Voting Conservative or Labour?

[StrawPollTime]

So we actually have a date for the General Election!

If you're planning to vote Conservative or planning to vote Labour... then which? Please click to indicate:

YABU = I'm planning to vote Conservative

YANBU = I'm planning to vote Labour

(Sorry, I do know that other parties are available and other voting choices are possible. Obviously lots of people won't be voting either Conservative or Labour. But AIBU only has a 2-way voting option, and I wanted to get a quick snapshot of support for the 2 biggest parties. So this is a poll for people who are planning to vote for one of those two.)

I guess if you think the Tories have done a decent job you’ll vote for them. Others better the devil you know.
Much as I hope Labour will win, the British electorate is very fickle and often votes against its best interests. There’s actually some Brexit shit down the line to come and I wonder if Sunak knows that and hopes for a cheeky win before it all pans out.

How so? Look at the state of schools, police, NHS, child poverty after Labour left and after the Tories left. Then get back to me with a solid argument as to why they are the same.

Well you could indeed vote Labour. With two children in private school you are significantly wealthier than those who the Tories have done a fine job of fucking over in the last 14yrs. Access to private education is an expensive privilege. Access to a good welfare system should be a right.

I agree but it’s everyone out for number 1 these days.

If you can’t afford VAT on school fees, can you afford private healthcare? Because that’s the way the Uk is going if the Tories stay in power.

I'm a paid up member of the Labour Party but will be voting tactically. Labour sadly have no chance where I live, but LibDems could just unseat the Tories. I genuinely don't understand how anyone could vote for the Tories with the country in such a state and their proven track record or lying and incompetence.

By spoiling your vote you are voting for whoever is voted in.

It achieves nothing.

A chance of change is better than no chance at all, which is what we will get if the Tories win.

Voting for the Party of Women is only worth doing if there is proportional representation.....otherwise it's a vote for a party that cannot win.

Labour need to become a party I can vote for then. It's their problem to fix, not mine. I cannot vote for them (they told gender critical people they didn't want our votes a while ago, and haven't apologised for that or retracted it, so I assume it still stands).

I've been told that we have an ex-Labour indie who's currently a councillor, so I'm going to investigate him as a potential.

You do know it's a free vote, so people can vote for who they please? For whatever reason they like. Or even spoil their vote. Democracy is lovely.

@NoWordForFluffy Of course I know it's a free vote and completely agree democracy is wonderful. Everyone is free to vote as they wish...to waste their vote by spoiling it, to vote on a single issue and let the rest rot or to not vote at all.

Opinion is free too.

So often people act like those of us who say we may spoil our votes haven't seriously considered our reasons and its effectiveness though.

I know it's less than ideal. I want to vote Labour, but can't do it. So I'm left in a tricky position, as my town has historically only had the choice of the 4 main parties to vote for. Nobody is owed my vote, after all.

I'll be questioning the indie and hopefully will be able to vote for him, as he's a nice guy.

Those are not the only options.

The advice if you want the Tories out (and most of the population does according to the polls, thankfully...) is to vote tactically for the candidate that has the best chance to beat the Tory candidate.

In some places that will mean voting for the Lib Dems or the Greens.

I am voting Labour because in my area it is the party that has the best chance to come first against a Tory candidate and I broadly agree with what they have said so far in term of what their plans are.

No party is ever going to be perfect but the last Tory governments have been the worst I have ever seen: corrupt, useless and greedy.

The party that brought us Brexit lies, polluted seas and rivers, dodgy contracts for mates, millions wasted on a Rwanda scheme that was never going to work , dangerous attempt to curb freedom of protest/speech, constant attacks on the disabled and that failed to curb greedy utility companies and made our country a laughing stock internationally.

They have nothing positive to show for 14 years or government. Nothing.

Current projections are a Labour landslide, so as long as Starmer doesn't get photographed making a mess of a bacon sandwich...

Or filmed falling over on a beach.

Sorry @NoWordForFluffy , I am sure you've considered your reasons.
It just upsets me so that thoughtful people like you who consider your vote carefully and decide you are unable to vote for anyone,will not have your voice heard.

I, like you, wish Labour's stance on women was better, but on balance, all things considered I will vote for them as the option which most closely aligns with my values and as the best chance for getting the Tories out in my constituency.

