To find myself quite envious of people in marginal seats?

[drivinmecrazy]

I'm in a constituency with a huge Conservative majority. To my mind our MP is a prize twat (James Cleverly) and was only parachuted into our constituency because it was so safe and he's nothing more than a slimy career politician.
Some how we have always been a Conservative safe seat apart from a very short spell under a Labour MP.
I don't want to vote Conservative for many reasons but primarily Brexit (I have in the distant past been an historical Tory voter but much has changed over the past ten years).
So to my point. If you are lucky enough to live in an area where your vote might actually make a difference then you must feel more empowered than me in a safe seat when any vote against the Tories is nothing but an insignificant protest vote, no better than non voting or spoilt ballot.
I almost feel disenfranchised

YANBU. I used to live in Kilburn and one year the margin was something daft like 52 votes and I loved voting. "My" candidate won and i felt like my vote had really, really mattered!

I hear you! Tactical voting is all I can do here and even that rarely makes a difference.

On the other side of the coin safe seats are also a lot less stressful on election night. And it makes me feel safe that the vast majority of my neighbours have the same mindset.

YANBU - conservative majority here too. I disagree with my mp on most things. I vote because I feel it’s important but I really don’t think my vote makes a jot of difference and I don’t feel I can approach my mp about things that concern me as I will just get brushed off.

Think I also feel so conflicted because I would usually use my vote for Lib Dem but given this time round it's a PV in all but name, I can't really because although I'm vehemently anti Brexit I don't believe to Revoke arbitrarily is any better than the status quo that is already causing such a division on both our parliamentary system and out society.
Yet I've never voted Labour in my life.
Why the hell is a GE better than a PV??

My electoral ward moved when they updated party boundaries - we went from a really marginal seat (I think there was about 100 votes in it at the last election) to a crushingly safe Labour seat (25k+ majority).

Also feel disenfranchised - apparently only 50 seats are actually meaningful

*constituency boundaries, not party

Yes I agree, I also live in a very safe Tory seat (possibly the safest) with a bunch of affluent elderly people living in the rural parts who will vote for anyone and everyone with a blue rosette, so there's little point voting. I will, but I do think it's wrong that our system disenfranchises everyone in safe seats who don't want the incumbent.

I will vote Libdem, but it's a waste of time.

Nope, I'm happy to vote knowing my Conservative MP will be re-elected.

Oh yes, and not being an older, white, working class man seems to mean a further level of disenfranchisement...

I'm in a marginal. Unfortunately it's marginal between two parties neither of which I agree with! So I either vote for the person I'd like, knowing they won't get in, or hold my nose and vote for the one I'd like better out of the two that might get in. I guess it's better than being in a safe seat, but it's not ideal!

Well here's the thing. I used to vote for the candidate and not the party but it's become such a different beast in all the years I've been eligible to vote (30 years now
It would help if candidates actually had to have a link to the communities they wish to represent. Our Tory MP has never lived nor even visited my constituency before he stood. Has no connection to our community apart from photo ops for his twitter feed. We're no more than a rung on his very greasy ladder. How I'd love to wish that smirk off his face

Likewise @Patte. It's the devil and the deep blue sea..

Feels like anything could happen in my town. Historically it’s been very much labour run, but they have destroyed the area.
Swinging between Tory and independent now.

"And it makes me feel safe that the vast majority of my neighbours have the same mindset."

If you agree with the majority in your constituency, I can understand this, @notangelinajolie - but I live in a constituency where I disagree with the majority, and where I know that my vote is highly unlikely to have any effect whatsoever on the outcome of the election, and that's actually quite depressing.

My mum is the same - a dyed-in-the-wool socialist who has, for the last 47 years lived in safe Conservative seats - she feels that, whatever she votes is just a protest vote, and she is effectively disenfranchised.

I always seem to live in conservative safe seats. Would like to feel there was a point to my vote sometimes...

