to wonder if there is any point in voting in a "safe seat" area?

[Jollyphonics]

Where I live is a safe Conservative seat. I would prefer a Labour government, but when it comes to policies I find I agree a lot with the Greens. So I can't decide who to vote for.

Basically my vote will have no impact on the outcome as it is a super-safe Tory seat, but I have always voted and I believe strongly in the importance of voting, so I will definitely vote.

What I'm wondering is this - does the successful candidate take any notice of the wishes of the constituents, by looking at which candidate came second and taking that into account when voting in parliament? If lots of people voted Green, might the Tory MP think "ooh my constituents obviously value Green issues so I'll lean slightly in that direction" or do they think "woohoo the power is mine and they all love what I'm doing already"?

Any thoughts?

DayLillie

same here. Local councillors are Tory, but all work hard and I have no problem voting for them.

If they want to take that as support for their parliamentary candidate, so be it. I didn't design the system .

Research today out from BMG shows most people think in the event of a hung parliament, the party with the most votes should get the chance to form a government. So even in safe seats, increasing your preferred party's share of the vote will help them this time.

It's an awful system - like you I'm stuck in a definite Tory seat, and he's an MP who has made quite clear that he doesn't give a toss a bout his constituency. But it's a wealthy area, so he gets back in anyway.
I will still vote Green, in the hope that a gradual increase in numbers of people voting for them will send a message to the new government. I have previously felt forced to vote tactically, rather than for who I actually want, and that's depressing too.
Roll on proportional representation.

Roll on proportional representation.

the irony is, we probably wouldn't be facing such an uncertain outcome if ConLab hadn't done their damnedest to scupper the AV referendum back in 2012.

When David Cameron/Ed Miliband are looking at the results on Friday. Where one of them will have more seats, while the other has more votes, I hope they realise it's partly - if not greatly - their doing. FPTP is just about tenable in a 2/3 party system. As we are seeing, it falls apart when more parties get on board.

I suspect, whatever the outcome, the issue of electoral reform (which in 2012 we were told was "done and dusted for a generation") will suddenly become a burning issue .

I am in the same boat and there is no way that the current Tory MP will lose his seat but I assume that my tiny voice will be heard nationally for all the reasons that Lurking mentioned.

Its a very Tory area here, lots of Conservative flags up and my 7 year old came home from school the other day telling me that David Cameron was an excellent prime minister so we should let him keep him job. I did put her straight :)

Definitely worth voting with your beliefs even in safe seats.

It all goes in the national statistics, and presumably when more than 50% of the population is voting for someone other than who got in, we will get a PR system!

and presumably when more than 50% of the population is voting for someone other than who got in, we will get a PR system!

In the 1951 General election, Labour recieved about 230k more votes than the Tories but got 26 fewer seats.
Liberals had around 730k votes and others 200k.
Tories formed government with a 17 seat majority.

The Labour share of the GB vote was 49.4%, Conservative's was 47.8%

We didn't get near a PR system even then.

Also in 1951 Labour got nearly 14 million votes - (the most votes for a single party ever until 1992.) But still lost the election

Yes, we have had more votes for parties who do not get in. I remember the hours of time at school we spent debating the first past the post v proportional representation issue. My geography teacher (a Liberal) was not surprisingly very keen on proportional representation.

It's only 87 years since all women over the age of 21 got the right to vote in the UK. That for me is enough reason to vote, even if it's a protest vote or you think it won't count

I'm the opposite here. Very safe London labour seat (the sitting mp has nearly 50% of the vote). The current mp has retired after 20 years of service and there is no way that the labour candidate won't get in. However I would prefer tory or lib dem. I do find it very frustrating knowing that locally my vote won't really count for much (particularly as I'm right at the edge of the constituency and three doors down the road is another constituency which is tory/labour marginal! However I will most definitely be voting for all the reasons already said on this thread, particularly as if (as looks likely) there is another hung parliament then national votes might count for something even if they won't make much of a difference locally.