To explain to me about who to vote for?

[IUseAnyName]

Im confused, i thought I knew who I wanted to vote for, due to me liking their policies, it's not one of the bigger parties.
But then someone local to me said that there's no point voting for a party who don't have an mp in our constituency as it will ruin the chances of them getting in, and it's about the local vote not the national.
I don't mind voting for our local mp, he's very nice and doing really well in our area.
But I would like to vote for the other party, but they don't have an mp in our area so is there any point?
Can someone please explain to me how it all works!
Thanks x

Sorry... Ruin the chances of our local mp getting in.

I thought you could only vote for whoever is running in your area, so if your preferred party doesn't have a candidate then you can't vote for them.

If the party you want to vote for don't have a candidate in your area, then you won't be able to vote for them.

If you like your sitting MP then tbh you might as well vote for them if s/he does well for your area. Unles you completely disagree with their general policies.

If a party doesn't have anyone standing in your area (e.g. SNP in England) then you won't be able to vote for them. That box just won't be there in your ballot.

To get local info, look up your constituency here
www.electionforecast.co.uk/tables/predicted_vote_by_seat.html
and here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies
(similar tables on the Guardian and others) and see what is predicted for your area.

If the vote is solidly to one party, then it is unlikely that your one vote will change that, so you could go for the smaller party if you prefer their policies

If the vote is very close, then it really does matter. In my area, the seat was won by 42 votes last time. So vote for who you really want in government (at a national level).

In some seats, it pays to be strategic. If A is on 45%, B is on 44% and C is on 11%, then voting for C won't do much. You might not think B is great, but if you hate A, then your best bet to get rid of them is to vote B.

Thank you all, this is very informative. Esp what you say parie about being strategic?.... I will take a look at the links

Apparently where I live the Tories won by the largest majority in the UK in 2010. William Hague won by 23,336 votes. There are a lot of conservative posters up round here with the odd ukip thrown in. I'm thinking I might be better of voting conservative in the hope that they stay ahead of ukip. I'm not sure if the chance of anyone else getting in though, but as Hague is no longer running you never know.

I'm still deciding though.

It's tough harleen... i've just had a look at the suggested links.
Lib dems are doing well in my area, as are conservatives. But there are quite a few green followers too. I want to vote Green, but now wonder whether I'd be better voting Lib Dems, to push conservative away!