UK General Election 2024

[Vexed]

A vote for anybody else in St Albans this time would change nothing.

Unfortunately I think this might be true, however I do want to believe what we were taught in History about votes for smaller single-issue/pressure parties pressuring larger parties to take their policies on board to gain their vote.

Of course these days with wide scale polling I'd imagine parties find it easier to work out what they need to do to get the support of undecided voters (competence would be a good start for the Conservatives) so this doesn't hold so much now.

A friend also emailed the Green candidate Simon Groover and was essentially told "I'm too busy I'll give you an answer after the election" which isn't very helpful (this was a week or two ago so not unreasonably close).

I think I'm leaning Lib Dem today but that might change tomorrow

 

[AM9]

Unfortunately I think this might be true, however I do want to believe what we were taught in History about votes for smaller single-issue/pressure parties pressuring larger parties to take their policies on board to gain their vote.

Of course these days with wide scale polling I'd imagine parties find it easier to work out what they need to do to get the support of undecided voters (competence would be a good start for the Conservatives) so this doesn't hold so much now.

A friend also emailed the Green candidate Simon Groover and was essentially told "I'm too busy I'll give you an answer after the election" which isn't very helpful (this was a week or two ago so not unreasonably close).

I think I'm leaning Lib Dem today but that might change tomorrow

One party to stay well clear of in St Albans is the 'Heritage party'. They make the Reform party look like one nation Tory wets. I can't believe that they bothered with St Albans, it's a quite moderate electorate here. See the Heritage Party's intentions here: https://heritageparty.org/westminster-elections/

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jul 2024 ==

Of course you do realise that anyone who wants the LibDems to be the official opposition should vote LibDem in Sheffield Hallam (where the race is between Labour and the LibDems)

Only possible if they live there.

 

[Busaholic]

Don't you think Reform Supporters could do a January 6th moment and march down and invade Houses of Parliament?

There certainly are groupings that might attempt something of that nature e.g. some of the 'characters' who turned up at Westminster last November claiming to protect the Cenotaph, and some of these seem to be linked to the activities of the pseudonymous Tommy Robinson. I should imagine there are even further politically right groups acting on the fringes that counter-terrorism police monitor closely. Farage may be a cut-price Trump but we have far fewer ravingly deluded people in this country full of nonsense about fifth amendments, the right to bear arms and so-called 'sovereign citizenship'. Hell's Angel's Sonny Barger would have a lot to answer for if he weren't dead!

 

[brad465]

There certainly are groupings that might attempt something of that nature e.g. some of the 'characters' who turned up at Westminster last November claiming to protect the Cenotaph, and some of these seem to be linked to the activities of the pseudonymous Tommy Robinson. I should imagine there are even further politically right groups acting on the fringes that counter-terrorism police monitor closely. Farage may be a cut-price Trump but we have far fewer ravingly deluded people in this country full of nonsense about fifth amendments, the right to bear arms and so-called 'sovereign citizenship'. Hell's Angel's Sonny Barger would have a lot to answer for if he weren't dead!

I thought Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon was busy getting arrested in Canada?

 

[Vexed]

One party to stay well clear of in St Albans is the 'Heritage party'. They make the Reform party look like one nation Tory wets. I can't believe that they bothered with St Albans, it's a quite moderate electorate here. See the Heritage Party's intentions here: https://heritageparty.org/westminster-elections/

We had a horid leaflet from them and I do wonder if they can even get their deposit back...

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Never fear Boris is back in town

 

[Busaholic]

We had a horid leaflet from them and I do wonder if they can even get their deposit back...

They are the U.K. version of the 'Sovereign Citizen' movement in the USA, although probably less influenced by the worst hippy drivel.

 

[DarloRich]

Of course you do realise that anyone who wants the LibDems to be the official opposition should vote LibDem in Sheffield Hallam (where the race is between Labour and the LibDems)

they should, of course, vote Labour - for the greater good and all that
( although with all the stuff that went on with Jared O'Mara you can hardly blame people!)

