NationStates Jolt Archive

OK, I'm still up at five am, which means for some strange reason, it seems like a good idea to ask NSG for their advice on how to cast my upcoming vote :D

So here's the low down:

Normally I'd cast my vote for wither the greens or the Lib Dems, depending on who I was feeling the least antipathy for. This is because Crewe is normally a foregone conclusion, so I feel safe voting for whomever is closest to my views. (We've had 2 MPs since 1945, both of whom were labour)

However this by-election throws up a dilemma: Coming off the back of the recent council election results, David Cameron has decided the Tories can win the seat, and I'm worried they might have a chance (they're only marginally worse than labour, but just about...) so, do I go with my conscience, and vote for whichever party is nearest my views, or do I vote against it to keep the Blue menace at bay? Or do I say "SCREW IT ALL!" and vote Official Monster Raving Loony? Best argument wins!

Poll to follow for no apparent reason.

EDIT: Wow, since I last checked, more candidates have registered. 10 is more than double the number of candidates we've ever had before in C&N! And I can't believe that someone is running as the "Cut Tax on Diesel and Petrol" party!

Psh....Britain thinks it can vote...thats cute, lol...

Just make sure you do what the hell we tell you! lol...

(jk, btw, im a fan of Britain's Multi-Party system, damn two party american system, ITS A CANCER I TELL YOU!)

The Flying Brick(Official Monster Raving Loony) is the candidate with the backing of Jesus Christ.

Now is the time to call both campaign offices - Labour and Conservative - and say:

'I'm really undecided on this one, I'm willing to vote for either of you so, what do I get?'

Ensure they understand you're talking cold, harsh cash not some rambling statement about plans for the environment that they'll never follow through.

In fact, I think this should be allowed, parties need to pay cash to voters on the promises they've made to be paid back when that promise has been fulfilled.

From their own pocket.

My parents have/had a local by-election recently too, after the Tory Councilor was forced to resign when he made comments that single mothers and people on benefits should be sterilised. :p

Don't vote for Labour; they need to keep being slapped around as much as possible. These aren't national elections, so the impact they have will be much smaller, and it might just give Labour the kick up the backside they need to improve enough in time for the General election.

I'd personally vote for Robert Smith. The Labour party has been going a little nuts as of late, and I'm always in the mood for an environmentalist.

Labour is bad, Cons are worse. It really depends on how much you enjoy seeing Cameron being smug on TV I guess. If you don't vote Labour. OR... LibDem... who knows - they might have a better chance than Labour.

i'm in the same situation as the OP. i would vote lib dems (or maybe green), but i feel (or felt, as we had our locals last week) that splitting the vote between lib dem and labour could let the tories in. i'd rather vote lib dem than labour, but unless it was virtually gaurenteed lib dems would 'take over' from labour, i can't risk letting the tories in... locals or general.

keep the tories out.

Lib Dems are statistically "more popular" than Labour at the minute, with a higher proportion of the popular vote.

Stick with the yellows. If you don't like current policies, there is no other reason to vote Labour right now.

Vote for the one who has best used wikipedia as an election platform.


Unfortunately this disqualifies David Roberts, The Flying Brick, Robert Smith*, Paul Thorogood and Mark Walklate, unless they get their act together quickly.

Gemma Garrett's and Mike Nattrass's pages are a bit lacklustre.

Which means it's a toss up between Tamsin Dunwoody, which has a nice bit of background, and Edward Timpson, who is unashamdly wiki-electioneering.

So Labour or Conservation... er maybe it isn't a great idea :(


Seriously though. A by-election is the perfect time to vote however you want. It is unlikely that the balance of power will be effect drastically, and there will be an election soon enough. Though voting Lib-Dem or Con (or anyone none Labour) has the serious potential to give Gordon Brown the proverbial bloody-nose.




