To think the tide may be turning...

[Goldenhandshake]

Apparently under twenty fives have been registering to vote in high numbers, assuming because lots of Tory policies have hit this age group negatively. AIBU to feel optimistic that they will turn out to vote and possibly prove the poll predictions wrong?

Any under 25's here who have registered with this intention?

Good for them! This vote will effect 18-25 age group future as much as anyone else so

God, I hope not Do you think your vote is somehow more superior? If people age 18-25 or infact any age want to vote labour, lib dem etc that is the choice they are entitled to make just as you are entitled to make your choice.

I'm not surprised based on social media. I'm 22 and my friends who've said for the last 4 years "I'm not voting, there's no point, nothing changes" are registering to vote and intending to tactical vote Lib Dem or Labour depending on the area, anything to keep the Tories out.

I don't know what it is about this election that has spurred a sudden political awakening in some young people, but it's not a bad thing. I just wish it had happened before the Referendum.

I can't understand not voting at all. I was so excited to vote when I turned 18. I, like many others, get frustrated by the prospect of wasted votes and feeling like it's a choice between bad alternatives rather than a positive affirmative choice but I still can't imagine not exercising that right at all. I'm surprised that so few young people vote when there are so many ramifications for them.

@NoYouDontKnowItAll

@Pinkheart5915

I didn't for a second say they shouldn't have a vote. In fact, I said "Of course I do [think they should have a vote].

The idea of 16 year olds voting doesn't strike me as a good but when you're an adult, you should have a vote. How many 16 year olds make good decisions. I work with children of all ages and 16 is not a time renowned for mature decision making and nor should it be.

I think mine is the correct way to vote and I'm sure you think yours is too. I didn't say my vote is more superior. My vote now is much more intelligently cast than when I was 18 but I'm not everyone.

anything to keep the Tories out.

Yes, it worries me that the illinformed are jumping on a bandwagon and we'll end up with a moron running the country purely because anti-Tory sentiment is fashionable amongst many. Not those who could be bothered to vote before so I do suspect the lazy supporters may do the same as during the Brexit referendum and not bother, simply mouth-off on social media.

of course there wouldn't be any need for vote swapping and progressive alliance game playing if everyone's vote counted in the first place!

Bring on PR and we can ditch this nonsense forever.

in 2015 25% of the voters picked parties that ended up with 1.5% of the seats.

The labour vote share went UP from the previous GE, but they lost 26 seats.

If you want any further evidence of the bullshit that is any other system than PR, look to America where the ever impressive Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a mile.

Shame they didn't get off their arses and vote in The Referendum

@Hoppinggreen I did; and voted remain. As did 99.9% of my friends in my age group.

Agree about PR.

I think 16 year olds should have the vote.

I hope youngsters help rid us of the Tories.

Whoever we get won't be a moron.

I always vote but yes am registering to vote labour and a lot of my peers (I'm in under 25 category) are doing too.

I hope they'd voted in the EU ref tbh. The horse has bolted.

We currently have a "moron" running the country. I am pleased if more 18 - 24 vote as it's good for democracy.

Yes, it worries me that the illinformed are jumping on a bandwagon and we'll end up with a moron running the country purely because anti-Tory sentiment is fashionable amongst many.

Yes, I'm sure it has nothing to do with those Tory policies that are killing the disabled, punishing the poor for being born poor and selling off bits of the NHS to their rich buddies. Nah, just a fashion statement.

And yes, how awful that we could end up with a moron running the country. They could end up doing something monumentally stupid like charging blindly into an unknown situation with no real plan, and then calling an election instead of focusing on putting together some kind of plan, and then refusing to participate in any debates surrounding the election because they're so confident their party will win.

Thank goodness that will never happen, eh?

It's a shame (and the thing I can't forgive the Lib Dems for) that when they got into the coalition they didn't force a vote for proportional representation instead of the wish washy Alternative vote referendum we ended up with.

However, this was still better than nothing. Only 32% vote yes to it in 2011. Everyone calling for PR now seems to have forgotten that referendum. You had your chance, that ship has sailed. And no one else (apart from me) ever seems upset that the LIb Dems didn't give us the PR referendum.

There were a lot of constituencies where there was only a small margin between Labour and Coservative. If they all swung back to Labour there would be no Tory majority in government.
I just wish that Jeremy Corbyn would talk about things that matter like the privatisation of the NHS and education (stop it) and the renationilisation of the railways (when the franchises run out) and not about extra holidays or increases in the minumum wage which would make life even more difficult for small businesses.
I think that government subsidies to privately run companies are going straight into shareholders' pockets and don't benefit customers.

