Help me decide which way to vote!!

[SomethingFunny]

I live in a massive Tory majority seat. There is no way my vote would make a difference to that as we are one of, if not the most, safest seats in the country.

I have read manifestos and done all the research and I like Greens best. There are 3 things on their manifesto I disagree with, but everything else I like. Add to that our local Green Party candidate is actually local and cares for the community.

Labour policies are OK in my opinion, although I am not a huge fan. I am not keen at all on my local candidate,

So I am trying to decide- do I vote with my heart and go Green or do I vote for Labour as my vote might actually count if it comes down to who has the mandate for governing the country by percentage of votes (and not just the most seats)? I would 100% prefer labour to Tories.

Help!! What should I do??

Percentage of votes doesn't really count for anything. Morally perhaps it should do but it doesn't. Vote for your best fit. Remember if they do really badly they lose their deposit so at least your vote helps the greens financially.

There is another advantage of voting Green. The more Green votes there are, the more chance there is of putting pressure on the system to grant proportional representation.

I've just done a very similar thread except I'm in a lib dem constitution but at massive risk of the Tories taking the seat. Ideally I would vote greens too!

I know percentage doesn't count. But if as predicted the Tories get the most seats (just) but can't easily form/keep a government and Labour gets a chance, if the actual voting split between the two was 34% Labour and 33% Conservative, then Labour would have more of a mandate than if Tories had 33% and Labour only 32%?

Lj8893, I saw your post! Your situation is much harder as your vote might count in your seat!

I wouldn't risk letting the Tories get the seat, therefore I would vote Labour.

I can see what you mean with the percentages but I don't think it will work like that in reality. If you prefer Green I'd say vote for them (I say this as a labour voter-to-be myself).

Go with your heart.

It is time we all told our esteemed 'leaders' exactly what sort of society we want to see here in Britain. All strategic voting is achieving is giving crooks and traitors a legitimate mandate to continue. If you are fed up with all of the crooks and traitors, whatever colour flag they wave, then it is past time to tell them so.

Also, as claig says, the bigger the mismatch between vote percentage gained and seat percentage gained, the more obviously broken our democracy becomes, the greater the pressure for reform will become.

Lots of political discussion in the Guatemalan household this morning and I have actually changed my mind. If the result is close but Labour get the bigger share of the vote then Cameron would find it difficult to justify forming a conservative government or conservative led coalition. There is only a small chance that your vote could make a difference but any chance of helping to keep the tories out would be enough for me, so I'd say vote labour. That's just my view though, of course. Good luck deciding!

I echo precisely what GuatemalanRum just said!

I agree with Guatemalan too. Vote Labour. And it's got nothing at all to do with Nothing at all. Honestly.

We had a vote on PR (AV) in May 2011. It was one of the bones the LibDems were thrown in the Coalition Agreement. It was 68% against changing the current system.

I'm also in a solidly Tory constituency but will vote Labour. It gives me some satisfaction to make my mark even if it seems futile. But I hate the idea of PR and coalitions because no one gets what they actually voted for and policy is decided in an underhand backstairs haggling match.

I hope Ed gets enough seats to present a Queen's Speech and then we'll see what the other parties really care about.

"We had a vote on PR (AV) in May 2011. It was one of the bones the LibDems were thrown in the Coalition Agreement. It was 68% against changing the current system. "

We had a vote about one specific type of pr. We have never really had a proper public debate about all the possible methods and pros and cons. As you succinctly said, it was a bone thrown under the table to the dogs, and I think I voted against it myself in the end.

It's true there will never be a perfect system, but is this one really the best we can manage? Not convinced. There ought to be a way of combining PR with the need for personal representation. One thing's for sure, if we don't look for one, we won't find it.

Cue music... 'You gotta have a dream, if you don't have a dream,how're you ever gonna have a dream come true'. Or some such fiddle-faddle.

"General Election 2015: Sixty per cent of people want voting reform, says survey"
...

A majority of people support electoral reform amid growing fears of chaos after Thursday’s general election, according to a survey for The Independent.

Politicians in all parties admitted there will be a renewed debate about voting reform if the first-past-the-post system produces the stalemate suggested by the opinion polls."

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-2015-sixty-per-cent-of-people-want-voting-reform-says-survey-10224354.html

Let's watch after the elections and see which of them are for real and back the people and which of them try to prevent it.