*Shame, not the Robert Smith

OK, I'm still up at five am, which means for some strange reason, it seems like a good idea to ask NSG for their advice on how to cast my upcoming vote :D

So here's the low down:

Normally I'd cast my vote for wither the greens or the Lib Dems, depending on who I was feeling the least antipathy for. This is because Crewe is normally a foregone conclusion, so I feel safe voting for whomever is closest to my views. (We've had 2 MPs since 1945, both of whom were labour)

However this by-election throws up a dilemma: Coming off the back of the recent council election results, David Cameron has decided the Tories can win the seat, and I'm worried they might have a chance (they're only marginally worse than labour, but just about...) so, do I go with my conscience, and vote for whichever party is nearest my views, or do I vote against it to keep the Blue menace at bay? Or do I say "SCREW IT ALL!" and vote Official Monster Raving Loony? Best argument wins!

Poll to follow for no apparent reason.

EDIT: Wow, since I last checked, more candidates have registered. 10 is more than double the number of candidates we've ever had before in C&N! And I can't believe that someone is running as the "Cut Tax on Diesel and Petrol" party!

It's easy man, always, vote for the party of your choice.

I say you go with Beauties for Britain even if I'm rather ashamed that she happens to be miss Great Britain (the competition is funny though especially as they wrote their own profiles (http://www.miss-gb.co.uk/contestants.asp))

either that or vote labour seeing as how its whole election platform seems to be anyone but those guys;)

Vote Loony. Really, please do. I'm sure I should have suggested the Tories or UKIP, but frankly, I'm feeling bored and pissed off today.

i'm in the same situation as the OP. i would vote lib dems (or maybe green), but i feel (or felt, as we had our locals last week) that splitting the vote between lib dem and labour could let the tories in. i'd rather vote lib dem than labour, but unless it was virtually gaurenteed lib dems would 'take over' from labour, i can't risk letting the tories in... locals or general.

keep the tories out.

Shame they'll be returning next year then?:D

God I can't wait.

Declaration of Interest, I am a card carrying Lib Dem, stood and lost in the local council elections (I'm actually typing this from a party office while printing leaflets).

The main problem in politics is that too many people are there because they like the idea of being in politics, the power, the status, sometimes because they just came from a political family and didn't have a drive in any other direction.

This afflicts all parties, but generally, it affects the Lib Dems the least. People who want to 'be in politics' gravitate to a big party where they have a better chance of getting a seat. People generally only join the Lib Dems because they have a passion/desire/etc for the ideals.

Secondly, Lib Dems don't get many easy votes. In some parts of the country, like the South Wales Valleys or parts of SE England, Labour and the Tories respectively have home run seats, they're never going to lose there. A politician who doesn't fear for their job is often a lazy politician. You never get that with the Lib Dems, the majority of those in the normal candidate age range remember when we had four MPs and barely existed as a party. Remember and are scared, we have the proverbial fire lit under our arses. We know we can't afford to take people for granted.

Also because we don't get the easy votes of people who'll vote a certain way forever and a day, we have to fight for every vote we get, a Lib Dem candidate has to work harder than the other parties to stand a chance.

Thirdly, we don't get the big donations the others do, from big business or the unions, we work on a much lower budget. Vote for a Lib Dem candidate and you get someone who has been forced to be tight and thrifty and squeeze every penny to get the most out of it in the most anal and pedantic ways you can imagine (down to picking up rubber bands postmen drop in the street to save on the cost of buying them).

In general, vote for a Lib Dem candidate, you get someone who's passionate, used to fighting, working hard, and getting the most out of money, plus they're scared to death of losing at the next election. What more do you want in a politician?

And that's without getting into our policies (all of which are excellent).

Also, Orange is fun colour.

/Party Political Broadcast.

Also, Tamsin Dunwoody's committee attendance records when she was a Welsh Assembly Member weren't that great, about 70% of the top of my head, and for the regional committees (committees expressly regarding the region her constituency was in) she sat on were about 50%. Though admittedly the regional committees never got much done and were somewhat of a wase of time.

Shame they'll be returning next year then?:D

God I can't wait.
I don't find 'more of the same' particulary inspiring, to be quite honest.

