If we had a General Election next week who would you vote for and why?

[IdaBWells]

I cannot personally vote as I have lived overseas for too long. Who would you vote for and why?

[Graphista]

MonkeyToesofDoom - exactly! Ludicrous reason for voting for or "against" any party! Self sabotage at its height in many cases.

"Thinking that lifelong labour voters are not voting Labour because of a leaders jacket or because they couldn't imagine having a cup of tea with corbyn is breathtaking." We're not assuming we're seeing posts just like that on this and other threads and elsewhere online. People are honestly saying that's why they will/won't vote for certain parties.

"I couldn't vote labour because I can't stand JC"

"I couldn't in good conscience vote Labour and embolden that odious man running the party."

pretty much proves our point!

[birdsdestiny]

You are also seeing lifelong Labour voters with serious concerns about the party, but I guess those posts are more difficult to challenge.

[MonkeyToesOfDoom]

but I guess those posts are more difficult to challenge

Well obvipusly.
I would hope lifelong supporters of a party are well versed in that parties policies and what they are standing for.
If those policies no longer match up with their values then they shouldn't vote for that party. They will be replaced.by people.whos morals and beliefs do tally with that party.

[MrsMiggins37]

Labour.

Lifelong labour voter here, even though they’re shite. I feel politically homeless at the moment and although Corbyn is awful he’s better than the tories.

[EngTech]

I think I would vote for the NOTA party as I don’t trust any of them 😳

[BishopBrennansArse]

Labour.
I'm disabled, my kids are disabled and I've seen what the cuts have done to us as a family on our healthcare and the money we have coming in and managing on. I've seen other families go under. I've seen the pressure on schools including my son's special school that might have to go four day week. The police were unable to investigate disability hate crime against us due to lack of resources despite firm evidence. The public sector is on its knees.

[Graphista]

No it's not that they're more difficult to challenge at all.

I can respect people making voting decisions based on policy and how it will affect them personally. Even if I disagree with that choice.

But to vote based on personalities alone, or with ZERO understanding of a party's ethos makes no sense whatsoever and often leads to people voting for a party who's policies disadvantage those exact voters.

As for "lifelong voters" any voter who votes for a party purely because that is who they've always voted for is just as naive/ignorant, and I have found/noticed an awful lot of "lifelong" labour voters who are too young to have voted before Blair, so used to vote labour when it was "new labour" which was very much in real terms Tory lite, are actually not very well informed on what the Labour Party was created for, who they were created to represent and what their true original ethos was and is (actually quite gradually) returning to.

They talk as if labour has turned into something it's "not supposed to be" when actually it's returning to its true socialist roots.

Also a good many people not understanding socialism or how it serves them and their loved ones. There are very few people for whom Tory policy would actually make their lives better and labour policy make their lives worse.

[ArabellaDoreenFig]

And as I've noted there's a shocking number of people who clearly have never even READ let alone carefully considered the actual policies or records of the parties before deciding who to vote for!

Can you expand on this? Because it looks an awful lot like you are saying that anyone who has different political ideas to you haven’t read/researched any policies. Is that what you think?
You can’t understand how anyone may have different thoughts/opinions/ideas to your own?

[Jason118]

Life long labour voter but never again since labelled part of the 80% Brexit brigade. Until Labour back remain they've lost me, as I've told them repeatedly. As Mr Johnson and his ShitShow puppet tour begins, I'm despairing of my country and increasingly the people in it.

[birdsdestiny]

Well there's some truth in that somewhere, the misogyny for example has always bubbled under in the Labour party for example so maybe it is returning to its roots.
You do understand that in order to win an election you would need to sway the ex Blair voters and god forbid even some of the Tory voters in order to gain power.
I know people want it to only belong 'to those whose morals and beliefs do tally with the party', (the arrogance again is breathtaking), but in order to gain power you have to gain the votes of the people you are disparaging as not ideologically pure enough.

[sodabreadjam]

SNP. Wish we had won independence in 2014 as we are now being dragged out of the EU against the will of the Scottish people.

If I lived in England I would struggle to know who to vote for.

[RebeccaWrongDaily]

I will always vote and will always vote Labour.
Hopefully Jeremy and his acolytes will piss off soon. My MP is a brilliant MP and she will always get my vote.

[Hermagsjesty]

I’ve always voted Labour - and stuck it out as a member until 2017 but I won’t vote for Labour under Corbyn - not because I don’t like his jacket or how he drinks his tea - but because I have been horrified by the culture that has emerged in the party under his leadership. The anti-Semitism, the bullying, the NDAs, the constant denial and refusal to reflect or reach out, the bad faith arguments, the whataboutery, the attacking of anyone who disagrees - calling them Red Tories, Yellow Tories, Tory-lite. The self righteous belief that anyone who doesn’t share exactly the same political world view is evil. ‘For the many’ but only if ‘the many’ agree completely with us. It’s a toxic party now. I’ll vote either Green or Lib Dem depending on local candidates. Time for the tribal two party system to be broken once and for all.

[Namenic]

Lib Dem’s.
Labour have done a bad job at remain and I think their policies are too expensive.

