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.

I’ll vote conservative. I’ll never vote for labour and a vote for any other party is a vote for Starmer

Labour. If I lived in a constituency in which labour didn't have a shot, I'd vote tactically to keep the Tories out.

Unless our awful FPTP system is changed, I don't feel anyone has a real choice about who to vote for.

If SDP have a candidate in my constituency I will vote for them.

What is it about the current Conservative party, their policies and performance in government that has persuaded you to vote for them?

I'm not sure that's true to be honest.

For example in the Uxbridge by-election the Labour candidate lost because people voted for the Greens and Lib Dems etc.

That's why I'm determined to vote tactically in my constituency for maximum effect.

All any of us can do is vote as effectively as we can I our own constituency, so I'll be doing the same as you, voting tactically fit whoever can beat the Tory candidate.

I can't see us going Green yet so it will be Lib Dems or Labour. I don't much mind which.

The important thing is that we don't get any more Tory years.

The country can't afford it.

I cannot see me voting for either.

The conservative party have been unable to deliver anything near a conservative government. I do not particularyy want a Labour government either.

I doubt that Labour will get the landslide predicted on here. Remember social media is very loud and generally left orientated.

Perhaps instead of relying on social media for GE predictions you could look at opinion polls and extrapolations such as this one, which has accurately predicted 7 or the last 8.

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html

Perhaps instead of relying on social media for GE predictions you could look at opinion polls and extrapolations such as this one, which has accurately predicted 7 or the last 8

I am not talking about the result. I am talking about the margin of the result.

Helpfully

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html

Uses the data from opinion polls to predict the margin of the result as well.

It's predicting that Labour have 45.3% of votes, resulting in 443 seats

Last election Tories had 44.7%, resulting in 365 seats.

Constituency boundaries really do skew things in favour of Labour (you might see that as a good thing) and have done for a considerable time

Atm unsure. Not sure KS is up to the job. You don’t hear much about his policies.

I think Kier Starmer and Rishi Sunak are both quite weasely, they are peas in a privileged pod. I will vote for the party whose policies I align with at election time not for tactics.
I find it hard to support labour, so many memories of earnest socialist worker types like starmer at university, rarely a clue about the origins of the labour party, even less of a clue how their brand of socialism will actually impact the people they claim to stand for. One of them stood for election. Maybe he cared or maybe he thought it would look good on his CV. Wonder where where he is now.

Starmer is propped up by a load of focus groups and advice but finds it hard when on the spot.

Hence an interview going wrong then requiring a speech a couple of days later to state approved position.

This is because of our soundbite based right wing media that jumps upon small issues and exaggerate and distort the outcomes. Do you think we would have this chaos if people voted based on policies rather than Milliband’s bacon sandwich?

Labour has a green energy plan to build more energy efficient homes and implement policies to make more affordable homes for people. They want to harness the green energy industries to be able to export cleaner energy and not rely on fossil fuels and create jobs in the green energy industry.

They want to create a new nationalised green energy company to provide cheaper energy based on renewables and pump profits back into training in skilled technical jobs for the future. They want to make sure that nobody gets cold and had the ability to heat their house.

Reform of the NHS and power given to local care in the community with greater authority for primary care and preventative measures in the hands of local bodies able to respond better to the needs of the community. implementation of a radical package of data driven diagnostics and management with an IT overhaul of outdated IT and accountability to the local community for health outcomes.

13,000 extra police and PCOs on patrol to keep eyes on the street and make people feel safer in their homes and in the community. A package of respect orders and enforcement to reduce antisocial behaviour. A pledge to halve violent crime against women and girls and make women feel safe in the streets. Implement better partnerships between the government, police and business to ensure that crime is driven out by design and act as a partnership to reduce low level criminal behaviour. Greater accountability to the local community for crime reduction and a more educated Data driven method of policing based on technology. also getting tough on the causes of crime, help for drug cessation, a radical reform of drug policies, housing, employment and youth activities.