Equally, I think the Tories have made a hash of the trans issue to date and have no faith that they will manage it better in future. (no reason to believe that their focus on it isn't just a vote-winning ploy). I think on balance Labour are better for women and children across the board so that's where I'm voting.

I really hope you can find somebody worthy of your support.

I will be voting conservative but I am aware it is unlikely to really matter.

AIBU only has a 2-way voting option

@StrawPollTime you can add a multiple option poll to any other topic.

I'd like to vote for someone else but I also want to see the Conservatives out. Which means I have to vote for Labour.

I won’t be voting Labour. I want to see what other options are available, but I suspect Labour will reclaim their seat back from Conservative in my area this election. I’m hoping for a decent Independent option or even a Women’s Party, but if it came down to the absolute line of Labour or Conservative, yes I’d vote the latter. Extremely unlikely and would probably abstain but no way in hell will the current Labour Party get my vote.

Flanjango · Yesterday 21:38
Tory safe seat here. Second placed is labour. So as I can't stand the tories labour it must be. Then we need PR as I never want to have to vote tactically again”

I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a Tory safe seat any more. Really hope Rees-Mogg has his Portillo moment.

It might have been a disaster for the Lib Dem’s but was, in my opinion, better for the country than a Labour or Tory only government.

We saw big increases in personal allowances, benefiting the lower paid, which might not have happened under a Tory only government and would not have happened under Labour. We got a smaller cut in the top rate than the tories would have done alone, and was more than Labour would have done.

The coalition government also brought in marriage equality, shared parental leave and made the benefits system fairer for couples.

Other than that the best thing it did, and that most governments should learn from, was to not meddle too much with things and just leave them alone. Coalition forces discussion and compromise in government, which has to be better than knee jerk and sound bite statements and policies. Frankly the less government does the better - since no politician really has a clue what they are doing.

I couldn’t care less about any political party, just what’s best for the country. And to make that decisions we need to wait for Labour, Conservatives and others to get off the fence and tell us what their policies are. Not there statements of intent, not what they are not going to do. What they are actually going to do.

No idea, i’m another who’s politically homeless, I’ve voted for all the parties over the years but this time I haven’t got a clue, maybe like you I should vote for the raving looney party… arghhh! Why did all of them have to be stinking piles of shit in one way or another!

There are a ton of people on here who are vocally and openly sick of the Boris/Liz/Sunak era of Tories...

...but who I bet could never, ever bring themselves to vote Labour, Lib Dem or Green.

Why is this?

It's down to the politics of identity.

These are the folk who buy from Seasalt, Karen Millen etc, who drive XC90s and Discovery Sports.

Rishi hasn't made them richer - it might be quite the opposite. He, Liz, the lot of them have done untold damage in their eyes.

But the values his party espouses (supporting wealth creation, home ownership) feels to these folk like the 'winners club'. It's the club they always vote for, because they're the people they identify with (even if Rishi has 999900% more wealth than their savings account).

In their minds, Labour and Lib Dem hand out too much to people. The people who, well, if they'd worked a little harder, perhaps they too could have had XC90s, Discovery Sports, driveways etc.

We don't talk enough in this country about the politics of identity. The identity bit is why come the general election, you'll see a lot more Tory votes than you'd expect to see from the formal polls, or from a quick census on AIBU.

(and for those who struggle to read, I don't espouse or endorse any of this view. I'm a lifelong Labour voter, and I'm technically middle class in wealth, home ownership etc. But I live in Surrey and I see the folk around me - and it's plain to see why an emu with a blue rosette would alway eget voted in over a woman-of-the-people Lib Dem).

Tories.

'These are the folk who buy from Seasalt, Karen Millen etc, who drive XC90s and Discovery Sports.'

No - i dont even know what seasalt is (is this table salt) have one pair of jeans from KM and drive a 2003 Lexus.

The country is up to it's neck in debt. There is no money tree for labour to shake and suddenly reform everything for the better, it's going to be a long haul whoever is in government. I think it's still a poisoned chalice for whoever takes it on next, although Labour will be able to blame the Tories for a few years to come.

Hate that it's a 2 horse race

Neither for me, but not decided where my vote will land yet