This election: has it always been like this?

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I feel like this is the first election I’ve really opened my eyes and followed properly researching and fact checking for myself. I’m 36 years old and have voted in 5? 6? General elections.

Is it always this bad? The constant smearing and the lies (I’m talking about the tories). It’s absolutely disgusting. Is this what the run up to the election is always like? I’ve never seen it this bad before.

I don’t think so. I’m 48 and I don’t remember it being this bad. Mind you, the Tories now are not the same as Ken Clarke etc and Corbyn is not Blair ( a good thing in my book). I don’t think the current government have any principles.

The Tories have sunk to new lows in this campaign.

I don't think so, it is fairly bad when you have a front bencher slagging off the leader of his own party and dossiers being touted as saying things they don't, past quotes being dredged up, personal lives, it's become fairly nasty.

I'm not sure I recall it this bad either. Can't wait till it's over"

It's the worst I remember and I'm mid-forties.

We didn't have social media and a 24 hour news cycle to the extent that we do now back in 2010 when Cameron became PM. I think the Tories and Lib Dems were pretty confident in Cameron and Clegg and Labour knew they weren't going to win.

By 2015 we had the Ed Miliband bacon sandwich debacle and I feel like election compaigns have been ridiculous since.

It's dreadful and I've voted for decades, never been this toxic it's quite depressing and worrying.

I was only in my teens but I'm sure I remember 1997 and Tony Blair's landslide all being very polite!

No, it's definitely different this time around. I think the problem is that the leaders set the tone of the party. BJ has been very outspoken about being happy to break the law (eg I'm not going to ask for an extension) and this makes it acceptable for others to do the same. Hence the proliferation of fake news / attempts to deceive. Whatever Theresa May's faults (and there were clearly many), under her leadership, outright lies and attempts to deceive would not have been acceptable.

I think Trump has shown some politicians that lying, lying and then lying some more doesn’t harm you in any way. And neither does being a sexist, racist, bully who will happily screw over certain segments of the population.

Its all a bit fucked really isn’t it.

I definitely haven’t ever seen it so divided before. I’m previous elections I haven’t liked all the candidates, but I never hated a mainstream party as strongly as I do this time around. And plenty of people feel just as strongly in the opposite way to me. Both sides doubting the oppositions fitness for office, not just disagreeing with policies.

Nowhere near as bad.

Worst Prime Minister ever, worst 'leader' of the opposition ever, Lib Dem strategy a joke, the fourth biggest party in terms of possible support (Brexit party) stand down in half the seats, and all the others are not parties for the whole of the UK.

If we had 'none of the above' as an option, it would win almost every seat.

It's much worse. I think it's because in 4 years we've had 3 elections and a referendum. People are fed up and politicians are desperate. It seems to me the most likely result is another hung parliament and they are all terrified of that. Brexit has thrown a huge spanner in the works in terms of unpredictability of voting (as well as everything else) and it's all just much more fraught. Add twitter and facebook into the mix and it's a mess. A horrid, unpleasant, miserable mess.

I was thinking the same thing earlier op. I'm the same age as you and I never remember this much friction before.

I'd say the referendum was far worse for propaganda, distortion of fact and bare faced lies. The rather large one on the red bus being one.

Yours (although much shorter than our ridiculous elections) is sounding almost as nasty as ours in the US. It's disgusting, and instead of voting for a decent person you think is going to do a good job, you end up choosing the lesser of many evils. At least you don't have a fecking electoral college to worry about (I think you don't, at least).

Definitely the worst it's ever been imo and I am 50. It used to be confined to the papers but social media and the use of it by the parties has ramped it up.

I remember the red eyes New Labour New Danger posters, the Tories have always used these tricks however not on this scale. It is insane, calculating and scary. Part one: focus on what the public may like about the opposition (He has spent his life fighting bigotry won Ghandi peace prize etc) then put out endless stories which say the opposite e.g him being a racist anti Semite and he supports terrorists (The Tories must piss themselves drinking port and chuckling about how it’s working, someone probably bet their Swiss ski lodge on it). Part 2: Tell the people they are poor because of immigrants or the EU or anyone but the Tories. Convince them that they work hard and these people get their money. Part 3: Use the term fake news over and over so you can say any story about you is fake. Part 4: Tell the people they are fed up with experts so when the financial pros criticise the Tories the people don’t listen to them.

Already today the amount of people I have seen sharing the fake story that a nurse is Leeds hospital said the boy on the floor was staged.

If we had 'none of the above' as an option, it would win almost every seat.

I would really like to see 20 million people turning out and abstaining. I think it would be the huge shock to the system that we need to get things changing.

I find the aggression of political posts quite disturbing; the last few years it seems nobody is able to disagree nor debate politely and respectfully. I've seen lies from all sides of the political spectrum, and those set the tone of political "debate". That tone needs to change in my opinion, but other people must like it or they wouldn't be reposting their "if you vote X then" nastiness all over my Facebook feed, all over mumsnet AIBU etc. I try not to respond to any of them, I've no idea what to say to make them just stop, the few times I've politely said anything it's taken as throwing down a gauntlet.

I think this election plumbs new depths. In the mid to late 90s I was involved in politics and while obviously people tried to make the most of things like spending limits they were accepted as rules you had to observe. At the last election the Tories just ignored them and paid for a lot of central staff to go and campaign in marginal seats. It’s not trivial or bean counting, the point of the spending rules is supposed to be that elections don’t go to the richest party. And the lies - today there has been news that 88 per cent of Tory FB ads contain lies but Labour’s total is 0 percent. You wouldn’t know that from the way it’s been reported by the BBC. And I think the final nail in the coffin for fair elections is the way the BBC is behaving - they really fucked up allowing Johnson to dodge Andrew Neil, while yesterday Laura K tweeted an absolute lie about a ‘punch’ thrown at Hancock’s aide. The BBC is backing Boris. There was a chance in the rules about balance during elections and it has been to the detriment of the smaller parties. I think if you have to cheat to win you must have pretty low confidsenxe in your policies.

No, I don't think it's been this bad before. The other thing (and I may just be being nostalgic) is that the parties no longer seem to have an ethos - they simply pick and mix policies according who what they think will get elected. There's no strategy underneath, just doing whatever is necessary to get elected.

*change not chance

I have seen a fair few elections in my time and IMHO it has never been this bad.

I think the problem is Parliament has been arguing about one topic, the B word but has forgotten that there are other issues that need sorting out.

I have lost faith and my trust in Parliament and the system, that is scary as how are the politicians going to re-gain the trust of the people

I don’t trust any of them and no idea who to vote for come Thursday 😳

I might vote for all of them as they have all promised me so much if I vote for them 🦄

The right wing press have a lot to answer for. This is an extension of it. The new wave of conservatives and their behaviour shock even the experienced long serving members of their own party. Whilst it’s election season now the press have been anti Corbyn and anti EU for quite some time now, whipping up a lot of hate and much of it based on lies or hyperbole. Boris Johnson is our Donald Trump, he feels he is beyond the law and can do as he pleases he just needs to smirk like a naughty school boy that’s been caught out and people lap it up. Corbyn can’t cope with it because he’s principled and the issues he stands for he cares about passionately, he can barely look at Boris without disgust, but this is just a bit of sport for Boris who just wants to win no matter what hence the complete lack of honour and honesty in the campaign. The other thing is that this election result really matters which is why it is being so hard fought!

No, it is pretty bad. The level of the political debate is below zero. What have we done to deserve these politicians, I don't know.