Guess what Nigel Farage is forcing me to do?

MikeG

Now. Do it now.
MikeG
Joined
Sep 22, 2012
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For the first time in my life I am likely to vote Conservative in the forthcoming election, mainly to bolster the centre right vote against the extreme right of UKIP. My constituency has no chance of going to Labour or the Lib Dems (who normally get my vote), so I am almost certain to vote tactically to keep the nutters at bay.

It won't quite be like that French election where thousands went to the polling stations with a peg on their nose to vote for one of the main party candidates to keep Le Penn of the Front Nationale away from power, because this government has been pretty much exactly where my politics lie......centre right economically, with a restraining hand provided by the Lib Dems on the Eurosceptic, homophobobic illiberal element which unfortunately you get with the Tory right.

Anyone else considering casting their vote in a tactical manner in this most unusual election?
 
CapelDodger said:
They don't count Labour votes where I live, they weigh them. I'll be voting Green, as I have done ever since Blair became leader.
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If I was in England I would do the same. But here I will vote for the SNP in the Westminster election. What I will do a year later in the Scottish Parliamentary election, I don't yet know.

Blair was bad enough, but Jim Murphy, the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, is a kind of cartoon unprincipled Blairite opportunist monster out of a horror comic.
 
MikeG said:
... the Lib Dems (who normally get my vote) ... this government has been pretty much exactly where my politics lie......centre right economically
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That's interesting. I always believed that the loss of support currently suffered by the Lib Dems was an indication that the economic policies of this government are not in tune with mainstream rank and file liberal ideas.

This, if true, makes it even more likely that ex Lib Dem voters will feel free to use their vote to best tactical advantage; but Labour might be a beneficiary in many areas. The UKIP threat may induce greater polarisation towards the two main parties in England, as people seek safety in numbers in the face of a barbarian onslaught.
 
Where I live, how I vote will make little difference, it's solid Tory. I shall probably waste my vote as usual. :)

I've never understood the vitriol aimed at the Lib Dems; as the minor party in a coalition, they were never going to get all their policies adopted, but I believe they acted as a brake on some of the more extreme Conservative ones.
 
The Lib Dems credibility is shot. Breaking campaign promises is one thing but breaking their 'pledge' on student fees coupled with their admission that they'll climb into bed with anyone that gets them somewhere close to Downing Street has cost them a lot of votes, I think.

I will vote, but goodness knows who for. I see no connection between the desires I have for the running of the country and what happens in westminster. This is echoed by my self selected sample of colleagues and friends, most of whom probably won't vote.

The upshot will be a coalition holding, between them, no more than 25% of the available votes with absolutely no mandate from the people. I find the concept of a coalition government distasteful.
 
I have no idea how I will vote - I live in what used to be a safe Labour seat but is now a marginal. I've been a LibDem voter all my adult life, and indeed used to live where there was a LibDem MP. But here, voting LibDem may mean giving UKIP a chance so I might become a tactial Labour voter. There is no Green candidate standing here (as yet, according to http://ukgeneralelection2015.blogspot.co.uk/p/candidate-selections-for-2015-general.html ). I will need to see what the polls say nearer to the election date before I decide.

I can't not vote, I just can't bring myself to do that, but I could countenance spoiling my paper.
 
3point14 said:
I find the concept of a coalition government distasteful.
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As a LibDem voter I find this curious (along with the attitude that they should somehow only ever form a coalition with Labour).

Surely the only way to ensure a majority in Parliament is to therefore maintain the distorted nature of FPTP, and that doesn't seem to mesh with your comment about having a mandate.
 
Tolls said:
As a LibDem voter I find this curious (along with the attitude that they should somehow only ever form a coalition with Labour).

Surely the only way to ensure a majority in Parliament is to therefore maintain the distorted nature of FPTP, and that doesn't seem to mesh with your comment about having a mandate.
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I simply don't believe that a coalition government has a mandate from the people. A government, I believe, has to have a manifiesto that has been selected by the people prior to election not a manifesto simply made up of whichever bits of each manifesto the coalition choose to use. A hung parliment and a new round of elections is preferable to a party in power that do not have any mandate to enforce their manifesto. I believe it leads to an even further seperation of the actions of government from the people they are supposed to serve.

All of this is subject to correction by those that know more.
 
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