Rolfe
Adult human female
Care to share, Darat? That sounds like an interesting story!Darat said:
Rolfe.
UK General Election on 5th May - voting intentions?
- Thread starter Rolfe
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Rolfe.
Rolfe said:
Nah - it isn't I just try to make it sound as if it is.
Back when I was younger I was a member of several extreme leftwing activist groups. These were the groups that Kinnock succeeded at removing from the centre of the party.
At a local Labour party meeting a group of us were told we had to decide Labour party or our other “affiliations†and after attempting to prove it was unconstitutional and that black is white and white is black, I refused to back down and the meeting ended. When I turned up at the next meeting I was refused entry and was met by a "party official" (very KGB) who handed me a letter that said I was no longer a member of the Labour party.
The innocence and passion of youth!
Rolfe
Adult human female
Before my time, but something similar happened in the SNP in 1979. It wasn't a left-wing right-wing thing though, I think it was to do with gradualism versus one-step independence (someone may put me right on this). Anyway, one of the most prominent of the people expelled at that time was one Alex Salmond....
Rolfe.
Rolfe.
Forgot to vote: remedied. Actually, that reminds me that I forgot to vote at the local elections two years ago. Because of the low-key campaigning (i.e. total apathy from press, political parties and public – never saw a single election poster) I didn't notice the date and, for the first time in my life, missed an election.
I do hope that none of the Planet Xers are Brits. Democracy was very hard won and should never be taken for granted; and in a free election anyone must be able to find some party they can vote for without doing violence to their conscience.
Point taken! But it’s rather ironic (or sad, really) that what New Labour said was so unappealing that large numbers of people had to disbelieve them in order to vote for them. Of course, these people were really voting anti-Tory, just as there will be a large anti-Labour vote in this election (mostly in the Tory direction, I guess).
Yes, I think a lot of people voted New Labour in 1997 because they were seen as a more moderate version of the Tories, but it’s difficult now to see how they are in any important way more moderate (I didn’t think they were even in 1997). I wonder, by the way, what you think of the Americanisation of British politics: that we have the choice of {unreservedly pro-capitalist party 1} vs (very similar) {unreservedly pro-capitalist party 2}. Good for democracy? I think not.
Jon_in_london
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Rolfe said:
You take yourself too seriously. I only included Respect because then I get to say "Sir, I salute your indefatigability"...
Jon_in_london
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Lucky said:
I wouldnt describe that as "Americanisation". It what the people want- the only party that isnt an "unreservedly pro-capitalist party" is the Lib Dems and they are firmly in third- they would be even firmlier in third if it wasnt for the war. Good for democracy- its what the people want.
CapelDodger
Penultimate Amazing
I mentioned my reservations about Blair to some left-wing Labour folk in '97, and was slapped down. The attitude was that only Blair/Mandelson/The Project could win at all. Their insecurity was remarkable. I think Tony Benn could have led Labour to victory in '97. (I voted Green.)Lucky said:
On reflection, politician is another option. On further reflection, I should stop trying to be clever. So it turns out my mother's been right all these years ...Darat said:
Rolfe
Adult human female
Possibly. But it was really Geni I was getting at, when I started griping about wanting a serious poll.Jon_in_london said:
They had a load of stuff on TV this evening about "Veritas". Frankly, I totally forgot they existed at all. Maybe they'll go the way of the other improbably orange tan (Sheridan I mean) and quietly fade away.
Rolfe.
CapelDodger said:
Green??? As we say Ecologists and Vegetarians?? O-h M-y G-o-d. And *I * have been feeling guilty for voting for Likud??
On reflection, politician is another option. On further reflection, I should stop trying to be clever. So it turns out my mother's been right all these years ...
Finally you admitted it. If God could have gratuated Law School, he would be a lawyer too.
Rolfe
Adult human female
Agreed.Lucky said:
I remember doing a session of telephone canvassing, when the whole room was brought to a halt by one canvasser giving a woman voter the most fearful telling-off for betraying the entire women's suffrage struggle in her assertion that she wasn't going to vote. "I don't care who you vote for," shouted the canvasser, "just show some respect for the Pankhursts and get out there and vote for somebody!"
On the other hand, if I had to vote in England - bloody hell, I don't know.
