Granless
What on earth do you fear about Jeremy Corbyn?
Is democracy being by-passed in favour of the billionaires?
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I am sure that I am not alone in feeling that if a General Election was called right now, I would be totally stumped.
Despite what some will have deduced from my posts on the political threads, I am not a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, and have been known to vote both Labour and Conservative in past elections. I suppose that makes me a floating voter, though I am more swayed by how the party in power has behaved over the last term of office than I am by any unrealistic promises of what wonderful things they 'will' do after the election.
That is why,based on what I saw in Cameron's first term in office, I certainly wasn't prepared to vote Tory in 2015, or in 2017 when May called the election.
But who to vote for?
Labour would almost certainly get my vote now if it had a half-decent leader, but it has become increasingly obvious that under Corbyn, Labour stands little or no chance of winning an election, and even if they did, I think that chaos would ensue. It would be a disaster.
In fact, if they had a decent leader, I think that there is a strong chance that they would already be back in power.
Yet in my area (Leadsom's constituency), Labour is the only party that stands any chance whatsoever (with a miracle) of getting even close to challenging the Conservatives, who got over 62% of the vote in 2017.
The Lib Dems are showing little sign of recovery (is this their own failing, or are the media to blame for not allowing them enough coverage?)
In the absence of a system of PR, a vote for the smaller parties just feels like a totally wasted vote, in my region, anyway!
Everything considered, right now, if pushed, I would probably vote Lib Dem, for the simple reason that they have been against Brexit all along - it really angers me when (mostly) Tory brexiteers claim that all votes for both Labour and Conservative in 2017 count as support for Brexit, as if that was the only policy on their manifestos.
At least voting Lib Dem would remove my vote from that count, which has to be better than nothing.
Without even that option, I would feel totally disenfranchised!
Does anyone else feel the same?
Granless
What on earth do you fear about Jeremy Corbyn?
For God’s sake don’t let Corbyn in!
I'm confused, Anja
You said:
Remind me again who is in power? Oh yes! The Conservatives.
And who voted them in (just) in 2015? The British public!
So ladies we have exactly the bunch of self-serving, incompetents we collectively deserve.
I replied:
Only because of the FPTP system though Anja. The majority of voters did not vote Conservative, so can't really be blamed.
Then you said:
Illogical mamacaz because I was talking about who actually IS in power and how, despite how they have used and abused that power, they are apparently no different from those who have not!
I must be either misreading or misunderstanding something, because I have read these a few times and still can't see what's illogical about what I said 
So Corbyn has mixed feelings about the Referendum. Only goes to show he read the situation well ie it was far more complicated than a simple Remain or Leave.
I really can’t understand why people keep shifting the blame onto Labour. It was a Tory called the Referendum and Tories who ‘managed’ the withdrawal (ha!)
There is no logic in blaming anyone else for this monumental cock-up. In fact the only deal now possible is the one proposed by Labour - or to crash out with no deal.
You're damn right Mamacaz - many of us have lost what little faith we once had in our politicians.
I cannot abide our local MP but the opposition isn't too impressive either.
However, I will vote - surely we'll get a hung Parliament? If I were a betting woman I'd feel like putting some money on it.
I agree with Ginny if Corbyn who had a large following had campaigned during the Referendum campaign I think the remain vote would have won. Instead he refused to take part in tv debates and even went away on holiday. He wanted out.
Noticed the photo of the Queen in her ‘EU’ outfit further up the thread. I don’t think she chooses her own outfits. Doesn’t her lady in waiting do that? She wears whatever they have chosen for her. I remember hearing about the time Ted Heath spoke to her when he was taking us into the Common Market, she apparently said, “But what about Australia? The Commonwealth?” Heath shrugged.
Please explain Ginny how Corbyn is to blame for this fiasco. Facts and logic please.
That is one of the most sensible and logical posts on this thread sluttygran. At last the voice of common sense.
As a confirmed Socialist, I will always vote Labour.
I personally like Jeremy Corbyn, altho’ I don’t agree with him on everything.
There can be no doubt that he has suffered terribly from smear campaigns in the national press, which have all proved to be baseless and untrue, but many have been influenced by this bad publicity.
The fact remains that only under a Socialist Government does this country have any chance of recovery.