Who gives a shit, Cameron will come to power next time and there will be no chance to avoid this, unless he suggests 95% taxes on everyone but the poorest 10% of the population or something.

Who gives a shit, Cameron will come to power next time and there will be no chance to avoid this, unless he suggests 95% taxes on everyone but the poorest 10% of the population or something.

Hung Parliament is a not out of the question. Hansard recently published some stuff on the likely results of one so it's a fair possibility.

I'm going to give a little love to this thread, since this is British forum and, frankly, I think this thread will be pretty slow going.

"Love"
Y'know, forget by-elections in Britain, Ireland got a new PM today (I can't spell the funny name), so we should get a thread for our Irish brothers and give a little love to that too.

Hung Parliament is a not out of the question. Hansard recently published some stuff on the likely results of one so it's a fair possibility.
Haha, no.

The Conservatives are going to Very Win. The Lib Dems can get their completely pointless 20-25% of the vote and bumble along under that cretin Nick Clegg, and the Labour party will just utterly collapse on its arse and reckon David Milliband should be leader (he shouldn't, he speaks in platitudes even more than his chums).

I'm glad we're a while away from a general election as I have absolutely no idea who I would vote for right now.
Why even bother voting?

New Labour - don't really want to encourage them tbqh.
Conservatives - Cameron doesn't have any policies of any interest, is also generally a tool.
Lib Dems - Nick Clegg is a flip-flopping disgrace, and the party hasn't done anything in the last two years.

SNIP

are you done patting yourself and your party of new labour clones on the back yet? :p

Vote Loony. Really, please do. I'm sure I should have suggested the Tories or UKIP, but frankly, I'm feeling bored and pissed off today.

I've always found it slightly odd how you support Cameron...

Who gives a shit, Cameron will come to power next time and there will be no chance to avoid this, unless he suggests 95% taxes on everyone but the poorest 10% of the population or something.

that was said last election and I think its safe to say that the stigma that currently exists with the conservatives will ensure they never attain majority popular support

I'm glad we're a while away from a general election as I have absolutely no idea who I would vote for right now.

I'm sure Gordan Brown is thinking the same thing

edit: super timewarp!

Haha, no.

The Conservatives are going to Very Win. The Lib Dems can get their completely pointless 20-25% of the vote and bumble along under that cretin Nick Clegg, and the Labour party will just utterly collapse on its arse and reckon David Milliband should be leader (he shouldn't, he speaks in platitudes even more than his chums).

Unlikely short of some major event happening in the next year or so.

The Polls in the corresponding elections in 1995 gave Labour a 28% lead, and in the months leading up to the general election they never had less than a 20% lead over the Tories. That gave them a majority of 179. Current Tory lead over Labour is 9%. The Tories won't come close to the 1997 Labour result. won't touch 100 majority.

(Although due to the crap electoral system we have overall % don't always show a full picture).

Seats Seats % Votes %
Labour 356 55.2 35.3
Conservative 198 30.7 32.3
Liberal Democrat 62 9.6 22.1

We badly need a form of PR to get people interested in politics again, and so that the National Parliament accurately represents the views of all of the people of the UK.

are you done patting yourself and your party of new labour clones on the back yet? :p



I'm electioneering, you expect me to say bad things about us? :p


EDIT: Timewarping all over the place.

Y'know, forget by-elections in Britain, Ireland got a new PM today (I can't spell the funny name), so we should get a thread for our Irish brothers and give a little love to that too.

Taoiseach.

Blue Labour is a dead cert. to win massively in the next general. A good 90% of Nu-Labour's chickens have yet to come home to roost.

I don't find 'more of the same' particulary inspiring, to be quite honest.

Join the club. However, firstly Johnny SunReader only has himself to blame for this, and secondly, I'd rather have a Tory government than anything Labour can muster.

I'm going to give a little love to this thread, since this is British forum and, frankly, I think this thread will be pretty slow going.

"Love"

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this bye-election is the most interesting thing to have happened in Crewe & Nantwich in at least 100 years.

