote that way, that party is who they feel should represent them, increasingly that's not the case anymore, the old ties to any party are reducing and there's a lot to be played for.

Of course, in a very rich consituency, you'll find that the Tory policies are most likely to be the ones that will best serve the consituents, in a poorer consituency Labour's policies are more likely to be the ones that best serve the consituents, so even if people do judge freshly each time, then the people living there are likely to pick the same party again, that doesn't mean they have been 'sheep-like' in voting for who they've always voted for, and could be swayed by another party if the other party was the in their best interest.

If you take the attitude 'I live in a safe Tory seat there's no point voting for Labour' they'll never get in. So called safe seats don't stay that way forever... attitudes and demographics shift. Take Clegg's Sheffield Hallam seat. Til the nineties it was proper weigh the vote, elect a pig in a blue rosette Tory safe seat. Clegg's won it and held it comfortably. Now thanks to widespread disgust with Clegg's for shilling for the Tories, it may go labour. Also ask my Labour MP who has a massive majority how comfortable she feels,there's been unbroken run of labour mps in the seat since the 1920s and she is a racing certainty to loose her seat to the SNP in a few week's time.

The party you support might not win this time, but if they put up a good showing, the more and more people will see them as viable, more resources will be devoted to contesting the seat and the party will select better candidates. The only way to ensure a safe seat remains a safe seat is to not bother.

YANBU. An unshaved chimp with the right coloured rosette would still be ushered in for my constituency. There has not been a change of incumbent in the last 4 elections and the current MP has garnered almost 50% of the turnout each time. I see almost no canvassers so can rarely even say face to face what I feel. Although admittedly there are other ways.

I would love to be where there is a real chance of change (eg 54 and 42 seat majorities) so that the candidate was actually made to work for the chance to represent their constituency and continue to do so after election. So why will I vote anyway? Well amongst other things, I have been in countries where the locals cannot and realise how fortunate I am, by voting I will still shout and still be involved even if from afar and I am setting an example. Who knows, I might one day make a change. In addition, there are local elctions going on and I know I can make a difference there.

And voting does matter - you can't really complain if you do not take part. Maybe 'The Establishment' will still be in power but its colour does make a difference to the policies pursued - locally, nationally and internationally. Perhaps only a fool wouldn't realise that.

Where I live only elderly people seem to vote and it's had the same Tory MP for about twenty years (not really that long but it seems like it) but I still have to vote against them anyway.