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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Anti Brexit - who in the hell do I vote for?

197 replies

Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 05:26

I’m always voted and take it seriously as a civic duty but, for the first time ever, aibu not to bother at the locals this May?

Tories seem intent on a ruinous Brexit that will leave us downing in cheap inports of chlorinated chicken, Labour doing nothing to stop them as they seem to think Brexit is a change to build a socialist paradise. Lib Dems are an irrelevance now as even fewer people vote for them.

Surely I can’t be the only person to feel like this? Where is the stop Brexit party and why is no one demanding one?

OP posts:
gamerwidow · 09/04/2018 08:53

As others have said Lib Dem's are the anti Brexit party which is distracting because FPTP makes it almost impossible to ever form a government.

gamerwidow · 09/04/2018 08:53

*frustrating not distracting!

Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 09:31

Just in response to a few posters I’m very interested in politics although my job doesn’t allow me to be politically active. I know that local politics is about other stuff but I still think Brexit will tank the economy and have a knock on effect of n all the services people complain about. I guess Lib Dems are the way to go

OP posts:
IIIustriouslyIllogical · 09/04/2018 09:38

Brexit is happening, so vote for whoever is best for your area - that's all you can do.

IIIustriouslyIllogical · 09/04/2018 09:40

Lib Dem's are the anti Brexit party

But you'd be a fool to vote for them on that basis - Brexit is going to happen so you'd be better off voting for the party that will do best for your local area rather than one that's only got that one point going for it...

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/04/2018 09:43

When are posters here going to stop moaning and start considering how to make the best of the opportunities that are already opening up?

Barnier et al already have... their "OMG, we'd all best get a wriggle on" statement a few weeks ago marked a change in their rhetoric. There are proper proposals being published instead of yet more bluster. I am wondering when it will sink in here?

All change is scary and catastrophising will always make that worse. But nobody knows... I am one whose business may well disappear, for a while at least. But that just means I have to have a rethink, which is scary but not impossible!

All you can do with your vote is what you should always have been doing with it - vote for the best candidate LOCALLY!

Which in my case may well include voting for the Tory candidate, as at least I know who he is and what he does (even though he is who he is!!!).

Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 09:50

Well thanks Curious for telling me what I should be doing with my vote....

OP posts:
MinnieMousse · 09/04/2018 09:51

Local elections should be fought on local matters but it would be naive to believe that the nationwide pattern isn't taken into account by all the main parties.

I am anti-Brexit and will vote Lib Dem. I am also voting for them because our local Tory councillor put out a flyer yesterday falsely saying that they have slightly increased council tax this year after freezing it for 8 years. Cue dozens of local residents posting their council tax bills for the last eight years showing an increase every year!

Budsbeginingspringinsite · 09/04/2018 09:53

The lib dems firmly pushed anti brexit at last elections. So them! Ukip were an irrelevance too until people tactically voted through them to get brexit. Where is Ukip now?

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 09/04/2018 09:53

This isn't a vote on Brexit.

This is a local issue vote. Protest voting got us into the Brexit mess, protest voting now won't undo it.

Vote for the best candidates, the ones who deliver on local issues.

Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 09:54

People voted Brexit for all sorts of crazy reasons and my own position is driven by ideology too....

OP posts:
ChardonnaysPrettySister · 09/04/2018 10:03

Your local councillor can't anything on Brexit, but she or he can do something about your local park or rubbish tip. Voting on ideology won't deliver better council services. If you are happy with your current LibDem councillors, absolutely, vote for them. If not, then not. Sadly, it won't affect Brexit one bit.

There is time for ideology and there is time for being pragmatic.

IIIustriouslyIllogical · 09/04/2018 10:19

Voting on ideology won't deliver better council services. If you are happy with your current LibDem councillors, absolutely, vote for them. If not, then not. Sadly, it won't affect Brexit one bit.

This, Brexit has nothing to do with local elections.

Ideology is a luxury & can be a good way to waste a vote!!

CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/04/2018 10:27

Well thanks Curious for telling me what I should be doing with my vote....

Erm... isn't that part of what you asked for in your OP? Isn't it also what a lot of other posters are telling you?

I ignored the 2nd question, because I think it is hysterical and unrealistic! As did many other posters.

Maybe you have a fairly good response, but you just don't like it! Be, as Chardonnay said, pragmatic. The time for Brexit ideology is long gone!

coconuttella · 09/04/2018 10:30

This is a local issue vote. Protest voting got us into the Brexit mess, protest voting now won't undo it.

100% agree... Vote national issues at local elections if you must, but don’t then complain about Council Services afterwards...

I believe you do have a duty to vote, and a duty to use that vote responsibly. Voting based on your Brexit views at a local election is irresponsible imo, and absolutely NOT casting your vote “seriously as a civic duty”. Rather it is a self-indulgent act that perverts the democratic system.

coconuttella · 09/04/2018 10:33

Surely I can’t be the only person to feel like this? Where is the stop Brexit party and why is no one demanding one?

The LibDems are the stop Brexit party... Unfortunately for you they just don’t have (anything close to) the groundswell of support that means they are likely to be successful.

Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 10:41

Voting based on your Brexit views at a local election is irresponsible imo

I think it is irresponsible to ignore Brexit and the effect it has had on the economy as an issue. Tbh how much difference does it make who runs the council if there isn’t any money to deliver services? I’l suppose I could vote for the party that agreed to put the lollipop man back at the end of the street but I’m not sure I could bring myself to do that if it was the tories.

OP posts:
user1471448556 · 09/04/2018 10:42

If, like me, you're unhappy about Brexit, then please vote, and vote for either Lib Dems, Greens or an Independent (if they are anti Hard Brexit). Usually I would look into the individual candidates for local elections and vote based on their personal record BUT this is the last chance we have to vote before October ... when the Brexit 'deal' will be put on the table. If pro-EU parties do well, it sends a message to both the Tories and Labour that they may need to consider the 48% in their policies after all. If we don't vote, then yet again, we have no voice ... and as someone who is personally deeply affected by Brexit and the impending loss of my rights as an EU citizen, I am utterly sick of having no representation.

Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 10:43

I don’t think it’s hysterical to ask where the centre ground has gone. It think it’s interesting how polarised politics has become which is not about Brexit alone by any means.

OP posts:
Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 10:46

I am utterly sick of having no representation

I am too

OP posts:
Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 10:56

Going by some comments on here wanted to vote and having opinions makes me hysterical, irresponsible, self indulgent and ‘trying to pervert the democratic system’

Good to know

OP posts:
CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/04/2018 11:00

No! That isn't what anyone has said, not even me!

You continue to misrepresent the responses you have received.

Not a clever tactic and most responders will see through it!

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 09/04/2018 11:01

But it’s not a vote on Brexit. You still won’t have representation on that. I’m not happy with Brexit but I’m also very much concerned with my local services.

Protest voting did enough damage. Another round of this won’t undo it.

Look at your candidates, look at your current council performance and decide on the best for your area.

If we all did this during the Referendum then we wouldn’t be in this mess. Let’s not make it worse, by having Brexit and incompetent council services at the same time.

Original poster
Efferlunt · 09/04/2018 11:02

Umm it’s not a tactic. Why would I have a tactic? They were the words you used how am I supposed to take them?

OP posts:
CuriousaboutSamphire · 09/04/2018 11:05

Well, you started with being drowned in chlorinated chicken and went on to being unrepresented... so, maybe I just think all of that is daft hyperbole, hysteria (or maybe even listeria Smile)