Voting quandry

jevive Why would Diane Abbott be deputy? The deputy is elected not appointed.
People just make things up.

The only way to change the government is through the ballot box, will middle England vote for the far left? Does the promise of strengthening the
Unions powers make voters comfortable or fear increase in strikes? Some still remember strikes where rubbish bags filled the streets and in parts of the country the dead couldn't be buried untill the end of a strike

Why did only 12% of UNITE members choose to vote at their leadership election?

Unless you're in Corbyn's constituency, you're not voting for him but your local Labour candidate. I know what you mean, Corbyn's not my favourite Labour politician either but I'm still voting Labour because I believe in decency. Also, most the media establishment always try to pull Labour leaders down. Please vote Labour, marbles.

angelab Tue 25-Apr-17 13:19:29
Sorry POGS don't think it's possible to retrieve bbc coverage from then

So it was the BBC!

How did you see / hear about it can I ask please. Was it in a Panorama type programme, news?

POGS it was non-specific coverage by BBC news, where I couldn't understand (I remember) why they always seemed to cast Jeremy Corbyn in a negative light, always picking up things the labour party didn't like about him...

jaycee if Corbyn was elected as PM he could appoint whoever he liked as Deputy PM.

What has been reported about any of the leaders by the Beeb that is untrue?

Anniebach I suppose if only 12% voted it must mean that the rest of them don't really mind either way. (or they just couldn't be bothered)

No government has to have a deputy PM, Cameron appointed .clegg, deputy PM is not an official post

angelab

Thank you for replying.

It is interesting. I can't find anything other than a denial so if I have time I may dive a little further.

The BBC would obviously be a good place to start.

llovecheese, it certaintly wasn't important for the mrmbers unless it was - none of the above

To introduce a note of facetiousness, my dear late mother always voted for the best looking candidate, be it school governor, local councillor or MP..... and she was never disappointed.

My Mum admitted she was once tempted to vote for Jo Grimmond but not for his politics ?

I never fail to be impressed by the amount of informed comment on GN. But I am also quite unimpressed about how many clearly are only interested in their own party's propaganda. I'm like many on here and no longer have any party loyalty - I was a card carrying Labour member till the advent of Blair's New Labour - and am always in a quandary about how to vote. I live in Scotland (sorry if I'm opening a new can of worms) and have the SNP to contend with. I will probably vote tactically to try to get rid of them ...

I could never vote Conservative because I do not believe in their ideology, but whichever party wins an election there is always a certain amount of compromise once in power, but less need for compromise if they have a very large majority. My fear is this election the Tories will win with a huge majority and have carte blanche to deliver further damage to our health, education and public services. I do think that Jeremy Corbyn is portrayed unfairly and negatively in the media, and I agree with some of his ideas, but pragmatically I do not want to belong to a party that is merely a protest party and one that never achieves power in order to change things. I am not sure whether the traditional political parties and descriptions of "left" and "right" are appropriate any more?

Ana Not true. The deputy is elected by the membership.

Labour and Corbyn have too much ranged against them. Most of the press & media, all the tories and ukip, not of few of the PLP.
See this
anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-laura-kuenssberg-fake-news.html
for some of what they have to put up with.
The strange thing is, you can no longer trust BBC Radio4, but the World Service is excellent, and has interviewers who listen to what they are being told before questioning its truth. Unlike the Today programme.

Lazigirl reminds us that "whichever party wins an election there is always a certain amount of compromise once in power"

The 2010-2015 government was the first ever peacetime coalition government in the UK and I think on the whole it was quite successful. Compromises were made.

Unfortunately the Tories and their friends who control most of the press made sure that the Liberal Democrats were blamed for the unpopular policies, especially the rise in tuition fees which was their party policy, and got no credit for the good things, eg the pupil premium, raising the income tax personal allowance, which were LibDem policies.