Rolfe.
geni
Anti-homeopathy illuminati member
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someone needs to tell the conservatives about targeted campaining. The letter I got from them which was sent to a student hall complex full of first year students does not contain the words "student" or "university" once.
Rolfe
Adult human female
Why tell them? You want your mates to vote for them?geni said:
Rolfe.
Rolfe
Adult human female
Interesting points being made today about tactical voting. In particular, the Lib-Dems' attempt to unseat Michael Howard by getting the local Labour voters to vote Lib-Dem. The local Labour party don't seem to be in agreement though.
In theory, I think that the way the first-past-the-post system works, one needs to be prepared to hold one's nose and vote tactically in certain circumstances. But I don't know how I'd actually react if I was in that position. My constituency is a safe Labour seat, and the SNP is in second place. So I don't even have to consider it. (Apart from the fact that the SNP candidate is a personal friend, we were both on the committee of London Branch for ages, and he'd skin me alive if I didn't deliver him my vote....)
So, anybody in the position of nose-holding? Labour supporters, if you were voting in Folkestone, what would you do?
Rolfe.
(And is anybody else as creeped out as I am about the idea of a bunch of Merikans writing to us to help us decide who to vote for?)
In theory, I think that the way the first-past-the-post system works, one needs to be prepared to hold one's nose and vote tactically in certain circumstances. But I don't know how I'd actually react if I was in that position. My constituency is a safe Labour seat, and the SNP is in second place. So I don't even have to consider it. (Apart from the fact that the SNP candidate is a personal friend, we were both on the committee of London Branch for ages, and he'd skin me alive if I didn't deliver him my vote....)
So, anybody in the position of nose-holding? Labour supporters, if you were voting in Folkestone, what would you do?
Rolfe.
(And is anybody else as creeped out as I am about the idea of a bunch of Merikans writing to us to help us decide who to vote for?)
Rolfe
Adult human female
Yes, yes. But you said, "someone needs to tell the conservatives about targeted campaining" as if you wanted them to be taught how to be more effective.
Leave them in ignorance, I say.
Rolfe.
Leave them in ignorance, I say.
Rolfe.
CapelDodger
Penultimate Amazing
Students are at higher-than-average risk of mugging, burglary and random street violence, mostly perpetrated by non-student "youngsters", so it isn't that silly.geni said:
Edited to add:
Their cannabis policy is, though.
Matabiri
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Rolfe said:
I was thinking about tactical voting last night: there's so much hand-wringing in the Leftie press at the moment about how the Labour Party can be re-elected without giving Blair a further fillip or mandate, and I decided that some sort of vote swap was in order: people from marginal consituencies could write to voters in Sedgefield offering to support Labour in their constituencies so long as the Sedgefield voter did not vote for Blair. Result: a strong Labour majority without Blair, who gets humiliatingly kicked out of Parliament. No-one loses.
I might write to the Guardian suggesting it. After all their record in influencing recent elections is exemplary.
TheBoyPaj
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Libdem.
I cannot vote for Blair again after his u-turn on tuition fees, and the Conservatories (while I am worryingly in favour of SOME of their policies) are a bunch of smarmy two-faced gits.
I understand that my vote MAY help us to get a Tory government, but my hope is that it will result in a reduced Labour majority (so that bills such as the tuition fees one will not be passed) and the future progression of the Libdem's share of the vote.
People complain about having no real alternative. The Libdems are never going to jump from 20% of the vote to 50% overnight, but they're moving in the right direction.
Edit: I didn't mean to write "conservatories" up there, but decided to leave it in. A lifetime of writing advertising copy takes its toll.
I cannot vote for Blair again after his u-turn on tuition fees, and the Conservatories (while I am worryingly in favour of SOME of their policies) are a bunch of smarmy two-faced gits.
I understand that my vote MAY help us to get a Tory government, but my hope is that it will result in a reduced Labour majority (so that bills such as the tuition fees one will not be passed) and the future progression of the Libdem's share of the vote.
People complain about having no real alternative. The Libdems are never going to jump from 20% of the vote to 50% overnight, but they're moving in the right direction.
Edit: I didn't mean to write "conservatories" up there, but decided to leave it in. A lifetime of writing advertising copy takes its toll.