Are you going to vote tactically?

[goslow]

not UKIP by any chance???

[biffvernon]

My Conservative candidate, Sir Peter Tapsell, who will undoubtedly be returned yet again, is anti local wind farms and anti local gas storage. Never was there a greater NIMBY. His election leaflet starts with a reminder that he was not involved in the expenses affair, but he does not tell us that for three decades while a sitting MP he also worked as a member of the Stock Exchange. He had no need to claim expenses.

[caspian]

I was thinking of voting for a fringe party ... until their leaflet arrived tonight.

Their candidate is anti local wind-farms ... oh, well, can't vote for him ... a nimby.

Back to the drawing board ... although in reality my vote will count for nothing.

So do what I've done - burn your ballot paper. Our democracy is a farce, and I'm taking no more part in it. To do so gives succour to the establishment. As long as they keep getting people out voting, they can feel smugly satisfied that Everything Is Just Fine. Nothing will change, and the voters will be shafted yet again.

[UndercoverElephant]

No vote is wasted.

How do you think the green party got into a position where they can realistically hope to take Brighton Pavillion? It was because lots of ideologically-motivated people in Brighton voted for who they believed in. And this is in a seat that the tories once considered safe...a seat which went labour only because of large amounts of anti-tory tactical voting.

[Vortex]

Hmm ... the Greens ... a party run on collectivist lines ... with no leader.

Yet Caroline Lucas seems to have been the ... err ... non-leader for around 20 years ...

Ah, of course in 2008 it all changed - she was elected leader, complete with photo all over the website etc.

Sheesh ...

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/carol ... eader.html

[UndercoverElephant]

Hmm ... the Greens ... a party run on collectivist lines ... with no leader.

That was ten years ago. Caroline Lucas is the leader of the green party.

Yet Caroline Lucas seems to have been the ... err ... non-leader for around 20 years ...

Actually, not quite. You're forgetting Keith Taylor (whose son is a friend of mine.)

Did you have anything sensible to say?

[Cycloloco]

Hmm ... the Greens ... a party run on collectivist lines ... with no leader.

Yet Caroline Lucas seems to have been the ... err ... non-leader for around 20 years ...

Ah, of course in 2008 it all changed - she was elected leader, complete with photo all over the website etc.

Sheesh ...

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/carol ... eader.html

What do you mean by collectivist? All parties are collective organisations so they all are collectivist in one form or another. If you mean economically collectivist you need to say so. It is impossible to tell from the post above if you are for or against leaders.

The Green Party's policies are left of Labour's but so are the Libdem's policies. It's not difficult to be left of Labour these days.

[2 As and a B]

I was thinking of voting for a fringe party ... until their leaflet arrived tonight.

Their candidate is anti local wind-farms ... oh, well, can't vote for him ... a nimby.

Back to the drawing board ... although in reality my vote will count for nothing.

The BNP have (always?) been against wind farms. Probably something to do with the air coming from abroad.

[RenewableCandy]

The BNP have (always?) been against wind farms. Probably something to do with the air coming from abroad.

[UndercoverElephant]

OK...I now believe we are looking at a seismic shift in British politics. The current situation is Cameron's nightmare. Clegg has top-sliced the change vote. Cameron's only hope of getting a majority was that he looked like the only alternative to Gordon Brown, but him and his side-kick "Gideon" look to most voters like "a pair of privilidged young men with a glint in their eye" (Paxman). Cleggmania has led to the situation where maybe neither Cameron nor Brown are going to be the next prime minister and the public can smell blood.

I don't believe that Clegg can do a deal with the tories. First, there is too large a gap in policies. Clegg wants to restructure the tax system to benefit the poor. Cameron wants to restructure it to benefit the rich. Plus the tories will NEVER agree to serious electoral reform, because it would probably mean that they'll never again have an outright majority.

I don't think a minority labour or tory government would survive for very long. They would be at the mercy of both the opposition and the markets at a time when the most difficult economic decisions in living memory have to be made.

So the only believable outcome I can see right now is a lib-lab coalition, with electoral reform as the price and probably with Gordon Brown's head on a stick as another price. How long that coalition would last for I do not know, but if the subsequent election was held under PR then any outcome is possible, including that the libdems are the largest party at Westminster.

It is just possible that we are witnessing the end of two-party politics in modern Britain. I think that Cameron and Brown are both shitting themselves.

Of course there is also the possibility that the parliament elected is very deeply hung and that neither of the main parties are willing to agree to PR. What happens next? Would the Queen agree to another election? And what would the public do next? This election is going to create a whole raft of new lib-con and lib-lab marginals...places where tactical voting in any subsequent election could increase the libdem presence at westminster even more and hang the parliament ever deeper.

Interesting times.

[biffvernon]

David Milliband will be PM, Clegg Foreign Secretary, Cable Chancellor., Brown retired.

[caspian]

So the only believable outcome I can see right now is a lib-lab coalition

Except that they rather rashly ruled that out before the election campaign even started, so they're going to look a bit foolish if they now decide to jump into bed with one of the other parties.

[UndercoverElephant]

David Milliband will be PM, Clegg Foreign Secretary, Cable Chancellor., Brown retired.

I doubt it somehow. Two libdems in jobs #2 and #3? And electoral reform? I don't think the labour party would agree, although this probably is the most sensible outcome - you have to give Clegg a job and you can't pass over Vince Cable because he is the only politician the public trusts on financial matters.

[RenewableCandy]

So the only believable outcome I can see right now is a lib-lab coalition

Except that they rather rashly ruled that out before the election campaign even started, so

that's what polititcians often do before going ahead and doing whatever it is that they've ruled out.

If there's a hung parly I reckon it probably won't last long: it'll have to enact some seriously unpopular stuff, which the public will blame on its hung-ness (while we PS-ers and a few financial pundits realise it'll have to happen anyway one way or another). Didn't the last hung parly only last from a May til an October?

I can see a nasty sequel: another election within a year, the tories getting in and doing another Thatcher, but this time without the honesty.

[snow hope]

Good posts UE.

I agree that we are seing fundamental party political change in the country and one of the causes is the public's dislike of the whole expenses fiasco - they want to teach the politicians a lesson - voting Lib will do this.

Also folks are fed-up with the Tory Govt and then the Labour and then back to Tory - people do want a change from that old crap - I sense.

The trouble with a hung parliament will be that they will find it difficult to come to decisions and this may hold back the change and the hard decisions that are required?

Although I am not a Tory supporter, something makes me think what the country needs is a party capable of taking very hard decisions and I think the Tory's might be the only party capable of doing that.

Hopefully I am wrong and the Liberals will do it...... (but not completely convinced...)

Interesting times for sure!