In spite of the dreadful damage that was done at the 2015 election, which was disastrous for the LibDems, I still believe that coalition government demonstrated that a degree of compromise and co-operation between parties can be achieved and is a good thing.

This is what happens in most mature democracies, where proportional representation ensures that all parties get their fair share of the votes and most policies are, at least to some extent, supported by parties which actually represent the majority of voters.

FPTP is unrepresentative of the views of the majority - what Hailsham (I think) called "dictatorship by a minority". That is what we have now and if the Tories get back with even more MPs whilst most people voted against the Tory Party, they are likely to become even more dictatorial and compromise with nobody. This would be a travesty of democracy.

Anniebach, I query again that Corbyn should be labelled 'far left'. He is no more left then Wilson was, it is just the tories (thanks to ukip) have moved a long way to the right, and still claim to be centrist.

Agree with much of what Lazigirl has said.

The 2 main parties have drifted to each of their extremes leaving a huge vacuum in the centre with no-one to represent those who don't want a hard Brexit at one extreme or ideologically driven nationalisation at all costs.

Both of the main parties want change but I am not convinced that the changes they want will improve people's lives - quite the opposite, in fact.

Here's what we are faced with with the 3 "main" parties:

A Labour Party led by someone who cannot lead and says one thing (eg about Trident) when the party says the opposite.

A Tory party being investigated for false accounting for their election expenditure last time and who for ideological reasons want a hard Brexit regardless of how many jobs it will cost.

A LibDem party led by a born again Christian who is too weak to say that he personally is uncomfortable about gay sex but who explains that his party believes in equality regardless of sexual orientation.

I am faced with not voting at all as there is no-one/party whom I can support as a protest vote.

yggdrasil

So do you honestly know who / what Yorkshire Blogger Thomas G Clarke is? Like many others you are relaying your thoughts via a blog so you must be assured you are aligning your thoughts with him / her/ it.

Laura Kuensberg was mentioned , again!, on this thread previously ,what do you make of the BBC Comment that does not agree with the BBC Trusts findings?

Yggdrasil, the media has always been anti labour, Corbyn is getting an easy ride compared to previous leaders.

You then state the Tories and UKIP are against labour , yesssss, they always have been, heaven help if it rains when Corbyn is making an outdoor speech , you will claim God is against Corbyn

How can you vote for lib.dems when they let the students down in the coalition party with clegg. We have to think about the young people in this country and what they have to pay in students loans.My gd is about to start her gcse and says she won't go on to uni when she finishes 6th form college because of the debt she will have and a lot of her friends feel the same.
There are so many things that need looking at knife crime, nhs, education who is any good at dealing with that it's not just about brexit. I didn't vote to come out.
I definitely won't vote for ms may, do not trust her.

You will never find one party that supports everything you believe in and has never supported, or still supports something you do not agree with.

We have to assess the each parties whole policy platform and past performance and reckon which is the best fit.

Personally, I am most concerned about each party's underlying philosophy, roughly summarised as Conservative: a doctrinaire belief in the benevolent power of the market; Labour: a doctrinaire belief in the power of the state and Liberal Democrats; progressive and non-doctrinaire.

The media attack Tim Farron by asking questions about "sin". This is just mischief making and no doubt we shall see a lot more of it in the next few weeks because both Labour and Tory parties and their friends in the media are worried about the increasing popularity of the LibDems.

Funny how Theresa May, who keeps telling us how Christian she is, vicar's daughter to boot, never gets asked such irrelevant questions.

Tim Farron, like many churchgoers, is actually a secularist, believing in the separation of church and politics. He does not preach. He is not a theologian and is not running as a potential Archbishop of Canterbury or Pope.

LGBT LibDems acting chair has said "I need a leader who speaks out for LGBT rights locally, nationally and internationally. In Tim Farron, I have a leader I can absolutely trust on that score." If you can't take her word for it, watch Tim respond strongly to this silly question in the HoC -
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/lib-dem-leader-tim-farron-10255521