I am not voting for Labour or Con…

[EddyF]

What party can I vote for that may have a chance? I do not want to waste a vote but may have to. As a young(ish) Black woman, none of the above present me. I was born here as were my parents. Originally from East Africa. Spent a lot of holidays there as a child but not so much as an adult, otherwise I would seriously think of going back to live there.

I have always voted Labour but they are disappointing. For the first time, I am thinking of not voting but it does not sit right within me.

I might try the Green Party I guess.

Of course, good point. Tactical voting!

This is why you vote GTTO

Absolute poverty: UK sees biggest rise for 30 years, figures show

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68625344

Exactly. The electorate has six weeks to “know who it’s voting for” once an election is announced and the manifestos are published. It emerged at the weekend that the Tories haven’t got one yet so it would be absurd for the opposition to divulge the contents of theirs now.

If you give it thought though you can see females competing in male sports or put in male prisons are going to be at a disadvantage and at risk even

I agree with you generally @Redrosetat

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2023/households-below-average-income-an-analysis-of-the-uk-income-distribution-fye-1995-to-fye-2023

Today's poverty stats from the DWP are horrendous.

4.3 million children in relative poverty - the highest ever
3.6 million children in absolute poverty - up 300k

2.2 million children living in "food insecure" households
820k children living in households that use foodbanks

Still think the Tories are worth another shot, even if Sunak isn't as charismatic as Boris. Starmer doesn't convince me.

You can vote for whoever but in reality Reform would be lucky to win a single seat, Greens 1 or 2 at best, Lib Dems don't stand for anything anyway. Labour or Tories will win because it's first past the post.

Why are they worth another shot? Have you looked at the various links about how bad things are after they’ve had 14 years? But Starmer doesn’t convince? He can’t possibly be worse…

Worth another shot?

I won’t be voting Labour, that for sure. Immigration is a major concern for me, and however useless the Tories may have been, Labour will be worse. Centre-left governments always are. Whatever drivel they come out with in front of the cameras, Labour will quietly relax the rules and make it easier for people to enter this country. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe those boatloads of young men are genuine refugees. I work in an office that overlooks a park and often watch groups of young immigrant men gather on the benches to play music and swig cider. Clearly none of them work. And there I am, like a sucker, working to pay for their benefits and housing. This country is unbearably crowded as it is. The traffic is hellish, and much of the local countryside near me is being destroyed by new housing.

Also, I cannot trust Labour on the economy. I have no problem with paying tax. You can make a good case for public spending, if the money is spent wisely. I mean on boosting literacy, funding apprenticeships, increasing the number of working class kids doing STEM degrees, mending the roads, improving public transport, etc. All those things improve society. Properly funding the armed forces and the police is something I also support. But Labour will blow it on ‘diversity and inclusion officers’, new asylum centres, and welfare cheats (and don’t tell me welfare cheats are a minority - I’ve got them in my own flippin family).

I'm genuinely curious - what makes you think they're worth another shot? Or, more pertinently, what do you think they can achieve with another term that they haven't had the chance to do with the last four terms and five PMs?

You could have just said you’re racist and not bothered typing all that out.

Vote for Reform! Love splitting the Tory votes

You know asylum seekers can't work legally until their request for asylum has been granted.

This is an area I would like to see change. Other countries allow asylum seekers to work.

You are concerned about males in female safe spaces?
YOU TRANSPHOBE!!!

You are concerned about high levels of immigration?
YOU RACIST!!!

You deplore the actions of HAMAS?
YOU ISLAMOPHOBE!!!

Yes we all know how it works.

Not that I know of, if you are a Birthing Parent. Who is expected to become a Chest Feeder.

Well yes. I just lost the will to talk about males in female spaces vs females in male spaces.

Well, considering it was women who reduced me to tears over my failure to breast feed, I'm for support where ever it can be found, calling it what ever.

Changing of words, of the way things are spoken about, does not equal removal of rights.

I still have exactly the same rights. I still have the right to maternity leave. I still have the right to vote. I still have SO many rights that my great grandmother didn't have. I can vote which she couldn't until she was 30.

You sure can vote.

What a pity the people we have options to vote for are so pitiful.

I hear you. It does show how stark it is if people consider a female in a male rugby team or a female in a male prison cell

The risk, safety and disadvantage isn’t for the males

Stockholm Syndrome?

This is the battle any opposition to the Tories are faced with.
No matter that by any sane demonstrable measure, 14 years of Tory rule has caused untold damage - somehow it's STILL Labour's fault in some weird way.

No matter that the reckless Tory adventure of Trussenomics has cost us all dearly, or that this government has the highest taxes and borrowing ever, it's obviously Labour you can't trust with the economy.

I can't vote for Labour. No candidates! Do all constituencies eventually get one?? None of the four local constituencies to me have a labour candidate. We have Conservatives, Lib Dems, Reform, Green. Not much choice really........ No interesting independents or whacky parties either. Assume we will eventually get some others ...

It would literally benefit everyone if we allowed asylum seekers to work, we are one of the only countries not doing this. Makes absolutely zero sense.

To be fair, there are significant portions of the last 14 years which kind of are Labour's fault. As Her Majesty's Opposition, it was their duty to effectively oppose the government where appropriate - and, during Corbyn's time, they utterly failed to do that in reining in the worst of the Conservative excesses. His influence on the situation was, basically, to sit back and do nothing and give them free rein over Brexit, despite ample opportunities to kick them where it hurts and make them moderate their approach.

In allowing them free rein then, it effectively emboldened the furthest-right Tory MPs to go even further. A lot (but certainly not all) of the problems we face right now are down to that time when we desperately needed an Opposition, but didn't have one.

That doesn't change the fact that, in my opinion, we still have to do everything we can to prevent them getting a fifth term, because it's already going to take decades to recover from their mismanagement of the country as it is; we can't abide that being extended, and that means swallowing the bitter pill of voting Labour. Ideology can wait for the next election.

Labour aren't the answer.