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.

They’re closer to the answer than the Tories . Labour are definitely an answer…the Tories are the problem.

There’s a screen shot above. He said vote the Tories out. For most people that means vote Labour. All he’s saying is he isn’t saying ‘vote Labour’ just ‘vote whoever can defeat the Tories’. So absolutely not telling people not to vote Labour. It’s pretty simple to follow his point.

The comments on here from some Labourites convince me of the reasons why I shouldn’t vote Labour. One supporter even admitted in an earlier post that Labour are just playing the game to get into power, then old Labour will rear its ugly head. And some of us can remember how ugly Labour used to be. The younger ones on here would do well to look at what previous Labour governments have done when in power. It’s not a pretty picture.

You don't want Labour back in: you are aware that they have been out of power for the last 14 years? I don't think Gordon Brown covered himself in glory, but Alistair Darling was a decent Chancellor during the GFC. He did say at the time, very clearly, that following the GFC, that the incoming government had no option but austerity. George Osborne probably took it too far.

Then Brexit, then a pandemic, followed by the Ukraine war and the food and energy crisis it triggered. Nevertheless, despite all this crap, the UK remains in the top 10 world economies. The results and rewards are not fairly shared across the population but the costs are, and health and education are both travesties of what we all want, and are not going to deliver a wave of future prosperity. If we could learn to say NO again I think it would help. No, you can't send your child to school until they are able to toilet themselves (serious SEN issues excepted). No, you can't argue that your child should be excused detention, even if it fucks with your work... that argument is for you to have with your child; behave kiddo, or there's no money for a holiday or bike or the clothes you want. Teachers should teach lessons, rather than trying to be social workers too.

I don't kid myself that any of this is easy, and it's somewhat cheap of me to say anything at all because I no longer have a child that wants wants wants everything they see on social media, and it's no longer my job to supply everything my DC25 would like to have. I don't have a solution. I'm not wedded to a political party either. Straight up, I am at a loss. I am closer to 70 than 60, and working out the gentlest way to close the small business we started and have nurtured for over 30 years now the person who was carefully chosen to take it into the future has told DH that he doesn't want the responsibility of a payroll supporting five families, is a blow. So we'll collapse it as fast as possible, sell the assets and pay the redundancy.

I'm going away, preferably anywhere I don't speak the language to have to hear the news anymore. I'll buy health insurance and zone out. Nobody wants bleatings from the old zone.

cardibach
All he’s saying is he isn’t saying ‘vote Labour’ just ‘vote whoever can defeat the Tories’. So absolutely not telling people not to vote Labour.

He is in Ilford North - that's Wes Streeting's seat - he wants people to vote for the Independent candidate.

Wes Streeting is sounding fairly good to me on the NHS and what it should do, but I'm Tory-lite. I would vote for him if he were my candidate.

I would also vote for Keir Starmer. But not ever for anyone who hankers for the Jeremy Corbyn years. Firmly middle centre left.

No, he wants to eliminate Wes Streeting.

Owen Jones is a wrecking machine.

Uhm. No. He’s definitely saying don’t vote Labour.

Former Chair of the Conservative Party, Lord Patten, is not exactly complimentary about his party

https://x.com/LBC/status/1770886846060572782?s=20

I was Chair of the Conservative Party when there was one.'
'They've lost the most important attribute: the benefit of the doubt.'

Former Conservative Party Chair Lord Patten tells @AndrewMarr9 the failings of the current government are mostly due to 'the disaster of Brexit'.

Yes, Streeting is a Tory. His policy is to continue the pattern of public money going into private hands. Using NHS doctors working in private hospitals to shorten waiting lists because the NHS is understaffed & underfunded.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the £200,000 of donations he recieved, or the £160,000 that Starmer recieved. Certainly nothing to do with the £295,000 Yvette Cooper received from private healthcare companies.

Of the names you've mentioned, Starmer, Cooper and Streeting specifically, I'd vote for any of them. I would not vote for anyone much further left though. Having worked for a living, I am not choosing financial rape to fund every idiot's choices.

