To not feel the need to vote in the general election

[Imambaldi]

I can’t see the point in voting for any of the parties as I think they are all as bad as each other.
They historically change goal posts to suit themselves, pilfer public funds and get away with it, break the rules that Joe Public has to follow and I feel politics just stinks.

However, I don’t want the conservatives to get back in but dread to think what the alternative will be.

I’m in Scotland and we’re stuck with the SNP for years.
I’m at a loss how to vote tactfully to rid the uk of Conservatives and feel that on election day it will be a case of not voting at all or “ which numpty should I vote for?’

I think you will see the tradition was to leave a note for your successor, not uncommon in business either, nothing wrong in that.

The tradition was not to mock a tough financial situation.

Of course weaponising the other sides behaviour is a tool used again and again and again by all sides and one potential contributor to why some may not feel voting is for them.

And the note left for Jim Callaghan was “Good luck, old cock, sorry to leave it in such a mess.”

Would you suggest not voting Tory on the basis of that note? I don't think for a second that Liam Byrne was mocking the situation.

If you don’t like the SNP in Scotland and the Tories in the UK then isn’t it obvious to vote Labour?

Don’t vote, don’t complain later as to the outcome.

So to summarise. On 4th July, the likelihood of Labour forming the next Government in Westminster with a landslide victory is very much inevitable. Labour wins.

If you vote for any other party other than Labour, Labour wins.

If you go to the ballot box and spoil your vote, Labour wins.

If you decide like me not to vote at all, Labour wins.

You can complain all you like for the next 5 years if you don't like the inevitable outcome of the election, but it won't change anything, Labour still wins.

But at least the Tories will be gone, for now.

Yes, to tactically vote, I’d need to vote SNP which I just cannot do. I think I am going to vote labour.

Short memory...or maybe you are not old enough. The Bliar cash for honours scandal of the early 2000s springs to mind when it comes to using their position in government to raise money for the party. One could also argue that the war against Iraq was an illegal act by labour government, which is rather more serious than a few parties during a lockdown

But, FPTP is a terrible system. No party in power has any interest in changing it, and the upcoming majority will make this even more the case. My view, and I have voted for all 3 of the 'main' parties over the 30 odd years I have had the vote, is that if you don't think any of them have given you reason to vote them you must still go and spoil the paper, to at least mark your discontent

Actually Liam Byrne himself later told the Guardian he burnt every day at the shame of that note, and that note was the last time labour was in power not 60 years ago. - Article easily found.

However the Guardian (as you must be aware no friend of the Tories) report of that incident 60 years ago is very different from how you paint it, they report a verbal exchange with his friend as he was clearing his desk

‘politicians talk of Reginald Maudling, outgoing Tory chancellor in 1964, bumping into Labour successor, Jim Callaghan, a personal friend, as he cleared his desk. "Sorry old cock, to leave it in this shape," he said’