To ask what the key issues in the upcoming election are?

[worrieddaughter97]

I'm a 25 year old young professional, in training, on a low wage. It's going to increase in the next 2-3 years. Hopefully by quite a lot. I live at home, but hope to move out by the next election in 2029.

Over the last year or so, I have curated my list of things that will decide who I vote for:

• Housing
• Minimum wage increases
• Immigration
• NHS

But I still feel quite torn. The last 2 elections were ones where I didn't really have "skin in the game" so to speak - I voted how my parents said they wanted me to, as they had convinced me that anything other than a Tory government would be disastrous for us as a family.

Obviously now I'm voting with my head, but I'm still pretty indecisive. So I'm just wondering what other people view as their key issues in the election.

And to add to that, complaints have gone through the roof compared with 10-20 years ago. Many of which fit the profile above. This is why the conviction rate is so small, not because complainants are waved away or nobody can be bothered.

Seen the conviction rate? It’s because the police and justice system have been systematically defunded.

https://www.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2022/04/new-scorecards-show-under-1-of-reported-rapes-lead-to-conviction-criminologist-explains-why-englands-justice-system-continues-to-fail#

Read the above, and tell me how you would go about securing a conviction given such a case.

It’s not about individual cases. The vast majority of reported sexual assaults and rapes never go anywhere near a courtroom. Denying facts and using a single case as evidence doesn’t disprove statistics.

I'm probably not going to vote at all, which for me will be a first.

We (the UK, Europe), are basically blown about by global events. Brexit, COVID, Russia/Ukraine, COL, climate. Of course at a national level you can tinker round the edges, and set priorities with what you have, but in reality our lives are more impacted by the global state of affairs than ever, and all these issues have cost us and the rest of Europe billions regardless of party politics. Every country is changing from right to left, or left to right. People want change but I'm not sure much will, other than perhaps instil hope that change will come.

I do wonder where we would be if the craziness of the last four years hadn't happened.

Try this quiz

uk.isidewith.com/political-quiz

I wasn't suggesting you vote Labour. But if they win with a slim majority and need to pick up votes they'll look at where those votes went, to parties on the right or left, and shift accordingly. That's how UKIP got the Tories to lurch further to the right on key issues.

Housing
Education
Healthcare
Homelessness
Social care
Empty ĥigh streets
Pensions
Cost of living
Public transport

Your priorities sound reasonable OP. I'd add in good well-funded public services, supportive benefits system, and improved child support system. Scrap the false economy approach that actually increases need for support (financial or otherwise).

to me immigration is an issue because we have nearly 1 million extra people coming here and we don't have the jobs or infrastructure to deal with it. Doctors, dentists etc.

The key question here is why we do not have the infrastructure to deal with people "coming here".

Typically, people who have the initiative to move themselves from their existing conditions to somewhere new, where they have to start again from scratch are the sort of people who are going to be successful in life, who will over their lifetimes be net contributors to society both financially by paying tax on their earnings and in the jobs they do.

Look at the current NHS and consider how many of the people at all levels from consultants through every other rank are first or second generation immigrants.

We have for years relied on skilled Immigration to fill key jobs. It has been a force for good in the UK at the expense of the unskilled and uneducated.

Would anyone really argue that we do not need more good doctors and dentists? And all the other roles?

The government have allowed the country's infrastructure to be run down for years, so that the people with money can keep more and more of it rather than be taxed in order to keep the country infrastructure of transport, housing, education and health care running well.

It's very convenient to blame the lack of infrastructure on immigration now they can no longer blame it on the EU

Please don't let them pull the wool over your eyes, too.

Of course it’s about individual cases. What do you think make up the statistics? Cuts have affected criminal justice like they’ve affected everything, but why do you think this one area of offending has seen such a radical change when others broadly speaking have seen less?

They can’t SAY it out loud because you can’t look like you’re ’blaming the public’. But the nature of these complaints mean many of them are almost impossible to prove.

The profile I gave above applies to many many many - maybe the majority - of cases. Stranger rapes are very rare and that’s why they make the news but the majority happen in the context of a personal relationship that is often messy and toxic.

So go and tell me how you would prove that?

Regarding immigration. It's all very well for more advantaged people to say it's not an issue for them but that's because they're not as affected by mass uncontrolled immigration. It's not racist to discuss the impact especially on more disadvantaged people and communities.

There's no difference between that and the multiple threads complaining about influx of regional 'incomers' adding to housing, infrastructure, or job pressures.

With the 'we need (loads) more people to fill jobs' argument. There's 916,000 total job vacancies in the UK but over 1 million people on jobseekers benefits (that's not including people on sickness benefits). There's a need to invest in good training and education opportunities.

Yes there's a minority of genuine bigots who don't like 'people different to me' just because they're different or 'not from here' (directed towards both immigrants and regional within-UK 'incomers'), but for the majority the issues regarding mass immigration are the same as for regional within-UK relocations.

It's unreasonable to ignore the issues and impact especially on the less advantaged. Of course any discussion needs to be done in an adult and calm way, avoiding knee-jerk reactions or hostility towards 'incomers' (immigrant or regional within-UK) but it does need to be addressed, and solutions need to be found that are compassionate to immigrants but take into account the needs of people already here especially the more disadvantaged.

You’re wasting your time. Statistically rape has essentially been decriminalised. You can if and but for as long as the thread lasts. The facts remain incontrovertible.

’You’re wasting your time’ = ‘I have no response’

Again, go and tell me how you would prove such a case. And if not, why not?

To add. There's a complete difference between someone coming here to fill a skilled job role that has a shortage of qualified applicants (dentist or doctor, for example, although arguably longer term there's a need to invest in education and training for these jobs), versus exploitation of people (whether from the UK or abroad) in low skilled 'cheap labour' jobs.

Actually I can’t be arsed. The facts speak for themselves. It’s like trying to argue with a flat earther.

You can’t be arsed because you’ve taken an isolated figure and it suits your narrative not to give it context. And you don’t really understand anyway.

To put some context on your somewhat misleading number:
Half of complainants withdraw support for the prosecution after complaint
Reported rapes have more than doubled since 2010

So while Tory cuts definitely account for some of it, the number of complaints has spiralled, and many complainants withdraw support for the prosecution meanings the ‘complaint’ never ends in anything.

If you’re drawing equivalences between me giving you hard facts that you’re ignoring and a ‘flat earther’ then you really, really need to look in the mirror.

So how will not voting help that?

I have no-one to vote for. I have fundamental issues with them all. I am not alone in this. Many, many posters feel the same. At the moment we only have two candidates, Conservative or Lib Dem. It's not a super choice is it?

No it’s not, but doing nothing changes nothing!

I'm 66 and was a lifelong labour voter until Corbyn. My views veer from very left wing (pro nationalisation)on some subjects to right wing (in favour of some radical reform of NHS) on others. I absolutely don't want time and money wasted on hand wringing over brexit. I voted remain but my biggest regret is the division it caused in society.

My priorities

1. NHS

I want the next government to settle with the doctors and make working conditions such that doctors are not leaving en mass.

2, Education.
Retain teachers by improving pay and workload. and make the job attractive enough to entice back many 1000s of qualified ex teachers

3.Housing.
Build social housing and stop right to buy.

4.Energy security
Build nuclear

5.Food security.

Support British farmers in every way, subsidies etc. If we can't do that after brexit it's too bad.

So who will I vote for?

We definitively need yo bote on this one.
The country is plagued with problems and we need to chose someone to fix them. None of the candidates is perfect, but not voting is the worst option.

Economy

Everything else is dictated by that.