"I've always been a lifelong (insert part of choice) voter....."

Strange state of affairs indeed, paddyann !

There are catholics married to 'senior royals' (just not the monarch or monarch's spouse!) and it is not true about a catholic not being able to become prime minister as it is not against the constitution, it just hasn't happened (not overtly anyway).
Tony Blair was a catholic in all but name but did not 'officially' change until after he left office.

Juliette do you really, truly, honestly think "it's in the genes, like red hair"

I really hope that was a tongue in cheek remark!

It would be odd if the Supreme Governor of the Church of England was a Catholic, just as it would be odd if the Pope was the head of the C of E!

its odd that the queen is the head of the church too *Jalima" church and state should be seperate

paddyann

"having said thet so is the fact that a catholic cant be PM ".
I will stick my neck out and say you have possibly read Fake News along the line.

Well, 'should' is just an opinion.

Not odd, it is for historical reasons, obviously, but perhaps a whole other debate paddyann for another thread!

ps She is Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor not Supreme Head

lots of Fake News around

Jalima

Ain't that the truth.

Some swallow it like confetti.

Confetti must be very hard to swallow, being made up of sort of light tissue paper type stuff. Although I believe that there is some made from rice paper, we which I suppose would be easier to ingest. Don't go to many weddings these days, so not sure.

"Sorry but why?" I think you have posed a good question Phoenix, why would you vote the way your parents did, or do, or indeed try and impose your views on your children for that matter. My parents, being staunch Catholics, were far more concerned in thrusting their religion on us in our growing up years, I realise in retrospect that they probably weren't affiliated to any particular party, I grew up in a Surrey town so overwhelmingly Conservative that voting for any other party would be the equivalent of farting against thunder. I know a couple of my father's sisters were very left leaning, married respectively to a Welshman from Tonypandy and a Frenchman from Brittany who both espoused socialist rhetoric. I think both my parents getting on well with my aunts and uncles tended to agree with them at times, but my impression was that they also thought they were a bit too in thrall to the left wing. When my parents moved to Sussex they were resident in Norman Baker (Lib Dem) constituency and they thought well of him as an MP and I think they were pleased to have an alternative which they didn't have living in a Tory stronghold. In her later years my mother shifted her allegiance to the Greens and declared in her '80s that's who she would be voting for even if it was a wasted vote. My parents did talk about politics, I think it went over my head, but I'm quite glad they weren't partisan. I've voted for all 3 of the main parties and I vote based on the circumstances and issues that I consider important.

I find MUCH more peculiar the person I heard on the radio who said "I've been a lifelong Socialist and Labour voter but this time I'm voting Conservative."

If that happened to me my family would call an ambulance, believing I had experienced a brainstorm.

Wonderful thread Phoenix. Thank you. I have never understood and constantly wondered how anyone 'ALWAYS' votes for the same party whatever that party may be. Domestic, local, national, global situation change daily (and more often) and regularly dramatically. I weigh up the situation as I see it at the time and vote accordingly. My main dilemma is when I'm torn and then I would go Green or some other middle of the road. Fact is I've voted for all of the major parties in my time from smarty pants youth to my anxious parenting time and now with the benefit of hindsight and past experience. However I will ALWAYS vote. It's precious. Having an open mind and combining it with willingness to be persuaded is invaluable methinks. My Mum always reminded me of the two ears one mouth practicality. 'Listen twice as much as you speak'

I don't vote for tribal reasons, I make a calculated decision as to which party gives us the best public services - NHS especially. And that is Labour. I don't care too much who they put in charge of it, they could put Mickey Mouse in the leaders chair, I know Labour value the things I do and don't reward big business with tax breaks & starve the NHS

Exactly, we should all be voting for policies not personalities.
I haven't voted in a GE for 10 years but always voted tory, now their policies don't sit right with me so I won't be this time.

