UK general election 2024, who to vote for?

[Fietsrad]

We talked about this before, I managed to get registered to vote in the town I last lived in.

Getting a postal vote is another process, not done that yet. But if I do not I shall be in the % who did not vote, that ist a statement in itself.

The Guardian has lots of stories, everyday something new trying to discredit "the natural party of government"

[GaryC]

Politics is complicated and very personal but as a UK resident I think we need a change of party as the current government has, in my view, run into the buffers and the party itself is fracturing as extremism takes hold. They are riddled with scandal to such an extent that their 2019 majority has been almost halved - not a good record!

I am not sure what your constituency will be but I would hope people without strong political allegiances would vote tactically to facilitate the change I think this country desperately needs. So far as the current MP is not a conservative, then vote for that party and where the current incumbent "needs to be replaced" then look at which party came in second last time and choose them.

But I am sure there are as many opinions on this are there are member of this group!

[alma.freya]

I'm registered in Bristol which is traditionally strong labour, so green party will get my vote

[hooperski]

It's a sad state of affairs when people are saying they will vote for Reform UK, because the Tories aren't right-wing enough.

[Fietsrad]

The Guardian reports that an expert thinks labour has a 99% chance of forming the next government. Seems a bit implausible. I wonder what odds you can get for a bet on the tories to win?

Labour was expected to win in 1992 but Major was reelected. I wonder if the present situation is similar to that before Blair won in 1997.

Mandelson said, talking about rejoining the EU is not on the menu. Looking forward to voting for the EU parliament on June 9.

[Keleth]

This is the first time for many years I struggle to say Labour although the important thing is to get the Tories out.

Greens... Enticing but are they the sort of people who would put aside some of their beliefs to alleviate problems for people.

Reform... The rebirth of the NF and the UKs equivalent of the AfD. Don´t think people realise they´re not a party as such but a registered company who´s members get absolutely no vote on who leads it. Very populist policies but absolutely no information on how those policies would be financed.
Tax cuts, improved public services, armed forces brought up to modern day standards, no NHS waiting lists within 1 year of them coming to power, and a few more unrealistic policies. There is absolutely no way with who leads them that they´re going to tax corporations more.
It´s their promise to "stop the boats" and do away with immigration that will win them votes, you just need to look back at Brexit to know this. Many racists will as the saying goes cut their noses off to spite their face.

Liberals... Do they still exist?

Labour... Labour but not as we know it. They have their fair share of corruption and they´ve already started going back on some of their previous promises. Probably the best of a bad bunch.

On a personal note although I´ve never liked the Tories and would never vote for them and have always believed anyone who voted for them was an idiot this time I strongly believe that anyone who votes for them does not deserve a vote.
Could anyone on here who would vote Conservative give me 1 good reason why.
A vote for Conservative is a vote for yourself not a vote for the good of the country.
I cannot think of any modern time where the country has been in such a mess as it is now unless of course you´re one of the wealthy.

Whoever wins is going to have a hard time making anything out of the mess it is in.

[hooperski]

Doesn't really matter which party is in power, they still have to obey their globalistic paymasters. i.e. The W.H.O. and the W.E.F.
In the words of the Who song; "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

[Chocky]

Doesn't really matter which party is in power, they still have to obey their globalistic paymasters. i.e. The W.H.O. and the W.E.F.
In the words of the Who song; "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

Yeah I'm going to lose patience with this site really quickly if I have to read crap like this: How are the World Health Organisation and the World Economic Forum 'global paymasters'? If you're going to spew dumb conspiracy theories, at least try and keep pertinent the acronyms of whichever organisation you consider to be 'shady'.

[Fietsrad]

Local elections tomorrow, May 2, could provide some pointers.

[Fietsrad]

Ms Elphicke of the conservative tories defected to labour, but I thought she was on the right wing, not the left

[Fietsrad]

Managed to apply for a postal vote

The campaign seems fantastic, the tories want to reintroduce national service for eighteen year olds, for boys only? Not sure. Fortunately I am a bit too old for that.

[kaffeemitmilch]

Managed to apply for a postal vote

The campaign seems fantastic, the tories want to reintroduce national service for eighteen year olds, for boys only? Not sure. Fortunately I am a bit too old for that.

How the f%$& is this meant to get them votes? Looks like they're trying to sabotage their chances so they can blame this policy, and not the rest of their ass-hattery.

[skadi]

They think it will appeal to the grey voters who the Tories are very much in danger of losing. Likewise with the plan for no tax on pensions.
Quite how they think they are going to pay for everything and keep reducing taxes I have no idea. Same applies to Labour though, they are all in cloud-cuckoo land.