I'm glad we're a while away from a general election as I have absolutely no idea who I would vote for right now.

Y'know, forget by-elections in Britain, Ireland got a new PM today (I can't spell the funny name), so we should get a thread for our Irish brothers and give a little love to that too.

No way, man. All the evil people I've ever heard of were from Ireland. Don't you watch movies. Plus, Ifreann. Need I say more?

Join the club. However, firstly Johnny SunReader only has himself to blame for this, and secondly, I'd rather have a Tory government than anything Labour can muster.
I'd be much happier with neither, but seeing as that's not going to happen, I'm not too fussed as to which party gets into office. I can't think of any real policy differences between the two, mainly because they don't seem to have much policy and what they do have always seems to be photocopied from the other.

Taoiseach.
That's the one.

No way, man. All the evil people I've ever heard of were from Ireland. Don't you watch movies. Plus, Ifreann. Need I say more?
So, we're leaving poor Cabra West out in the cold?:D

We badly need a form of PR to get people interested in politics again, and so that the National Parliament accurately represents the views of all of the people of the UK.

so we can have respect and Green in parliament at the cost of political stability?

why bother when the current system works at about the same efficiency at the same time keeping the more radical parties under heel

I'm electioneering, you expect me to say bad things about us? :p

I bet you have tons and tons of juicy secrets just waiting to share

You actually have a candidate named "Tamsin Dunwoody"? A major-party candidate, even?

Why even bother voting?

New Labour - don't really want to encourage them tbqh.
Conservatives - Cameron doesn't have any policies of any interest, is also generally a tool.
Lib Dems - Nick Clegg is a flip-flopping disgrace, and the party hasn't done anything in the last two years.

Well, someone has to be in charge. I might as well pick the one that I feel will be least useless. I just don't know who that is yet because everyone seems to be trying ever so hard to make that distinction difficult.

so we can have respect and Green in parliament at the cost of political stability?

why bother when the current system works at about the same efficiency at the same time keeping the more radical parties under heel
Define efficiency? The objective of a parliament is to represent the people, currently it's not succeeding terribly well.

Respect have an MP, Mr George Galloway, and under PR they'd have the same.

The Greens despite getting three-four times as many votes as Respect have no MPs, under PR they'd have 6.

In the 2005 elections there were 11 parties who had MPs, under PR there'd be 15 (plus one independant).

After the big three the next on direct % would be UKIP with about 14 seats

Labour 228
Tory 209
Lib Dem 143


After the big three the next on direct % would be UKIP with about 14 seats and then another 11 with 10 or less.

This'd be under direct PR, though personally I'd prefer some sort of fusion system, The D'Hondt Method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Hondt_method) for example.



I bet you have tons and tons of juicy secrets just waiting to share
The Tories committed electoral fraud in Swansea at the local elections, scarily apparently a Tory AM shagged one of his researchers on my desk (offices switched around) (it's definite they had an affair, which desk is up for speculation). The £60million Welsh Parliament building leaks (I think, the whole thing's made of glass so it might just be huge amounts of condensation).

Lots of little things, the big ones tend to come out.

Lots of little things really, the big explosive things tend to get out.

You actually have a candidate named "Tamsin Dunwoody"? A major-party candidate, even?
Why not?

She is from a Labour Dynasty, mother was the former MP who died to trigger the by-election, father was an MP, grandfather general secretary of the Labour party, Grandmother Labour peer. Bleeds Labour red I dare say (yes it's a poor joke).

Lib Dems - Nick Clegg is a flip-flopping disgrace, and the party hasn't done anything in the last two years.
Out of interest, what makes you say that?

so we can have respect and Green in parliament at the cost of political stability?

why bother when the current system works at about the same efficiency at the same time keeping the more radical parties under heel
If it can work in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, London, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden (that's all I can rattle off the top of my head) without instability (except perhaps Italy, but they've always been that way before proper PR) it can work in the Commons (and hopefully the Lords), no?