Who are you voting for

[fluckityfluckfluck]

Genuinely can't see how I can vote at all....

I feel really torn too. On the one hand, this is the LOCAL elections, so it's about local issues and I'm loathe to let national issues and culture war stuff intrude on what's important for my local area, but on the other, how can I vote for a party that doesn't know what a woman is?

The LDs are in charge here - both our MP and our local council are LD and they aren't bad. When we had a Con MP and a Con-led local council they were shit - the MP didn't even live here, she voted for Brexit when this area was the most anti-Brexit area of the country apart from Scotland and parts of London, and the Con council gave the go-ahead for a huge infrastructure project that will be an unmitigated disaster for this area that local people have been fighting against, tooth and nail, ever since.

I really hate voting for a party though that doesn't believe that women, as a biological group, exist. At a national level, that is the hill I've chosen to die on, but locally? I honestly feel I have to put local issues first, but argh!!!!

No local elections here, so it's a moot point, but -

Views on feminist subjects vary widely within the parties. Almost all of the parties have people within them that I'd vote for. So I'd be likely to base decisions on the individual person, rather than the overall party policy.

And yes, as noted, local elections should not have any connection with party politics, all councillors should be independent, imo.

Rubbish. I shall spoil my ballot with a message saying that I would vote Labour if they knew what a woman was.

Can confirm it's 100% possible to moan about the state of things whether you spoil your ballot, vote four times, or eat the ballot paper.

The election for our ward has been postponed as one of the candidates (the one I was going to vote for) has sadly died. I believe there is another Green Party candidate so I expect it will be that one that I vote for now.

Independent- our incumbent is Independent and great (former Conservative).

The locals I’m fine with, the general not so much.

Labour

I've voted Labour because I've voted on local election issues (and they seem to be the only visible party in my area).
However I'm hoping that national Labour party sort themselves out (by the time the ge is called) on this issue because tactical voting at the ge is what will keep out the tories and I'm going to need to vote Labour for that to happen.

Pasty politics is big for us Cornish!

Spoilt ballot papers will not be pored over by local election candidates. Our local Tory candidate will be re-elected because he organised and put up the flags for the coronation. He wouldn't understand what you are upset about. It's not really a local issue unlike wheelie bins, ASB and pot holes.

Labour. I believe Starmer has quietly peaked in the last year or so, and won't push any additional gender nonsense into law.

Conservative, it's a Labour controlled council but our current Councillor is about as corrupt and useless as you can get, he's independent and the tories have the best chance of removing him

I'll be voting labour. Whilst this issue is very important, it's not the only important thing, and getting the Tories out so they stop fucking the country up is the most important thing for me.

In my constituency, that means voting labour.

I live in one of the most deprived areas in the SE and the council is Tory run and as corrupt as you could imagine. They are all a bunch of NIMBYs who are trying to allocate all the local housing to a wholly inappropriate area away from where they live.

Can't vote for them or Labour, but luckily there are some amazing local independent candidates so hopefully they will get in. They got all the votes in our house!

Guaranteed that all the locals will vote Tory at the GE... its like turkeys voting for Christmas. They moan about it all and then they get voted back in on issues such as immigration which is a huge issue locally due to our location.

My "local conservative" candidate told me today that he agrees with Suella on immigration and that the "illegal immigrants" are taking council housing from local residents. He couldn't answer when I asked him to explain why his Tory controlled council hadn't built any houses themselves for the local residents over the last 15 or so years.

Completely forgot it’s local elections day, only remembered when I saw this thread. I’d obviously never forget (or be allowed to forget) a general election. Makes no difference if I vote in this awful Tory stronghold anyway, in locals or a GE. Bring in PR, or my vote will never count.

Tory stronghold here. I don’t mind them. Services are no better or worse than anyone else’s. I actually voted for my friend who Lib Dem and for the Conservative candidate because the Lib Dems here are quite bonkers ( they need to be “exciting”) to run against the Conservatives.

No voting in my area of Doncaster North this time. Labour would get back in though and do absolutely fuck all, the same as they have done since day dot.

I will never vote Labour whilst ever I have breath in my body.

Unfortunately spoiling ballots doesn't achieve anything, whatever you write eg none of the above counts for nothing.

Rejected ballots are counted but only as one of four categories.

• absence of official mark [polling station stamp]
• voting for more than one candidate
• writing or mark by which the voter could be identified
• unmarked or void for uncertainty

A deliberately spoiled ballot goes into the last category and no candidates will see them whatever is written

Before going in to vote tonight I approached the three gormless rosetted goons outside the polling station (1 each from labour, green and independent) and asked if they could answer a simple question to help me decide who to vote for. Of course the question was ‘what is a woman?’. All 3 of the goons were stunned into silence and I had to repeat myself, several times before the independent candidate starting mumbling something vague about ‘feelings’ and ‘knowing’ and the green confessed he believed trans women are women, so I continued to ask him to define exactly what that - a woman - is, and he couldn’t. So I gave them the ‘adult human female’ definition and the independent asked ‘well what about the opposite?’ And I replied ‘you mean a man? That’s an adult human male!’. Meanwhile the labour candidate just stood with an inane grin on his face so I asked him if he agreed with Keir Starmer’s view that 99.9% of women don’t have penises and 0.1% do. No answer! After that I told them I wouldn’t be voting for any of them 😂The only party that knew what a woman is were the conservatives, as I had emailed all the candidates last week asking the same question and they were the only ones who replied, with ‘adult human female’ as the answer!

Actually that's the best response I've seen to this question. I will be voting Conservative myself because I think women will be lost under Labour and I want them to get the message loud and clear that they won't get my vote in the next GE because of it.

But if I could not stomach voting Tory then asking all the rosettes the question as you did and saying the one who got the answer correct (as per a biology O level) would have got my vote but none of you did so I am leaving without voting, turn on your heel and go, would be far more effective than spoiling your ballot. Sadly you'd have to feel safe enough to do it.

The only candidate to knock on our door was the Labour man. It took four attempts at "What is a woman?" before he could stop shuffling his feet and blustering but he did manage to give a good biological description in the end. When I thanked him and said I was surprised that his answer was different to party policy he became a bit upset so I sent him away. Perhaps he was worried I'd tell on him?

Still spoilt my vote though, as did DH who is even more GC than me. The choice here is Tory or LibDem, the Greens and Labour rarely get more than a few votes.

Nobody voting in my family or extended

I spoilt my ballot. I prevaricated over it but perhaps someone will see my tiny protest. My local patch is firmly Tory so a vote for anyone else would be a token at best but for the first time in my life I just couldn't vote Labour. I'm furious at the stance the Labour Party have on women's rights and depressed at the national tactics too. It's a very narrow con/lab marginal seat with an unpopular Tory incumbent here at general elections so Starmer and the local candidate have until then to prove they a)know what a woman is b) commit to protecting women's right properly c) stop throwing Rosie Duffield under passing vehicles and d) stop name calling and mud slinging before I consider voting Labour. I'm not holding my breath.

You do realise the new law essentially stops anyone protesting. You can't even link arms without it being considered disruptive.

No one,