[Fietsrad]

They think it will appeal to the grey voters who the Tories are very much in danger of losing. Likewise with the plan for no tax on pensions.
Quite how they think they are going to pay for everything and keep reducing taxes I have no idea. Same applies to Labour though, they are all in cloud-cuckoo land.

I am a grey voter, several decades too old for national service, does not concern or interest me or affect me at all

Not sure what might decide how I vote.

[kiplette]

This is the first time for many years I struggle to say Labour although the important thing is to get the Tories out.

Greens... Enticing but are they the sort of people who would put aside some of their beliefs to alleviate problems for people......

Labour... Labour but not as we know it. They have their fair share of corruption and they´ve already started going back on some of their previous promises. Probably the best of a bad bunch.

I have always voted LibDem although in my constituency that vote is kind of wasted because Richmond N Yorks is about the safest Tory seat ever. This time as you say, LibDem feels even more pointless. I might go Green. As I say, unfortunately I am effectively disenfranchised in my constituency.

I will never ever vote Labour. Blair of the insincere smile embroiled us in the Iraq catastrophe and sent troops to war literally without boots and other critical equipment (body armour without Kevlar plates, anyone?) and proved so utterly untrustworthy with the lives of his soldiers, not to mention the whole civilian population of that country. Criminal.

I can't help you with why people vote Conservative. Maybe they feel safe with what they know? eg. Thatcher was PM the whole time I was growing up.

The thing with the National Service is hilarious. There isn't enough Army left to train and administer that many raw recruits in one go. The ITC at Catterick is an impressive sausage factory, but they'd need to quadruple the output to get everyone through - nuts. The Bundeswehr has a totally different system with basic training happening in masses of locations - they could much more easily soak up a massive upsurge in numbers.

It's probably true that they hope it might appeal to grey voters who did National Service themselves, and they might be right.

[Feierabend]

OH and I have been very satisfied with how the registration process worked since our voting rights have been restored, and now the application process for the postal vote was also very straightforward.
Happy to have some tiny say in hopefully rescuing the country from the slime that's been in charge for the last 14 years and who lied their way to Brexit. The Tory MP John Redwood who's been sitting since 1987 in our contituency Wokingham, has stepped down, ( "I have other things to do,") and the LibDems have been steadily gaining ground and have a small majority of local councillors since the local elections last month.

[pappnase]

The Tory MP John Redwood who's been sitting since 1987 in our contituency Wokingham, has stepped down.

I didn't know you were from there. That constituency is also where my vote would be cast if I could be bothered.
I gave up my vote a few years ago after I got my German citizenship because it didn't seem to have any value when I was voting against John Redwood.
I don't think I could stomach voting for the lib-dems after the coalition, for me they are like WW2 collaborators and deserve nothing but contempt.
I'm not overly keen on Starmer and his flavour of Labour either, but coming originally from the South Wales valleys voting Labour still seems more natural than anything else.

I'm probably not going to vote at all, whatever happens it's not going to make a huge difference.

[dstanners]

My old constituency is another one where votes are unlikely to matter. The locals prefer a Tory chap with four surnames who grew up in England's largest walled estate, over someone who has ever actually done anything, or met real people.
Nonetheless, whilst the Blair government was shocking in its treatment of the armed services*, the Tories have widened that approach to the vast majority of the UK population. Sadly, the voting system means that in most places votes for anyone other than Tories or Labour will be irrelevant.

On the up side, I met Starmer a few times (pre-MP days), and he struck me as on-the-ball and competent. A pragmatic, details type who generally wants to do the right thing for most people, should surely be an improvement on the narcissists and Poundshop Trumps running the place of late.

(*) when my brother in law was in the navy he was involved in a study explaining the flaws of putting Apache helicopters on ships (simply: if they go down in the sea, the pilot can't get out), to which the Minister's response was, "well, if that happens, I'll take full responsibility." I don't think that'd be particularly comforting to the families of drowned pilots.

[Fietsrad]

Whatabout Bxxxxt, is that the elephant in the room?

[pappnase]

Re: tbe B-word, no-one is really talking about it, those in favour of leaving think talking about it will remind everyone how bad things are, and those in favour of staying/re-joining think there are still enough leavers that talking about it will be a vote-loser.

There is talk from some quarters of the Labour party about closer cooperation with Europe, and talk from some tories and reform-party candidates about further separation (e.g. separating from the European Court of Human Rights), but it's not going to be a talking point I don't think.