Who to vote for in General Election?

[Pariswhenitdrizzles]

Aargh.

Would normally vote for Lib Dems (feel like I should apologise for this!), and voted for them in the last two elections. In an ideal world, I'd vote for them or Labour, but I'm not keen on Jeremy Corbyn's (or Tim Farron's) leadership. Really don't want to vote Conservative.

Wondering perhaps about voting for the Women's Equality Party? They seem pretty good, but are still quite a small party.

What does everyone else think?

Have always voted with my heart and always for Lib Dem. Until the last election, where I live was always Lib Dem. But people became complacent and too many Lib Dem supporters didn't bother voting last time because they thought it was in the bag. Now we've got a Tory. Just hoping that we get a really good turnout this time round.

Easy Peasy- SNP.

Don't JUST look back at the 2015 result. Also look at the 2010 result.

BOTH are relevant for different reasons. Its been reflected in all the parliamentary by-elections since the ref in terms of voting patterns.

I will vote Labour. But they have no hope here. The next biggest party is Ukip and i'm certainly not voting for them!

Last time Tories got 32k, Ukip 8k, Labour 7k, Lib Dem 3k, and Green 2k. Even if all the non-tories pooled together they'd still be 12k shy of the Tory vote. The system is utterly meaningless round here.

Ooh GetTheGood - think I've got a pretty good idea of who your MP is I'd vote for him too! I agree about the changing party thing though - now if only he'd consider it!

Red, I've fallen ludicrously behind reading your excellent Westminsterenders threads.

Could I be extremely cheeky and ask for a link to somewhere you've all explained the Great Repeal Bill?

(Or a brief explanation here?)

My tory MP had a 24.5k majority in the last election, and ukip came second. I do actually quite like my MP, he voted against the government in the vote to bomb Syria (one of only seven tory MPs to do so) and he always replies to my emails and letters. I think he's doing a pretty good job overall. But I can't quite bring myself to vote tory, and I'm sure as hell not voting ukip.

I don't want to waste my vote - I'm hoping there'll be a vote swap like last time so I can vote on behalf of someone else here and hope that someone else can vote for me somewhere there's a chance of a party I support getting in. Trouble is I can't decide who to support. Maybe the greens, although I disagree with many of their policies.

Politicians and political parties are mainly awful, that's the trouble.

Easy. Vote for the party you like.

For me, that's Tories.

LibDem for me, I think.

I live in a very safe Conservative seat, but don't want to vote for them and simply cannot vote for the disarray that is Labour. We need a credible opposition an don't have it.

I am also a disaffected remain voter, so they seem to be the only ones who represent my views there. I would ideally like the Brexit process stopped (I know it seems unlikely), but at the very least to move away from hard Brexit.

Oh God this is the hardest election decision ever.

I'm a remainer and usually a labour voter but have strayed enough to consider myself a floating voter.

Labour - I voted labour last time but I do not want to give any mandate to Jeremy Corbyn at all. I do seriously wonder if labour are in any position at all to get the country though Brexit. They currently strike me as a bunch of post graduate students struggling to arrange a piss up in a brewery. We need a healthy, strong economy to fund education and healthcare.

Conservatives - if Brexit has to happen then I actually think they have the best chance or getting their head around it and making it less damaging economically. But I cannot risk my vote being used as a mandate for a total car crash of an education policy and the destruction of the NHS.

All the others seem a total waste and a tactical vote for the Tories.

Feeling powerless.

Spoiled ballots - as someone who has worked at an election count, I can tell you they do get logged. And candidates do see how many there are. So it is very slightly more effective than not voting at all.

However, it does nothing to affect the outcome, so in that sense is useless.

Topseyt I agree with you totally. Those are pretty much my views too.

Looking at statistics from Wikipedia for past general elections for my ward, Harriet Harman's always won the seat but the Lib Dems have always come in second or third place. They did so well in 2010 :(

Pariswhenitdrizzles - the chinless wonder that is Jonathan Lord MP!

In 2015 my conservative MP had a 16% lead over the libdems but in 2010 it was only 0.3%. We're a 'remain' constituency and he voted for A50 so the lib dems might be able to topple him...

