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Who would you vote for in a General Election? January 2021

Who would you vote for in a General Election?

  • Conservatives

    Votes: 21 12.7%
  • Labour

    Votes: 60 36.1%
  • Lib Dems

    Votes: 21 12.7%
  • Green

    Votes: 8 4.8%
  • UKIP

    Votes: 2 1.2%
  • Reform

    Votes: 9 5.4%
  • SNP

    Votes: 10 6.0%
  • Plaid Cymru

    Votes: 5 3.0%
  • DUP

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 9 5.4%
  • Abstain

    Votes: 21 12.7%

  • Total voters
    166
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Gloster

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Would you vote for somebody who you most agree with, even if they are not going to win, or for somebody you can bear and who just might win, or for somebody you are not keen on but who is most likely to defeat somebody you really dislike? It is all a compromise, but the problem with our system is that an awful lot of votes are wasted. I am an ABC voter: Anyone But Conservative, although I won’t touch UKIP/Brexit/Reform (or whatever they are called now).
 

londonteacher

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Would you vote for somebody who you most agree with, even if they are not going to win, or for somebody you can bear and who just might win, or for somebody you are not keen on but who is most likely to defeat somebody you really dislike? It is all a compromise, but the problem with our system is that an awful lot of votes are wasted. I am an ABC voter: Anyone But Conservative, although I won’t touch UKIP/Brexit/Reform (or whatever they are called now).
That's the thing. I'm the same. I couldn't bring myself to vote Labour currently as Kier Starmer isn't strong enough to lead a country.
 

birchesgreen

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Labour, party member (though haven't been that impressed with them for years). I live in a safe Labour seat anyway so it wouldn't matter if i didn't!

I always vote, even for PCC elections!
 

LUYMun

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I would for Labour but in recent times the party seems to support some of Johnson's decisions, such as the recent Brexit trade deal, only in a cloak of red. I feel that both parties have failed for this country as of now and if continues in that direction would result in the country voting for more extreme parties. Would I be surprised? Probably not.
 

Gloster

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I always vote, even for PCC elections!
I also believe in always voting, but I made an exception for the PCC elections. I found myself in the the strange position of agreeing with someone called Blair (former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair) who said that he hoped people wouldn’t give them legitimacy by voting in the elections.
 

Journeyman

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I face a genuine problem here, in that I live in Scotland and I am opposed to Scottish independence.

I'm desperate to see the SNP out of power, but short of an absolutely catastrophic scandal occurring anytime around now, it's not going to happen. I've normally voted Labour or Green all my life, but the only party that will realistically stand much of a chance of stopping the SNP juggernaut is the Tories - even then they'll come a very, very distant second.

I've had to think if I can actually stomach voting for them once, simply because they're pro-union and will do better than Labour, but I honestly can't. Absolutely no way. It's not happening. After ten years of blatant cruelty, corruption, incompetence and the horror of Brexit, there is no way I can do it.

Sigh. Looks like the country is breaking up.
 

birchesgreen

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I also believe in always voting, but I made an exception for the PCC elections. I found myself in the the strange position of agreeing with someone called Blair (former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair) who said that he hoped people wouldn’t give them legitimacy by voting in the elections.
Yes i find them a pointless position but i just have the voting habit. There was only 15% of the electorate in the last election who joined me. :lol:
 

Journeyman

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I also believe in always voting, but I made an exception for the PCC elections. I found myself in the the strange position of agreeing with someone called Blair (former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair) who said that he hoped people wouldn’t give them legitimacy by voting in the elections.
The problem with doing that is that the results will be skewed towards extreme candidates. It seems likely that the SNP will hold an Indyref without Westminster approval, which will therefore be constitutionally illegitimate, and if such a thing is held, I don't know whether to dignify it with a vote or not. What will happen, of course, is that lots of unionists will boycott it, and it'll end up being about 99.99999999% Yes on a small turnout. What's the best outcome? I don't know.
 

takno

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I would for Labour but in recent times the party seems to support some of Johnson's decisions, such as the recent Brexit trade deal, only in a cloak of red. I feel that both parties have failed for this country as of now and if continues in that direction would result in the country voting for more extreme parties. Would I be surprised? Probably not.
Voting for the wafer-thin trade deal we got was a practical necessity. If Labour had voted against the ERG could have used it as an opportunity to dump us out with no agreement at all. There's no cloak of red involved, just an unwillingness to push the country off an even bigger cliff.
 

Journeyman

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Voting for the wafer-thin trade deal we got was a practical necessity. If Labour had voted against the ERG could have used it as an opportunity to dump us out with no agreement at all. There's no cloak of red involved, just an unwillingness to push the country off an even bigger cliff.
Agreed. Much as I hate the deal we've ended up with, if there was a realistic chance of it being defeated, No Deal was the only alternative. It was far too late to pressure the government into doing anything else, and the maths just didn't add up.
 

