Are you voting for Brown/Cameron/Clegg, OR...?

[TrillianAstra]

Are you voting for whichever of your local candidates impresses you the most?

What is the "correct" thing to do here?

(B/C/C in alphabetical order in the title by the way )

3rd option of course is to be voting for the party as a whole.

3rd option - voting for the party and their policies which I believe suit me and my circumstances best and my hopes for the country best.

I voted today by postal vote.

North East England: Labour candidate is cut from the same cloth as his predecessor whom I wasn't impressed by.

The Conservative candidate lives a 3 hr drive away and is a stand in as I suppose the party cannot find one local person to stand for the seat.

If I don't vote Liberal I'll have to vote BNP or UKIP.

I had already decided to vote for a particullar local candidate, but happily things seem to be progressing such that I am agreeing more with his party than the others anyway.

Ditto foxytocin. Also in the North East here and was undecided between Labour and LibDem until I watched the first two debates, but confidently cast my vote for the party I felt I had most common ground with, policy wise. Voting Tory, UKIP or BNP wouldn't even a consideration for me, regardless of who happened to lead them.

You can only vote for your local candidate. There is no concept of voting for a party as a whole. It makes no difference if your local candidate doesn't get in.

I went to a 'Question Time' of our local constituency candidates the other day. It was very interesting, especially now that Clegg lovers are suddenly silent. The local Liberal candidate is appalling - didn't even know his own manifesto.

like foxy and ouryeve, i am in the north east - in a long standing labour seat. Even if i wanted to vote non-labour, i think it would take a miracle for labour to lose this town. AM torn tbh, as do i vote for the candidate, or the party

Of course MmeBlueberry - but I was interested in seeing if people are voting for Tom, Dick, or Harry because:

1: they want Tom, Dick, or Harry to be their MP
2: they want Brown, Cameron or Clegg to be their Prime Minister
3: they want a Labour, Tory, or Lib Dem government

I can imagine that there might be situations where you think that Tom your Labour candidate would make the best MP for your constituency, but you also think that the Conservatives would make a better government, and maybe of the 3 leaders you might prefer Nick Clegg.

Well, maybe not all of that

I see your point OP. I am ambivalent on a local level, but on a party policy and leader level am fervently a Labour supporter.

Sadly I live in a very historically Tory constituency. So maybe the thing to do would be to tactically vote Lib Dem but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Who are you voting for Trill?

or rather, which party does the particular local candidate you are voting for belong to?

He's a Lib Dem.

For me, if I had some real choices in candidates I would investigate more about their parties' policies and how they were likely to vote in the Commons and things like whether they have knowledge of his or her party's manifesto.

As it is, I have no real choice. The Labour guy who will most likely win does not inspire confidence. The Tory's don't even have someone who lives here so I can't trust that person to represent me. The Lib candidate at least does and there is a snowball's chance in hell that I would for for either of the other 2 muppets parties, UKIP / BNP

Partly party, partly local PMP.

It'll be another LibDem vote here.

Ooh you're such a political hub Riven!

3rd option. Voting for the party I really want and the only party we can afford to have. Voting against a good local MP (Kate Hoey), but I can't vote for her party.

Mercifully I am not taken with any of our local candidates or any of the potential leaders (tho would prefer Clegg for a dinner date) and consequently feel free to focus on policies. But the other dilemma is tactical - I agree most with Green Party policies but the fight is between Lib Dem and Tories so I will bestow on the one closest

I'm voting Lib Dem because I support their policies... I have been impress by Nick Clegg, but I'm voting for the manifesto not the leader, he's just a bonus

I confess I actually know nothing about the local LD candidate, though sadly I'm registered in a safe Tory seat so it won't make a difference - my vote was always going to be a protest vote anyway... though who knows these days!

I vote on the manifesto regardless of the local candidate.

Voting against a good local MP (Clare Ward), but I can't vote for her party here as well.

I'll be voting based on manifesto mainly.