@EasternStandard
He’s a horrible misogynist. Hounded out some brilliant ‘GC’ journalists from his paper. 🤮
No loss to any party but dangerously disloyal for Labour now. I wouldn’t want him on my side.

Jones has supported the hounding of female journalists such as Suzanne Moore and Hadley Freemanfrom the paper for which he is still paid to write, takes some adamantine neck. And as a champion of Jeremy Corbyn, the Left-winger has failed to reflect on his own part in tolerating a hostile environment for Jewish politicians such as Luciana Berger, who left Labour following the former leadership’s failure to take claims antisemitism seriously.
Jones also seems fairly sanguine about the monstering of those who know that biological sex is real, regularly deriding them as “Terfs” and “transphobes”. Gender-critical people who’ve hung on in the Labour Party have more experience than Jones of being treated as pariahs.
The first wave of resignations over the trans divide happened in 2017, after the executive committee of the Bexhill and Battle Labour Party handed in their cards en masse in support of women’s officer Anne Ruzylo. Ruzylo, a lesbian trade unionist of 30 years, says she was prevented from raising her concerns about gender self-identification and that she suffered harassment by trans activists within the party. In the years that have followed, thousands of former members have used the #labourlosingwomen hashtag on social media to signal their frustration at the party’s refusal to listen to them.
Grassroots groups, including Lesbian Labour, Women’s Place UK and Labour Women’s Declaration, have been shut out of meetings, refused stalls at conferences and smeared and harassed by fellow members. Lists have even been made on social media identifying gender wrong-thinkers. Meanwhile, openly gender-critical feminists such as Rosie Duffield MP have been given the cold shoulder by Starmer for years.

https://unherd.com/newsroom/owen-jones-represented-the-worst-of-labour/

He's pretty and looks passionate. Guaranteed to appeal to anyone who can't read what he writes.

He is not pretty. He makes me feel sick when I see his face. Sorry that’s bit personal. No need for ad hominem. Although the content of his character naturally impacts my assessment of his Weasley little face. Oops I did it again.

The Tories have once again ruined the country. It will take years to put it right. It's sad.
There is no other choice. Don't waste your vote

But handing public funds and assets into private hands is fine?

Austerity kills, but mostly the people who chose to be sick, disabled & poor is that your thinking? The people who paid for really idiotic economic decisions.

Seems reasonable for a wealth tax of those who did rather well out of it. Even a moderate % could wipe out our deficit and fund the public services we need.

I don't like him either, and his politics are poisoning the whole system. But until enough people decide that, there's a risk he might succeed. I do hope he doesn't.

Reform will push them further right on immigration which has got out of hand.

When they can beat the Tory. As made very clear in the screenshot further up.

Yes (to me) - he wants to oust Wes Streeting.

@Sillypede I think you confuse me with a person who has done well out of Tory politics, and I haven't. Nor, for the record, has any member of my family, near or distant.

We are not disabled either but the definition of "sick" is elastic: my DH has had very serious heart issues for the last 18 years, but is still working at 68, and I have had breast cancer.

We are only not poor because we took the risks, in our 30s, to create new businesses. We only kept what we earned in our 40s because we looked past the obvious options and and created our own pension (a SIPP, which is as open to you now as it was to us then)

And now we are 67 and 68, we head into retirement still paying taxes because right now, you only need a full state pension to pay tax. The nil rate tax threshold of £12,570 means that £1,200 of Dh's state pension is subject to income tax. Clearly, we earn it, and pay our taxes on that and everything else we saved and what we spend. How much more do you think we should contribute? Because at an (undetermined) point, you discourage ambition totally. I am already thinking that there are other countries with different tax systems that would be happy to take a (slightly) smaller toll. Where perhaps the weather lets you spend more time outdoors. The idea appeals, frankly.

Chris Patten is a complete Europhile and former EU commissioner - he was previously suggested as a candidate for the EU commission presidency.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/17/eu.politics2