It's going to need a lot of under 25s in my area, in the last election the torys got 20000 more than the next nearest candidate. I wish the campaign for PR had been better explained & more people had thought about voting for it

30. Not going to vote Labour as I think the party is in utter shambles. Could not face having a party in shambles lead us through complex Brexit negotiations.

The over 60's are out in force to vote Labour, because of the Tories raising the state pension age by six years, without sufficient notice to those who have reached that age. I'm, 62 and have to sign on for job seekers, worked and paid NI since I was 15, I've got 44 years worth of contributions towards my pension but can't claim it.

Some of these comments...

"anything to keep the Tories out", "Don't you like democracy?"

Btw, my spellprediction thing seems to dislike the Tories as well. It keeps trying to correct it to "torries"...?

sorry but I always take these sorts of threads with a very hefty pinch of salt because MN is on the whole a pretty left wing website and the posts on here don't actually reflect what is going on out in the country i.e. not London or the big conurbations at all.

all of me DC who voted in the referendum voted out. they will all be voting conservative in this election and so will a fair number of their friends. cant say exactly how many but the idea that all 25 year olds are anti tory is London claptrap.

None of the parties in this election are that appealing. Corbyn is an aging trot misogynist anti Israel terrorist apologiser who will most likely kill off our arms industry and plenty of jobs with it. May and the tories know that the only way to increase spending on the NHS and education is to raise taxes but are too scared to do it and the Libdumbs - wouldn't trust them to run a whelk stall and being pro- Europe is not what the majority who voted in the referendum wanted.

The tories will win, it wont be by a massive majority, but enough, Libdems will make some significant gains, Labour will ditch Corbyn and get someone Blair lite and the fish woman in Scotland will lose a few seats but not enough to trouble them.

Too many people are seeing this election as a re-run of the referendum. it isn't. I heard corbyn give anti EU speeches in London many years ago and he wants out of Europe as much as the tories do.

We are going out and personally I think May will make a better job of it than the other two.

as for education and the NHS, governments need to stop pissing around with education and exams and get a funding formula that gives an equal amount to every child - then the London lefties will see what the rest of us in rural areas have had to put up with for years. the NHS is no longer fit for purpose. someone like Frank Field needs to get hold of it and re-design it so that it actually works. throwing more and more money at it isn't. so if you keep doing the same thing then you keep getting the same result.

@Morphene

look to America where the ever impressive Donald Trump lost the popular vote by a mile.

That's the system that they have and it's the system he won in. I suspect he'd have adapted his strategy had it been necessary had the system been different.

of course there wouldn't be any need for vote swapping and progressive alliance game playing if everyone's vote counted in the first place!

PR would not work in the UK and when this was voted on 68% wanted to keep voting the way we do. Had you forgotten that electoral reform was put to the people? At the last GE, the Cons would have had an additional 5 seats, Lib Dem 1 more, 5 less for Labour and 2 less for the SNP under AV. So, the Conservatives would have had a larger majority. I suspect that isn't something you like the idea of.

The benefit of voting down electoral reform as an overwhelming majority did, is that the current system gives us moderate government, keeping UKIP, SNP the Greens and other fringe parties out of Westminster.

I actually heard something from Jeremy Corbyn I agreed with the other day about ending outsourcing of services in hospitals and employing staff direct. But everything else, Christ, what on earth is he doing?

Four more Bank Holidays, we already have easter, followed by two in May, then August. Free school meals and cancelling Trident. Well, my eleven year old grandson likes his policies. I absolutely dread what he is going to say next or rather avoids saying.

What I think will happen and I am a cautious person, is that the Conservatives will win, but not with the majority they want. They need a shock as well. Labour will have to get rid of Corbyn or split to a second party like the SDP did when Labour had veered too far left.

I think they will end up with someone like Keir Starmer (sorry misspelling). What is really important is that we get back a good, effective opposition and not a demo party.

But who can second guess anything now - look at France's two candidates. An unknown and untested Macron and Marine LaPen.

I am not voting Tory and neither am I voting Labour or Lib dem, so my choice will be Green

ElsieMc, corbyn will be offering the poor 3 gold bars next!, I have the feeling he will say anything to get people to vote for him!

I an 25, have been registered for vote since I was 18 and have exercised my right to vote every time I have had a chance.
I'd say 70% of my friends have voted at every opportunity too. I'm in London so don't know if that makes a difference.

Annoyingly my DP, who is 30, only just registered to vote after me pestering him. And yes he said that his one vote 'won't make a difference'

I suspect JC might have been saying more, we are just not hearing it in the media...