To really resent living in a safe Tory seat?

[AngeloMysterioso]

My constituency has had the same Tory MP since it's inception 20 years ago- in the 2015 GE he won by a margin of over 8000 votes, 20.9k+ to 12.6k+ votes for the Labour runner up.

I mean I'm going to vote anyway, but part of me is wondering what is the fucking point??

I find the idea that Tory seats are a leafy paradise somewhat odd (I live in a large town close to London which is Tory but has lots of social problems and needs). Vast swathes of England, Tory, or Labour, are run down, pound shop filled, pot holed messes with slashed public services and rapidly increasingly homelessness. Not in every Hampshire or Berkshire village, of course, but never far away. Do people just not see how bad it really is out there?

We may well have Ukip MPs, but at least they would better represent the country.

amicissimma that still wouldn't be enough of a swing to unseat my MP.

Me too op. It's so frustrating.

Some utter rubbish spouted on here!

Some of the poorest most run down towns in the northwest are in Tory majorities! They are not leafy or desirable or anything else but run down and depressing. People are often living in terrible conditions, and surviving week by week. However due to boundary changes you will often find an improverished town tied to swathes of countryside which seem to swing the votes to Tory. It's a ridiculous system and very unfair.

The whole area are now realising how little the torys care about them as they have their school budgets slashed, the schools are being hit the hardest in the country!

I hope people wake up to what they are doing to our public services, our old and are young. I could cry thinking of a Tory future.

I also live in a very safe Tory seat ex Cameron

At the by-election last October the votes were 17,313...LD's 11,611 and Labour 5765

At the previous General Election Tories were 35,201.. so they lost a LOT of votes when Cameron quit

At least you don't live in the speaker's seat.

Your constituency might be a foregone conclusion but at least you are able to put a cross in the box for the party of your choice.

Since 2010 I (and the 80000 other people who live here) have had a choice of:
UKIP
Green
Independent

And that's it!!

Where is run down in the NW and Tory?
I can't think of anywhere, I know I'm probably wrong but what areas are these?

I feel your pain...I lived in a safe labour seat in the 90s...fwiw I still voted though (not labour) despite it not making a difference...the area has become worse and worse....very recently been in the news as where the scum terrorist was brought up/lived...

I moved....& I'm very glad I did!

I wonder if there should be a rule where you can only stand for so many years.

Even a 'wasted' vote goes towards short money en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Money

So it is worth doing.

gillybeanz just a few off the top of my head -Crewe, Runcorn, Warrington, Winsford,Hazel grove - all in different Tory constituencies.
Not saying they are bad places at all but they are all short of investment and run down.

Nuneaton isn't a 'rich' area. Not in the NW though but Midlands.

Two seats in Coventry could turn to Tory. One is in a wealthier area, one not so much.

There are quite a few other examples.

Same op. Last time I vote swapped with a green in a more marginal seat but the Tory still got elected.
But I will still vote.

There is a campaign called "Make votes matter" which is lobbying for a change to the voting system. Can't link on my phone but it should be googleable.

It's true there would have been many UKIP MPs under PR, but at least it would have been representative of how people feel. I suspect some UKIP voters wouldn't have voted that way if they thought it would result in an actual UKIP MP.

Hazel grove is only just Tory this time though - it was lib dem for years. And parts of it really aren't that run down at all!

We should have a Senate elected by proportional representation with a veto on all Bills except Money Bills; so that a Labour or Tory government elected on a minority vote would not have absolute control.

And a more effective EVEL. English noses out of Scots business and vice Verda; minimal side effects being disregarded.

YANBU OP our voting system is a bag of wank.

That's an interesting article, thanks tiggytape. I must say I'm not the most numerate of people so was previously struggling to understand the figures behind it.

So where is the "tipping point" as it were where labour does from being marginal over-represented (as it was in 2015) to being more likely to win with fewer votes? Apologies if I'm still misunderstanding.

We need a system where every vote is equally important. The present system sucks and doesn't encourage engagement from non-voters, especially those in "safe seats."

That being said, I'm sick to the back teeth of various of my friends who become successful and move out of London (usually cheaper Labour strongholds) into leafy Conservative strongholds because it's "so much nicer for the children". Then they bitch about Conservative safe seats.

Yanbu. The Tory MP won here more than 10k votes than the Labour runner up. I will vote even though it'll probably stay Tory.