If there was a GE today who would you vote for?

[87SPD]

Bit cheeky but I’m curious to see if there are genuinely any Tory voters out there at all following another disastrous week for Rishi Sunak.

So who would get your vote?

I‘ll go first, I would vote Labour. As much as I would love to hear more on policy and a firm grittiness from them, I do understand that Keir Starmer is doing the best he can, in that he can’t alienate a large proportion of the electorate so needs to toe the line.

Sadly not here but a lot closer than I’d have expected so with some tactical voting who knows, it predicts the nearly 60% vote share being nearly halved though so progress at least!

@jgw1 - He has scrapped some bonkers proposals like the meat and veg tax, and the car share karaoke compulsion.

This is a joke surely?

?

I didn’t need any encouragement to NOT vote Tory but just watched Partygate. 14 parties!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, Sunak has indeed done those things.

What a man.

@jgw1 - yep a joke. They were never policies. That's what's wrong with politics, slapstick. It's deadly serious, the country is in crisis & the people leading us behave like clowns.

They were policies,the Prime Minister said so. We should hang on his every word, because he is Prime Minister.

They are clowns.

it does not help when you have the majority of the public as you put that vote for your "clowns"

so overall it could be debated that the public that voted the party into power should look into the mirror as to who is partly responsible too.

it could be debated that if people have the vote, then they too need to accept some accountability for the parties they choose

I do sometimes think people should've been asked to out their money where their mouth is with Brexit.

What does it cost us? About a billion pounds every fortnight? 100 billion a year?

Share that cost between the 17 million people who imposed that economic millstone on the rest of us and help the country recoup the money if not the opportunities.

We could call it the Brexit Tax.

There's no obligation to vote for the betterment of our people or our country though, is there?

Or even logically, in accordance with the evidence of our own eyes.

If people want more shit on beaches and demented mini budgets that put £500 a month on their mortgage payment, and some of the highest electricity bills in the world, and record NHS waiting lists, and crumbling concrete above schoolchildren's heads then they are at perfect liberty to vote for the Tories again.

Yes, I agree. Why should me and my children have to suffer because of their stupidly and racism. I'll also have my EU citizenship back thank you very much, they can give up there's.

All the people who didn't bother to vote, or didn't find out anything about the policies of the parties or probable outcomes need to take responsibility too. It is soul destroying for those of us who were paying attention and trying to use our vote wisely.

Exactly

I really despair at the numbers who don't bother voting or deliberately spoil their paper thinking it's some kind of message. They really don't care!! The candidates really aren't reading the messages you write on spoilt voting papers!

The only way to "send a message" is to vote for the best/nearest candidate matching your own views. I think people are just too lazy to bother doing any research etc. It's always the same "no one came canvassing or no one posted any leaflets" etc - so what? Just get on the internet and do a few minutes of research rather than watching videos of cats doing funny things!

People aren't lazy. They are worried about money, working hard, struggling to keep heads above water, struggling with childcare, unable to access timely healthcare. They are ill informed by hopeless political parties who are full of spin and long winded bullshit.Who on earth do you think you are, with your finger pointing and judgement? I am against Brexit myself (and educated, I might add) but thank god I don't think I'm so much better than the voting public.

The candidates might not care, but they (or their election agents) will all stand in a huddle with the Presiding Officer and examine each spoilt paper in turn. So they will read each comment. However, their main aim is to see if any of these ballots could be counted as legitimate votes for them.

If I spoil a paper, it will be so I’m counted as one of the people who cared enough to turn up at the polling station, but felt unable to vote for any of the candidates.

Your non vote won’t be counted. Why do you think so many ploppers on here advocate spoiling your vote

@verdantverdure - I love your "Brexit Tax"! Very funny

But voting for the best fit is exactly what most people do.

And I assure you the candidates and their agents do read what is on a spoilt ballot paper. They have to as an agreement between the candidates is the only way a paper can be declared spoilt.

TBF the Met have had to re open the parties thing and issued another 25 fines.

The idea that you believe that much of this never happened is for the birds.

Having worked at election counts, I can assure you that the spoilt ballots are counted and this figure is announced when each result is declared.

However, the number of spoilt ballots is usually too low for the candidates to care much about them, unless the result is very close.

they are looking to see if they can count them, that’s all

Was chatting to someone in the gym earlier, or rather he was holding forth, somewhat in the style of a golf club bore. One would presume from his work as a business man and background that he would vote Tory. After the had gone on a bit I thought I would suggest that the country would be improved by having a different government, he agreed and said that whilst he normally voted Tory he wouldn't next time.

Interesting to get the views from outside my normal echo chamber.