 

[brad465]

Never fear Boris is back in town

I preferred the front page of the Times, both regarding the headline and the bit in purple above it:

(Front page of The Times with the headline: "Johnson: Big Labour win is pregnant with horrors", while also including a section above linking to an article about sperm donors)

 

[JGurney]

Ive had to use a food bank a few times, I feel completely embarrassed about it

It is the Torys who should be embarrassed about it, not you

 

[birchesgreen]

"Pregnant with horror"? Who's that? Boris' latest mistress?

 

[Snow1964]

Am I missing something, the discredited Boris Johnson being asked to help Conservative electioneering.

Looks to me like a bit of desperation

 

[birchesgreen]

Am I missing something, the discredited Boris Johnson being asked to help Conservative electioneering.

Looks to me like a bit of desperation

He had a spare day between holidays.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Desperation perhaps, but you can't deny that Boris has a personality and given that this entire campaign from pretty much all parties has been devoid of something actually genuinely funny. Perhaps this is just what we need if nothing else for the sake of a cheap snigger disregarding all the political shenanigans just for a minute

 

[Gloster]

Desperation perhaps, but you can't deny that Boris has a personality and given that this entire campaign from pretty much all parties has been devoid of something actually genuinely funny. Perhaps this is just what we need if nothing else for the sake of a cheap snigger disregarding all the political shenanigans just for a minute

Perhaps it will also remind people of how the country was lead by a lazy, slapdash, lying, amoral narcissist and make them vote for someone who isn’t.

 

[nw1]

I'm now very much tempted to spoil my ballet as it clear no party cares for a person likes me, the one group consistently ignored in society are us. Been reading the daily mail article on disabled benefits being changed yesterday, all the comments was awful, mean, and basically all comments about disabled people being frauds, I presume all of these are Reform voters, and if Reform get in, the disabled will be treated the worse. I'm just so frustrated, anger, I don't even know where to turn to anymore.

That just shows how obnoxious the people making those comments are.

Don't listen to them - and Reform will absolutely not get in. They may win Clacton and Ashfield - and that's about it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 Jul 2024 ==

Never fear Boris is back in town

Starmergeddon?

And it wasn't Borisgeddon in December 2019 when the Tories got a sizeable majority with under 44% of the vote and could thus do what they wanted, including a Hard Brexit which a good number of us didn't want?

The Mail is expected, but I see the Times is going in on the melodramatic anti-Labour nonsense too. And I thought it was supposed to be a sensible paper!

Thankfully all these right-wing papers are probably just preaching to the converted.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Don't listen to them - and Reform will absolutely not get in. They may win Clacton and Ashfield - and that's about it.

Some polls are also suggesting Boston & Skegness where Tice is standing.

 

[ainsworth74]

Am I missing something, the discredited Boris Johnson being asked to help Conservative electioneering.

I think it's a reflection that there remains a core with the Tory party, both MPs and particularly the membership, who think that Boris was cut down before his time and if only he was still in charge none of this would be happening becuase he's a "winner". So wheeling him out, in that universe, makes sense as a way to try and shore up the vote.

It's balderdash of course, but the Tories have been stuck in their own echo chamber for a while now. Indeed I've found it quite interesting how they've fallen into much the same trap that the Corbynites did of getting high on their own supply and listening only to what they want to hear.

 

[Bantamzen]

Well my decision has been pretty much been made by my local candidates. While the Labour candidate has been hitting the streets and knocking on doors, our existing Tory MP and candidate has put £8K down on himself losing. Yeah if you're betting on yourself to lose, you're not taking this job seriously. And as all the other candidates leave me either cold or know nothing about their policies, I can confirm that the Labour candidate Anna Dixon gets the vote. Not because of the colour of her party's tie, and despite the fact that I think Starmer is a complete numpty, but because she is the only one that has put the work in to try to win votes. So she wins mine!

 

[david1212]

Yesterday I received the first Conservative leaflet - ' slow to deliver ' sums up one aspect of the government over last few years.
Also a second leaflet from Labour.