Expansion of apprenticeships, more focus on practical ways to work such as degrees while working, training on the job and better pathways to careers. Reform of education for a more broad based arts and technical education outside the realm of traditional learning. Reform of childcare to provide working families with much cheaper affordable childcare, expansion of free school meals and the wider rollout of breakfast clubs so that no child has to go hungry at the start of the school day.

There is much more if you switch off GB news and look elsewhere for labour policies.

You can't please everybody
Our current politicians are trying to be crowd pleasers to stay in power. They are as flimsy as the proverbial straw man. Flimsy not flexible.

The SDP has not existed for a number of years. Marking SDP on your sheet and putting an “X” next to it is a wasted vote.

Green energy plan-interesting.Utilities should never have been privatised, if they are making a profit that should go back in to infrastructure or to the treasury.

NHS reform- last IT overhaul was a disaster, NHS local sounds like devolution, NHS needs to be centrally managed but locally effective. NHS is an unwieldy beast, world's 5th biggest employer apparently. If paid for by tax the salaries and resources for it are enormous. Someone needs to look very carefully at where that money is going.

Police-- their use of powers has had some very bad press. I was brought up to trust the police, that trust has crumbled and that is not about numbers. Yes to more police but as I said, quality not quantity.
As for women feeling safer, they think women have penises so that could be problematic.

Education-apprenticeships are marvellous. I've worked with amazingly skilled and experienced people who have been replaced by people with none of their skills rather than having people train alongside them. Experience beats theoretical knowledge and we are losing that experience to cost based analyses. NQTs are cheaper right.
Childcare should be encouraged on site where possible with financial incentives to companies to do so.
(Same for transport, many of us can' t work from home and if you specialise you follow the work- if you want to get cars off the road you could subsidise company mini buses from transport hubs- and many apprentices may not be in a position to run their own car anyway)

Not true

They are a small splinter party without any hope of success, they are fielding very few candidates.

Not the same as non-existent then. Have you just googled them or were you using poetic licence earlier.

But as I said if they field a candidate in my area I will vote for them. I don't have to be a crowd pleaser I have the luxury of being true to myself.

about 70% of government IT projects have a red or amber status. These are the ones run by external consultancy companies or outsourcing firms. This government has squandered loads on ineffectual projects, when a company fails, they say we are going to walk away and not finish a project as we are not making any money in this, so the Tories give them another lucrative IT project so that can make a profit on that. Labour are going to bring more management in-house led by clinicians and proper NHS management so knowledge is not lost to outsourcers and projects are built to suit purpose.

As for “women with penis stuff”. You are obviously listening to the right wing press. The Labour Party brought in the GRA in 2004 but they recognise times have changed and situations have occurred which need clarification in law. They will overhaul the act to protect trans people but also protect single sex spaces through a consultation process with interested and affected parties. The “stand up for women with penises” is straight out of the Express and does not capture the nuance or the fine line that labour are trying to tread in trying to make a fair and representative law that will appeal to a broad spectrum of the community to make people feel safe.

Please don’t succumb to the simplicity of soundbite politics and the disinformation sown by the rabid right wing press and how they misrepresent labour to the electorate. What is telling is not just reporting but also the lack of reporting on news and the policies of labour. Try and use a wide variety of sources to discern what is reality rather than propaganda rags like the Mail (who supported Herr Hitler and and the wonderful things he was doing for Europe) or GB News or Talk Tv that have to perform mind gymnastics to skew rather rational policy as extremism.

Or perhaps I heard Kier Starmer stammering responses to questions about cervix and penis owners.
I am a biological realist, if that makes me right wing the goalposts are a long way from home.
Your answers are patronising, partial and in no way intellectually persuasive to me.

Try and use a wide variety of sources to discern what is reality rather than propaganda rags like the Mail or GB News or Talk Tv that have to perform mind gymnastics to skew rather rational policy as extremism.

I may vote Conservative but I'm pretty confident that I read a wider range of press from both sides of the political spectrum than many Labour voters.

I find it odd that there seems to be a consensus that left wing press = all things good and unbiased and right wing press = pure evil propaganda. By the same token, I'm well aware that the Guardian and Telegraph, for example, each have their own axes to grind.

Constituency boundaries have changed since 2019 so that might affect the overall result.