Ostrich

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I'll (continue to) abstain - I'm in a totally impregnable Tory seat and I have no intention of voting for them, so - to be honest - why waste my time?
 

Journeyman

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I'll (continue to) abstain - I'm in a totally impregnable Tory seat and I have no intention of voting for them, so - to be honest - why waste my time?
Exactly. Even with the PR element in Scottish elections, my vote is useless, as there's no way I'm supporting the SNP. You can pin a yellow rosette on a dog turd around here and it'll get elected.
 

yorkie

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As all the major parties appear to support lockdowns I think I'd struggle to vote for any of them :(
 

takno

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Exactly. Even with the PR element in Scottish elections, my vote is useless, as there's no way I'm supporting the SNP. You can pin a yellow rosette on a dog turd around here and it'll get elected.
The list vote is always worth voting in. There's very few regions with a completely clean sweep, and even if there is right now, there's always the chance of another candidate sneaking.

Even if it doesn't happen, the SNP dominance of Scotland is quite new. If things get close enough to feel in contention then they will be a lot less comfortable next time.

Added to which I suspect there will be a lot of people comparing the SNP/Green vote across Scotland with the vote for the other parties as a kind of proxy referendum.

As all the major parties appear to support lockdowns I think I'd struggle to vote for any of them :(
Lib Dems have been relatively anti lockdown, and have voted against some of the major measures. It might be the best way to send that message, rather than abstaining or voting for Farridge. Best to check the individual candidate positions first though I guess
 

43096

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As all the major parties appear to support lockdowns I think I'd struggle to vote for any of them :(
Agreed. Labour just seem to be in a mode of trying to bring in tougher measures purely because they're tougher than what the Tories are doing.

All the parties are morally bankrupt and unsupportable as far as I'm concerned.
 

yorkie

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Lib Dems have been relatively anti lockdown, and have voted against some of the major measures. It might be the best way to send that message, rather than abstaining or voting for Farridge. Best to check the individual candidate positions first though I guess
I put abstain but in practice I'd try to establish if any of the candidates were against lockdowns and vote for them.

I think that the rise of authoritarianism, the imposition of lockdowns, etc are incredibly dangeorus for democracy. People who support these measures are creating a very dangerous position in my opinion.
 
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scotrail158713

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I face a genuine problem here, in that I live in Scotland and I am opposed to Scottish independence.

I'm desperate to see the SNP out of power, but short of an absolutely catastrophic scandal occurring anytime around now, it's not going to happen. I've normally voted Labour or Green all my life, but the only party that will realistically stand much of a chance of stopping the SNP juggernaut is the Tories - even then they'll come a very, very distant second.

I've had to think if I can actually stomach voting for them once, simply because they're pro-union and will do better than Labour, but I honestly can't. Absolutely no way. It's not happening. After ten years of blatant cruelty, corruption, incompetence and the horror of Brexit, there is no way I can do it.

Sigh. Looks like the country is breaking up.
Precisely sums up my position as well.
It’s not a General Election but I really don’t have a clue who I’m going to vote for in May.
 

XAM2175

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I'll (continue to) abstain - I'm in a totally impregnable Tory seat and I have no intention of voting for them, so - to be honest - why waste my time?
How safe would it be if, for example, several hundred or more people who felt the same way as you do actually voted?
 

backontrack

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I'd vote Labour. Why?

Easy: they're a major party who actually gives a toss about the climate emergency. Which is going to make COVID-19 look like absolutely nothing by comparison. This pandemic will ease up one day, but we can't leave the climate alone. We need fossil fuel divestment within the next fifteen years - or, at the very least, net zero.

The climate crisis still isn't treated like the vast problem that it really is on here. It isn't respected and my generation's fears aren't respected. But the climate is still a be-all end-all, and I'm part of an increasing demographic for whom it is THE defining issue at the ballot box. I truly despise lockdowns (and I'm finding this one extremely difficult, let's not beat around the bush here), but I hate - and fear - rising sea levels and global temperatures far, far more. You know, probably because they'll be rising continuously throughout my adult life. And because I want to be able to have kids.

The Tories aren't doing anything about it, and Labour are the only other party in England who could get in (plus they had the most coherent, transformative climate plan last time around, even more so than the Greens who basically junked their whole raison d'être in favour of urban remainism). So I'm voting for climate action in any scenario - which means voting red.

(And I haven't even mentioned the biodiversity crisis, either...)
 

birchesgreen

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I'll (continue to) abstain - I'm in a totally impregnable Tory seat and I have no intention of voting for them, so - to be honest - why waste my time?
Political parties (with seats that is) do benefit from your vote even if its a safe seat they have no chance of winning in as vote share is part of the formula used for short money which they get from the state for operational costs.
 

nlogax

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Mostly Glasgow-ish. Mostly.
LDs, though only because my local MP is their leader and a reasonable sort. I have zero faith in either of the major two. Same as pre-pandemic. Also, UKIP can go to hell.
 
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