Would not vote Tory or Brexit party. I would like to see tories and labour splitting into right and left wings to give more of a choice.

[Graphista]

"Can you expand on this? Because it looks an awful lot like you are saying that anyone who has different political ideas to you haven’t read/researched any policies. Is that what you think?"

Absolutely not. I'm talking about posts/comments on mn and elsewhere where people have directly said that the reasons they are voting/not voting for whatever party are "because X party does this" or "y party does that" when what they're stating is factually wrong, they are believing myths they've picked up from poor journalism or SM memes etc

"You can’t understand how anyone may have different thoughts/opinions/ideas to your own?" I can totally understand and appreciate that. I'm a socialist, vegetarian, working class woman who has friends that include conservative, pro-hunting, meat eating, upper class people, with whom I regularly debate many of the issues we care about and clearly we don't always agree, but we can and do like and respect each other, because while they hold different views/opinions to me that's not as a result of a lack of knowledge/information.

Have different opinions by all means but be informed and prepared to debate those opinions if you make them public.

"You do understand that in order to win an election you would need to sway the ex Blair voters and god forbid even some of the Tory voters in order to gain power." I genuinely believe that if more of these voters actually familiarised themselves with the manifesto/policies and how these would benefit not only themselves and their loved ones as well as the wider U.K. Society they might be surprised to see that many are actually in line with what they want to happen in this country. But unfortunately most people simply go off the msm and SM now and don't look into matters in any real depth.

A prime example was with the Tory leadership election and quite a few supposedly not right wing voters/thinkers falling for Rory Stewart's PR, thinking he was less right wing, "nicer" than the other candidates when the truth was far from the case.

People should make the effort to get to know their MPs and other representatives, the parties they represent, their voting records, what they care about etc far too few people even know who their MP is!

[Ivegotthree]

Conservatives.

Labour is riddled with anti Semitism.

Lib Dems useless.

[dadshere]

The only party with any kind of sensible and practical policies is Labour. Tories as always are the party of the rich; tax cuts for the wealthy, screw the rest of us. Lib dems are tories dressed in yellow, same austerity and screwing the poor, the sick and the vulnerable, but with a little hand-wringing and donating old clothes to oxfam. UKIP are a one trick pony, of mostly old, stupid fascists. The rest of the parties are non-entities.

[Moomin8]

Labour is riddled with anti semitism

Whereas the Conservative party is now being led by a man who hangs around with Steve Bannon, a fucking eugenicist!

Some people need to be honest with themselves about the real reasons they vote conservative at any cost 🙄

[Dita73]

Anyone but Corbyn

[leckford]

Anyone but Corbyn

[fromthefloorboardsup]

I'd vote Labour

[TemporaryPermanent]

In this constituency, Liberal Democrat. I'm an old school tactical voter and I want to keep a Tory out.

I certainly don't like everything the LDs do or stand for. I don't even want Revoke or a second referendum as I think the divisions and what we have already lost go too deep. But I'm buggered if I'll have my vote counted as pro Brexit. Also although I think saying humans can change sex is borderline insane, there is no party that isn't saying it. The Tories come closest but I think they are entirely in a few corporate pockets, especially the big house builders who have held this country to ransom for decades and are largely responsible for the housing crisis. When we are walking past tents on the main streets of every city, something in thought I would never see again after the shanty towns of the 90s were finally sorted out, I know why I never vote Tory.

[birdsdestiny]

If only you were all more informed you would vote labour like me. Do people have the slightest clue about how that looks and sounds to people.

[LAlady]

LIb Dem. I've voted Conservative in the past but never again.

My DH, a staunch through and through Conservative all his life, has now joined the Lib Dem party.

[ArabellaDoreenFig]

@Graphista thanks for responding, you are clearly very passionate about politics, and that’s always a good thing.

Are you northern or southern working class? The reason I ask is that I have a theory about socialism in relation to northerners and southerners-
For a bit of background I’m from a northern working class background, grew up in an industrial town in the 80/90s when that industry was dwindling, my mum is disabled and when my dad got laid off what followed was 10 years in the ‘benefits trap’ , and being poor in an area where there is nothing is a lot different to being poor in an affluent area. There were no museums, the library was limited, terrible transport links, parks not looked after, no free clubs or events etc. Anyway my dad eventually retrained (in the career he had always wanted) and went back to work, by that time me and my brother were moving out so my mum and dad have been ok living on 1 income.
When I was 18 I won a scholarship to a college doing something I had always wanted - and was lucky enough to spend 3 years in London, with my fees paid and a little to cover my accommodation, I had a part time job but couldn’t do much as my course was very demanding, and I found there is a massive difference being poor in London- there were beautifully kept parks and green spaces, museums, galleries, libraries with books from the past year, fantastic transport, etc etc.

Anyway, the point is that what you see as socialism may well look like London, but what I see as socialism looks very grim indeed, we can’t share wealth and resources that aren’t there

I think that have a well funded healthy welfare state and a good base level of living conditions for all we need capitalism.


Sorry for the derail of the thread - happy to move the discussion on to a different thread.