 

[Falcon1200]

I cannot, even at this late stage, decide who to vote for. There are only really two choices open to me, given that voting Lib Dem is a waste, and that I will never, ever vote for the SNP or any other independence supporting party, nor Reform or any party of which Nigel Farage is leader or even just a member. Can I really vote Conservative, after their many failings over the last 14 years? Yet there are so many Labour policies with which I fundamentally disagree, and despite Keir Starmer's attempts to disassociate himself from Jeremy Corbyn, I cannot forget or dismiss his support for the man who would have been our worst Prime Minister ever, and I simply do not trust him.

But I will vote, for someone, because every non-vote for a Unionist party is more grist to the SNP's never-ending futile and divisive mill.

 

[DarloRich]

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I think it's a reflection that there remains a core with the Tory party, both MPs and particularly the membership, who think that Boris was cut down before his time and if only he was still in charge none of this would be happening becuase he's a "winner". So wheeling him out, in that universe, makes sense as a way to try and shore up the vote.

It's balderdash of course, but the Tories have been stuck in their own echo chamber for a while now. Indeed I've found it quite interesting how they've fallen into much the same trap that the Corbynites did of getting high on their own supply and listening only to what they want to hear.

The Tories have given up. It is now all about damage limitation and they hope Johnson can win back the hard of thinking otherwise tempted by Reform and hopefully limit the kicking they deserve.

 

[dgl]

"Pregnant with horror"? Who's that? Boris' latest mistress?

Surely that was Boris' Mum some time ago!

You can tell the likes of the Daily Mail are getting desperate with their headlines and as such we can only hope for the best, they'd be saying how great the Conservatives are if they had a chance of remaining in power.

 

[oldman]

You can tell the likes of the Daily Mail are getting desperate with their headlines and as such we can only hope for the best, they'd be saying how great the Conservatives are if they had a chance of remaining in power.

As always they use their newspapers to try and define the news agenda. It suits the nationalists - no need to vote Labour, they'll win anyway; it suits the fringe parties, you can vote with your heart not your head; it suits the Tories, no need to worry about us winning so vote to stop a 'supermajority'.

And you try to drown out the idea of making a positive choice.

 

[Howardh]

I am tactically lending my Lib Dem vote to....Labour.

The only real question of the evening will be which party (Tory/LD) will be the official opposition?

 

[Ediswan]

The only real question of the evening will be which party (Tory/LD) will be the official opposition?

Can the official opposition be a coalition ?

 

[SynthD]

Can the official opposition be a coalition ?

As we don’t write down our definitions, it’s whatever we agree on. I doubt it.

 

[ChrisC]

I am tactically lending my Lib Dem vote to....Labour.

The only real question of the evening will be which party (Tory/LD) will be the official opposition?

I had seriously thought about doing that but have decided to stick with the Lib Dems. I’m a centre right, former Tory voter, who for the first time in 2019 voted Lib Dem because I hadn’t agreed with Brexit and I didn’t want Boris as PM. I live in what has been a relatively safe Conservative seat but is expected to get a large Labour majority in tomorrow’s election. To get the Tories out I should tactically be voting Labour, but I would rather vote for a party with which my views currently broadly align with. It will be in many ways a wasted vote as the Lib Dem’s are not expected to get more than 5% of the vote here. However, despite the fact that we do not have Proportional Representation, every vote the Lib Dem’s get will be included in their total percentage voting figures, even if they don’t get enough seats to become the official opposition.

 

[Howardh]

Can the official opposition be a coalition ?

I suppose so, if Tory+Reform co-join. This is unchartered territory, I suppose some Lab MP's could then tactically defect to the LD's to make them the official opposition, but whatever it looks like at PMQ's the SNP will lose their two questions.

As for tactically voting, my seat would only receive a handful of LD votes, it's a genuine Tory/Lab marginal and is a "bellweather" seat.

 

[AlterEgo]

Ive had to use a food bank a few times, I feel completely embarrassed about it

You shouldn't. You should feel angry. As are many of us, that food banks are now commonplace and a necessity.