Same here bloody - been labour for yonks, but between the long-standing mp dying (outing my area massively there) and being a massively leave voting area (turkeys voting for Xmas based on EU funding!), I have no idea what is going to happen.

Not helped by the fact that I have no idea who to vote for as nobody even close to speaks for me.

I think mine's going to be a three-way battle this time round (Putney). Justine Greening's not standing this time, she only beat the Labour candidate by 1,500 votes in 2017, and the Lib Dems have gained a lot of ground locally here recently and the latest local polling is showing them edging it. Should be quite interesting.

although I'm vehemently anti Brexit I don't believe to Revoke arbitrarily is any better than the status quo that is already causing such a division on both our parliamentary system and out society.

The Lib Dem stance is 'revoke if we win a majority' - that's never going to happen and if it did, and they were elected on that manifesto, then it would be democratic and correct for them to revoke.
In the much more likely event of them winning enough seats that they can make demands of the largest party, in return for support, then they will accept a P.V.

So if Lib dems are more likely to win in your constituency than labour (no matter how secure a tory seat it is) - vote lib dem with a clear conscience

I'm in a marginal. My awful tory mp has a majority of only slightly more than 300. Even if he squeaks back in (and he shouldn't - we're a remain constituency in a remain city and he has voted for no deal before now) I will enjoy the fact that this odious little man is going to spend the next six weeks bricking it.
If he can be unemployed for Christmas that will be the cherry on the icing on the cake.
(and before anybody thinks I'm a terrible person for actively hoping for that and gloating this is a man, who is himself a private landlord, who voted against the bill to insist that all private rental accommodation be 'fit for human habitation'. He is a monster.)

YANBU and I wish we had a more representative voting system. It’s worth remembering though that we’re living in weird times and not all safe seats are necessarily as safe as they’ve been in the past - traditional safe seats can become marginal as the reasons people vote shift. Eg Richmond Park: in 2015 Zac Goldsmith had a majority of 23,000, in 2016 he lost a bi-election and in 2017 he won the seat back with a majority of 45. Kensington: In 2015 the tories had a majority of about 8,000 and in 2017 Labour won with a majority of 20.

Not sure whether you’re being unreasonable or not tbh. Where I live labour have had a stronghold for years and always win. I’m not a labour supporter so my vote always seems pointless but I pootle off to the polling station nonetheless.

Yanbu.
A brief Google tells me our town has been conservative for almost 100 years.

I totally agree. My MP is the epitome of 'gammon', longstanding and with a large majority. I will vote, I think it's important to do so, but nonetheless am already despairing at what little good that will almost certainly do. I hope to goodness that at least some voters will decide to vote differently this time round, having seen increasing damage caused to every public service you can think of, not to mention increasing inhumanity towards anyone less fortunate, and that's before you even get on to the lies and damage of the Brexit debacle but unfortunately I suspect far too few people in my constituency are prepared to look outside their own individual interests and what's happening to British society as a whole. Poverty and problems certainly aren't absent where I live but because so many seem so selfish in these matters, sadly I think it won't be until significant numbers are adversely and directly affected by government policies themselves that there might be a real possibility of change. There's definitely an 'us' and 'them' attitude here, even amongst so called ordinary working people who are feeling the pinch.... and yet somehow still believe the Tories are the best party to look after their interests. For now. Until they have their vote, and/or until they fall on hard times.

It all just makes you feel so useless when you live in a safe seat. The best my vote might potentially do is reduce their majority I suppose which is scant consolation.

But still worth checking the turnout - if it's historically fairly low, and there are a lot of young, engaged new voters registered who are willing to come out and vote for an election that matters greatly to them, even safe seats might be less safe than people think.

The number of non-voters is often higher than the majority, even in pretty safe seats!

I am in a safe Labour seat... think red Rosette and donkey scenario. Son of Welsh Labour leader parachuted in with no connections to the place or Wales really as his wife is Danish! So yes I feel the same!