Rosesare read
Spot on! My first vote went to Labour - Gwyneth Dunwoody in Exter in 1964. Newly married, we thought they would take care of the economy and make the country a good place to bring up a family. We continued to vote Labour up to and including 1977. We just got poorer and poorer to the point where my husband (in a reasonably well-paid computer job) had to get a weekend job as well. When I went into hospital to have my first child, I was treated for malnutrition as by the time we had paid the bills and outgoings, there wasn't much left for food and porridge for dinner four times a week isn't really nutritious. The Unions had Labour by the throat and the benefit culture spiralled out of control. A women in our village had 5 children all by different men and none of them supported her but through tax we had no choice. Who supported us? No-one.
We made up our minds that we would never vote Labour again and have stuck to that. We didnb't vote Tory until ten years ago but I have to say for ordinary working people Thatcher did quite a lot of good and we found ourselves much better off. I still remember sitting at the table crying my eyes out when I was able to buy a half leg of lamb for the first time in years.
If you have children with young families, think hard and then think again before voting Labour. The same old platitudes are coming out, "we will tax the rich", " we will tax businesses" etc. Well in the 1970's the rich got their money out of the country, businesses either went offshore or folded up so they came for us next. I am still bitter and angry about it and frankly do not believe a word they say. It is all very well putting up child benefit and pensions but if they let the economy get out of control the increase will probably not even cover inflation.
OK rant over - kick me in the teeth if you wish

I have always been a voter that's for sure...........changed my mind fairly often but now, can't bear to even think about the choices so wish I had an hereditary vote imprinted on me.

It would be like wearing a uniform to work no worry about what to wear.

I agree!

I await the emergence of a new centrist party. But I will have to vote; I only spoiled my paper once and that was not in a GE
(hoping I will still be here to see it).

wish I had an hereditary vote imprinted on me
My inherited genes are imprinted with staunch Labour and staunch Tory

I've lived in a massive Tory majority constituency and also in a massive Labour majority constituency - I always voted but I could understand why turnout was low because voters felt that it wouldn't affect the outcome whether they voted or not. And in both places the MPs were useless because their seats were so safe. The referendum turnout was so much higher because every vote counted.
I think UKIP did well in the "Labour heartlands" because of this "never vote Tory" tribalism and then UKIP came along and gave them an alternative.
Society has changed so much in my lifetime and the political scene is changing - descriptions of left-wing & right-wing now seem out-of-date.
I won't be voting for a party because of its promises - the economy & Brexit negotiations will determine whether they can fulfil those promises. I'm waiting to see who will be standing in my constituency.
The people who make me most angry are the big TU bosses - they've forgotten all about the low-paid private sector jobs and the erosion of workers' terms & conditions in parts of the private sector.

You were right, Phoenix, to observe how irrational some people's voting habits are. 'My party right or wrong' tribalism cannot be either rational or moral. Coupled with the increasingly vocal abuse of the other party which has arisen in the recent past, it is a most deleterious part of public life.

That said, I think most of us who do look at the issues as well as the parties and the politicians, probably end up voting, on the whole, as we usually do because one set of values and methods appeals to us more than that of the others.

The interesting thing is that the parties themselve have become on some issues almost indistinguishable because they are trying to capture the floating voter, the magical C2s, who swing elections. I have noticed that, to 'triangulate', the parties will go quite a way down the road to disoblige their own core vote on whom they count to vote tribally, in order to capture the swing voter. For instance, once secure of a majority in parliament, Theresa May has been trying to raise NICs and taxes and to spend centrally and increase 'big government', all ideas anathema to conservative and Conservative values.

What to do? Who knows? But I do think that so much was sacrificed to enable the ordinary man and woman to have a vote that it is our duty to get off the sofa and use it.

Personally I do find it strange that a lifelong labour supporter could even consider coting conservative because the underlying philosophy is completely different.

Apart from when I was 18, I've always voted tactically. Basically, who don't I want to be the MP.

My current constituency is a Tory stronghold with an arse of a Govt. Minister for MP. Vile little man.
So, although I'm a green socialist, I tend to vote LibDem as they're the only party in this area that has any hope of defeating said arsehole.

So, so grateful I don't actually live there anymore but I can still try to vote him out with my ex pat vote.

I was brought up in a staunchly Conservative area, not wealthy but rural. The saying was always "if they put a blue rosette on a monkey people would vote for it".

I have voted both Conservative & Lib Dem in the past in GEs. I vote mostly Lib Dem in Council Elections as they are generally good at that level in my experience. Local Elections are a different matter, best candidate of whichever party gets my vote.

I now live in another area which is solid Conservative, again rural area, which way will I vote? Sorry that's between me & the Ballot Box