I'm someone who also lives in an area where our Tory MP has such a safe seat I'm not sure he actually bothers to campaign anymore. I've not seen nor heard of him doing anything in a while, yet time after time his name is the box and people are voting for him, the very few people who aren't waving a Tory banner are UKIP, I cannot and will not EVER vote UKIP.
I guess I'll throw my vote away again on someone who stands no chance of getting the seat. I feel so disillusioned with everything.

Greens?

I'll be voting for Theresa. always voted LibDem. SO happy I'll be up celebrating at 5am rather than crying :)

Hello squatsbetty - you must be in the same constituency as we have the very ineffective Jonathan Lord too...........

I'll be voting Green. I'm in a pretty safe Labour seat but Greens are gaining ground here in London (and Christ knows someone needs to stop us all dying in the smog!) so I think showing them support is worthwhile.

Always labour due to the values mathing mine. Never ever tory.

I am in a marginal lib Dem / cons

@Capricorn76 I thought I read on a BBC website that spolied ballots were actually counted and therefore recorded, even though they don't count

I wish Chuka or Dan Jarvis were Labour leader but they've both ruled themselves out

Sat here that anyone could 'like' the Tories. Like what? The current government is the most hard-hearted, destructive, unsympathetic, uncaring bunch of fucking arseholes I can remember (and I remember Thatcher).

I've just joined the LibDems, they've also the best chance of kicking the Tories out in my constituency.

Since 1945 all our MPs have been Tory - I mean Andrew Mitchell is still our beloved MP even after the whole Plebgate scandal so I doubt that will change any time soon.

I could vote in my university town but the county have something like a 75% Plaid Cymru lead anyway.

Will be voting Labour (I am a member and a Corbyn supporter) though suspect my vote won't count wherever I decide to cast it.

As if we needed any more uncertainty in 2017

Perking, just about to go out so will find some links later if I can.

The purpose of the Great Repeal Bill is to enshrine all EU law into British law. Not to get rid of EU law.

There are a few issues with this and how it will be implemented that should be looked at closely.

1. There is a white paper but there is no draft bill and a public consultation has been ruled out. This means there will be little input from the public or outside parliament as to what this means. This also means the government can control how much parliamentary time the bill is given to discuss this matter. Why is that important?
2. The idea is the Act will include 'Henry VIII clauses'. Henry VIII clauses hand power from parliament to the executive (government) without the need for parliamentary scrutiny. To simplify: normally parliament make law, but under Henry VIII clauses the government make law without the input of parliament. Ok, so why is that a big worry?
3. The scope and range of the these powers under Brexit is not clear, and looks like they would be particularly wide ranging and potentially not limited. Normally the use of them is small and kept very focused to limit the opportunity and ability for abuses of power. What is being proposed has been described in reports provided by the House of Lords Select Committee as having the potential to lead to these abuses of power. Brexit is such a huge issue that it covers nearly aspect of law. Hence the problem. It undermines the checks and balances within the British democratic system. That's fine I trust May and the current government anyway
4. The trouble is that we do not know what is going to happen in the future and politics is extremely volatile at the moment. Not having an end date on these things and with such a wide remit could mean that if things were to change that you might end up with a government that you don't think can be trusted. If, god forbid, politics were to shift even further to the right in the next ten years or so, this could lead to an illiberal democracy or even dictatorship if someone wanted to exploit this. It is a possibility that should always be taken seriously, even in this country. Beyond that
5. The Great Repeal Act covers so many laws over the last forty years that it will be difficult to cover everything and it leaves open the possibly that we will find laws end up 'falling over' without proper and wide ranging scrutiny of the Bill before it is passed into law. You could have things that end up conflicting with each other because the law has been done in a rush or by people who don't have a good understanding and because there has been no public scrutiny over an idea. This would be a crisis in the law which would not necessarily be easy to resolve.
6. Not only that, but what happens to laws which refer to EU agencies for example? The law is not just about what it says it is but also about who enforces it and how it is implemented.

There are some other issues, but off the top of my head I can't remember them. The point is, that it passes law from the hands of parliament and directly to Theresa May (or any future PM) who can create laws almost by decree if she saw fit, under the justification of Brexit, if there is not proper limitation over Brexit. This could include all your rights: your workers rights, your human rights...

Its important. Its a more significant act of parliament than the triggering of A50 by quite some distance.