If you disapprove of the party leader, then join up and campaign against his leadership, but do vote with your principles rather than for a personality.
Party politics and partisanship aside, I think most will agree that this present showed are by far the worst administration we have suffered for many a long year!
Leavesden, so it's all Blair's fault is it? Cameron and his cronies risky politics are completely blameless?
Corbyn and co, not only allowed a referendum result based on fraud to go unchallenged, but grasped it as though it was some great achievement. and they are completely blameless?
The blame for the current state of the nation lies with Cameron, May and Corbyn.
After the Brexit fiasco and the awful behaviour of our representatives I don’t feel that I want to vote again. All my life I have voted, never missed and have felt proutvto be able to do so and feel part of the process. I cannot however just ignore Election Day so will just spoil my paper which I feel will have more effect. I feel quite sad to be feeling like this but have lost all respect for the “ democratic process “.
We shouldn’t be wasting time faffing about over Brexit, when we have more important issues to deal with, like climate change and plastic polluting the whole world. If we don’t get these issues sorted, we won’t have to worry about Brexit or elections because we won’t be here!
If every constituency were to field a Brexit candidate and a pro-European candidate, we could have a mini-referendum without even trying and give all the useless representatives of the major parties a nasty shock, as well as giving people who were too young to vote in the referendum a chance to express their feelings.
Illogical mamacaz because I was talking about who actually IS in power and how, despite how they have used and abused that power, they are apparently no different from those who have not!
I won’t be bothering to vote again, have voted all my life but recent events show what a shower they all are everyone of them just in it for their own self interests. It all started to go wrong with Blair’s treachery and lies and it’s set a trend, where we were once an honest and strong country it has all sunk into chaos.
Should also have said I have voted in elections recently by a process of elimination as no one appears to stand for the electorate just for themselves.
mcem it's always about independence even when the SNP says it's not. Besides their current performance has been utterly appalling. The Police Scotland merger was not a success, the attainment gap in education is widening, the NHS in Scotland is a joke and, frankly, every time I hear Ian Blackford speak in parliament I'm embarrassed to admit I'm a Scot. Their time is coming to an end, hopefully.
Here in Oxfordshire so far we have goats ? and now David Cameron has become a very rich pig farmer, we have a ? pig. We have no choice as to who we can vote for because we are stuck in the Tory old boys network safety belt. David Cameron' behaviour spoke volumes in Tory Oxfordshire, when he abandoned his country and principles, by causing chaos by having the Referendum. he was replaced by another Tory. Three years later we can add another self serving, self gratifying Tory to this elite list, Theresa May. The Mays have just brought a very expensive manor house to retire in. Again like Cameron, this purchase coincides neatly with leaving the Tory Party. So now we can add rats, in Oxfordshire, and like rats the Tory government are leaving the sinking ship.
LibDem - but oh we do need PR in this country! An effectively 2 party situation is just not right. We probably need to get used to a coalition government - it is iniquitous that the Lib Dems get pilloried about tuition fees (which I appreciate is very important to those it affects), but were never praised for stopping the Tories from having a referendum on Europe at that time - ouch!!
Totally agree with your last sentence Eloethan and would add that we should all give a lot of thought to what we put on the ballot paper. Oh yes, I have written 'I abstain' on a ballot paper rather than not vote at all.
I will vote Labour. They're not perfect but virtually all the progressive policies and laws that we have in this country were introduced by them. I would never vote Conservative because I don't believe in what they believe in.
When we lived in a West Sussex town, there was absolutely no way that a Labour candidate could have been successful. Nevertheless, I did vote for Labour. I think that everyone should at least make the effort to turn up - if they really can't bring themselves to support any party at all, they should spoil their vote.
123coco with all due respect to football I cannot believe it should be viewed as a parallel to politics. It doesn't affect people's jobs, welfare or the economy except in the smallest of ways. It is supposed to be a pleasure for the supporters whereas politics is not.
I would not even think about how I voted at 18 as being relevant to how I vote now, instead I look at the current situation and try to evaluate the best option. Right now I can't find one though!
Very well put, maddyone
Only because of the FPTP system though Anja. The majority of voters did not vote Conservative, so can't really be blamed.
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