I live in a safe labour seat. I am not sure that either a labour led or tory led government is right for the country. So I've done the same and read lots of information about all parties. The Greens are the best fit for me so I'm voting for them. Ideally, this helps them to become a louder voice in politics and therefore have a greater influence. If they pick up lots of votes it surely will make people sit up and take notice? Even in safe labour/Tory/lib dem seats.

I am in the same scenario but am usually a Labour voter. I thought about voting Green but am sticking with Labour to keep up their share of the popular vote just in case that makes a difference.

gibbering . You're right that the referendum in May 2011 wasn't about PR as such but it was an acceptance of FPTP by quite a large margin. In fact Ed Miliband has declared support for PR in the past. It always surprises me that no one I know remembers that referendum!

Actually it's the 5 Year fixed term parliament that really winds me up. We were never asked to vote on that one - and it could put us in a terrible bind of being governed for 5 years by a minority govt which cannot call a snap election to try to get a proper majority. For this reason I hope voters will ruthlessly abandon the smaller parties on Thursday and vote for either of the two main parties and avoid such a scenario.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32235317

The last two QAs are particularly sobering.
Tinkering with the system can have unforeseen consequences.

enoch, is there any reason why the 5 year fixed term parliament act could not be 'de-enacted' with the same speed with which it was enacted? I also hate it, it is anti-democratic. I don't think government should have had the power to push that through without a referendum. I don't see fear as a good reason to force another tory government on us - more lack of democrcy for fear of chaos. We need change too badly.

I think it should be de-enacted as soon as possible. It seems to have appeared as a 'good wheeze' during the coalition discussions in 2010 to give them a completely unprecedented security of tenure and of course the coalition had enough votes in Parliament to get it through. Think how the pension pots of those Lib Dems who got cabinet posts must have been swelled in 5 years!

I rather think they Tories might be regretting it now. As I said, WE weren't asked. I don't recall it forming part of anyone's manifesto and it's a very big change to have gone through with so little comment.

However, I wouldn't want to see a referendum on every bit of legislation, which is the way we seem to be heading - and then threats of another referendum when one side or another doesn't get what it wants. We put our crosses in a GE according to which party's referendum we favour most. I don't want my choice watered down in negotiations with other parties, nor do I want to be stuck with a compromise for 5 years.

To my mind, by voting Labour I am signalling that I don't want a referendum on EU membership, for example.

The 5-year fixed parliament was a good idea at the time as; the party in power before May 2010 had no idea how to fix their own mess, the Conservatives/Lib Dems and new OBR assumed that it was going to be difficult to fix (based on their own growth/unemployment forecasts to now) - and if Labour HAD managed to vote everything down SUCCESSFULLY in parliament, we'd clearly be in the same mess as Europe now, especially France.

Has it had its day, possibly.

The point of an MP is we shouldn't need a referendum on everything, as 650 of them should have the brains to work out what is right for the country, not vote on outdated/failed party ideology.

In 2010 the UK economy was far too unbalanced, with 'government' (not front line services) taking up far too much of the countries output/taxes - all this local democracy hoping closed ranks of people in the likes of Rotherham(?) can make the right decisions on behalf of the people, rather than their own self interest ass covering - is a bit of a stretch IMO.

The only bit of English Reform we need asap, is the 'English MP votes, on English only matters' the Conservatives have said they'll put through if a majority, in the first 100-days - before England gets plundered.

Rule of government thumb:the more government at all levels down to local, the more expensive it is, the higher your taxes go to pay their secure salaries, with no performance worries, and Final Salary pensions - so jobs for the 'not so few'.

The UK can afford to stay in a bloated EU if the UK isn't being run the same way. IMO

Labour lost 1 million manufacturing jobs in their first 7-years (2-years before the crash) probably because they had the 'business' of government and took their eye off the private sector/bill paying ball - as this micro management 'stuff' below, takes time and energy.

Blair's 'frenzied law making' :a new offence for every day spent in office

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blairs-frenzied-law-making--a-new-offence-for-every-day-spent-in-office-412072.html

This business of private sector jobs........

You do realise that Cameron counts in the employees of the banks that were bailed out in the Crash as being public sector workers, thus claiming that Brown increased the numbers of public employees by far more than he did? Then, at the same time as tuition fees were hiked up the universities were privatised and their employees thus became private sector workers.

His claim to have increased private sector jobs and decreased public sector ones should be taken with a pinch of salt before you even start counting jobs transferred to the private sector by hiving off children's care homes, prisons, end of life care, etc etc, to the likes of Serco, G4S.......