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Original poster

If there was a general election this week, how would you vote?

267 replies

TheDullWitch · 29/09/2008 15:14

OK, quick poll inspired by David Willetts thread. Answer...

  1. How you would vote
  2. Who you usually vote for
  3. Main issue/personality/event which has made your decision.
OP posts:
Fadge · 30/09/2008 13:57

Sorry didn't realise there was another thread there with reasons on, the other one is purely a poll, here's the netmums reasonings:

here

NorkyButNice · 30/09/2008 13:59

Thanks Fadge - I am slightly baffled by the idea that it's "Tory" to want to put your own family's interests first.

mrsruffallo · 30/09/2008 14:01

Labour- I could never vote Tory.
I think MN is so anti tory because many of us are of the age to remember the disaster of the Thatcher years.
This country has never really recovered

edam · 30/09/2008 14:03

Well, the Labour party (and, historically, the Liberals) has always stood for social justice. The Tories have always been about protecting the powerful and keeping their privileges. Right back to the bleeding Corn Laws and before.

That's why the 10p tax thing was so shocking - you could see it coming from the Tories, appalling from Labour.

However, just in case any of us fell for Cameron's 'we care about poor people' lies, they then admitted they wanted to abolish inheritance tax for millionaires. Clearly haven't actually changed one jot.

mrsruffallo · 30/09/2008 14:03

OOooh, look at all those tories on NM (nosey)

Fadge · 30/09/2008 14:04

Lots of comments about remembering the 80s, are any of you old enough to recall the 70s??

Bridie3 · 30/09/2008 14:06

It wasn't all a disaster. A lot of the money which Gordon Brown had to play with came from...the Thatcher years and the prosperity.

Bad times for some communities, I agree, and for social adhesion. It was wrong not to do more to rebuild and retrain mining and steel communities. I think the mines and steelworks would always had to have gone, though.

wordgirl · 30/09/2008 14:06

Yes I remember sitting in a dark house during the power strike. I remember my mum unravelling one of her jumpers to knit me one for Christmas because my dad (fireman) was on strike. All under a Labour government.
I was a student during some of the Thatcher years. I graduated without being a penny in debt.

wordgirl · 30/09/2008 14:07

power cuts

MuffinMclay · 30/09/2008 14:09

Remember strikes, 3 day week, and sitting in the dark with candles.

Like wordgirl I left university without any debts (and wouldn't have gone at all without the Thatcher government).

Bridie3 · 30/09/2008 14:09

Let's face it, if you were poor but bright, you'd have done much better under Thatcher. You'd be on a 100% grant to a top university. No tuition fees. No student debt.

blackrock · 30/09/2008 14:11

I am a wealthy southerner. Not all wealthy southerners are tories. I would never vote Tory.

I really think it is more to do with your philosophy on society.

Any way Tories don't have policies...it's just each to their own

CatIsSleepy · 30/09/2008 14:24

ah god bless maggie
if only she had stayed in power john major's government wouldn't have been able to freeze student grants and introduce student loans...
tbh the Blair government only continued a process the tories started
not that I'm excusing the Blair government for this!

TwoIfBySea · 30/09/2008 14:27
  1. SNP/Lib Dem/Independent
  2. SNP/Lib Dem/Independent
  3. No change although the Lib Dems are a bit of a lost cause at the moment. I see who is offering best at the time of election and what they have done.

I could never bring myself to vote for either Labour or Tory as they are as bad as each other. I get fed up with the idea of people voting for something they don't agree with. If enough people voted for other parties or independents then perhaps they wouldn't have to vote with heavy hearts.

Nagapie · 30/09/2008 14:27

Most MNers will be so put out having to sign on and give their councils their details, most won't make it to the polls...!!

I think the more interesting question is just what the turnout is going to be ... last election Labour got in but there was only a small 30% odd turnout...

squiffy · 30/09/2008 14:32
  1. Labour
  2. Labour
  3. The miners.
CatIsSleepy · 30/09/2008 14:33

not sure where you got the 30% figure from....was actually 61%
here

CatIsSleepy · 30/09/2008 14:35

and actually maintenance grants for students from low income backgrouds have been re-introduced...
bit measly, mind (but then again they always were)

Nagapie · 30/09/2008 14:41

Sorry - got the wrong end of the stick ...

Madsometimes · 30/09/2008 14:43

Tory
Labour and had been very loyal
They have disappointed me over the last few terms. They have taken us into a terrible war because America told us we could not be friends if we did not go along with them - something I would have expected from a Tory Govt.

They have totally failed to regulate the financial services industry and in their obsession to show that they are committed to a free market have allowed banks to lend money to people who could not afford it. People will lose their homes and jobs now. Also something I would have expected from a Tory Govt.

They have extended public borrowing to pay for the boom times. There is now nothing left to get us through the difficult times. Either spending will have to be cut or taxes raised. Either way, more people will lose their homes and jobs (yes I know this was a proper Labour policy).

ID cards, DNA databases, databases of all our children's details. I suppose I am a Lib Dem but the only one I really like is Vince Cable (who I really really really like). I do find Goerge Osbourne scary.

Can I just move and cast a vote for Obama instead? Our lot are so horrid.

noonki · 30/09/2008 15:18

though disillusioned with the Labour Government (Iraq esp. and loss of civil liberties)

I dread to think what would have happened if the tory party had been in during this time

Most of my family work for the NHS and though have their complaints about targets say that was nothing compared to the lack of funding that the Tories had instigated in the 80's and 90's.

And of course most mners don't vote tory we are generally lovely people

sunshine75 · 30/09/2008 15:27

Muffin - the strikes and 3 day week happened under a Tory Government - Heath

Takver · 30/09/2008 15:31

Bridie3 I went to uni under Thatcher:
a) I didn't get a penny in grant, my family being not dirt poor but not super rich either,
b) the loan process started well before Major (anyone else remember being charged by police horses on Westminster Bridge in 1988 for having the temerity to go out and protest against the proposed introduction of loans?)
I don't think Norky that people do always vote for their immediate personal financial benefit though. I worked at an economic consultancy in the 90s, and in 1992 every single - well paid - economist in the company voted Labour, and more than half of the - badly paid - admin staff voted Conservative, despite the fact that the Labour spending plans would have made all of the economists better off and admin staff worse off. The question is, did the better off vote Labour through altruism, or because we all believed that we would be better off overall because of improved public services, greater social stability, better schools et al? Or indeed just because of tribal hatred of the tories

georgimama · 30/09/2008 15:34

Well if the Labour plans would have made the economists better off, and they voted Labour, that's not really altruism is it? It's self interest.

Either you told your anecdote wrong or it's not really a very good anecdote.

MuffinMclay · 30/09/2008 15:36

Did they really? Not doubting you, but surprised I remember - was only 2 when Heath left power - but it is very clear in my mind (must have been child genius after all ).