Tactical Voting

The only party strongly opposed to PR is the Conservative Party, who have in the past benefitted from the undemocratic distortion of FPTP - eg getting a massive eighty seat majority in the HoC on the basis of 43% of the votes as happened in 2019.

It looks likely that this time the Conservatives will get a much lower percentage of seats than votes, which might just make them think again.

Although the vast majority of Labour Party members, constituency organisations and trade unions strongly support a change to PR, Starmer has said it "is not a priority"., presumably because he anticipates his party winning a huge majority, probably on the basis of a minority of votes. He is clearly more interested in power than democracy, which I suppose is a reaction to 14 years in opposition.

The UK is the only European country to elect its government by FPTP, except for Putin's puppet state Belarus.

A party who has got into power with a majority is unlikely to want to pursue PR, which might well have diluted their majority.

Freya5

keepingquiet

If you want PR then you should vote LibDems as they are the only party that will persue it.

Reform want it too.

No point voting for them

Check out the tactical voting websites and vote for whichever of the progressive parties is most likely to beat the Tories in your constituency.

Our safe Tory seat is now being talked about as a marginal, as Labour has been gaining ground in the polls locally.

varian

There are websites which advise which party has the best chance of beating the Tories in each constituency

stopthetories.vote/
tactical.vote/all/

Just to balance things up 😉

www.electionpolling.co.uk/tactical-voting/keep-out/labour

In this constituency, Labour pretty much come nowhere - it’s always been a close call between Con/LD. Currently LD, and IIRC it was close enough for a recount last time.

But it’s occurred to me that if enough people vote Labour this time, out of conviction and not tactically, it could tip the balance away from the LDs, and allow the Tory to slip in again.

Honestly if you are in a Tory held seat and by voting tactically for a party other than your chosen one party, why wouldn’t you.

There isnt a single party in this country who deserves to be re-elected after 5 years of sleaze, corruption, incompetence and criminal behaviour.

In fact I would go as far as to say it is our duty to rid the country of such an awful government.

The next thing in front of us is the populist Russian admirer, who will be definitely vying for Tory leadership particularly if the far right Tory candidates get re-elected.

So - it is obvious what must be done.

Vote tactically to get rid of Braverman - and her ilk, in this case as a Labour voter I would be giving my vote to the Libs.

I have just been thinking about tactical voting and not only would your vote hopefully get rid of the Tory, your vote would actually be more meaningful this time, rather than not actually going anywhere, this time your vote May/would actually get results.

Why wouldn’t you?

With the changes to the constituency boundaries I find I've been moved to a Tory held constituency (won by 40%) from a Labour (won by 1.5%). I'm not sure whether I'm pleased or not. There'll be no tactical voting by me - I've already posted my vote for the Conservative party. If Labour win, goodness knows what will happen. I'm worried about what they're not telling us.

twinnytwin

With the changes to the constituency boundaries I find I've been moved to a Tory held constituency (won by 40%) from a Labour (won by 1.5%). I'm not sure whether I'm pleased or not. There'll be no tactical voting by me - I've already posted my vote for the Conservative party. If Labour win, goodness knows what will happen. I'm worried about what they're not telling us.

Same here. They're not telling us all the truth. I'll vote the same,anything to stop Laour getting a huge majority.

Under our undemocratic FPTP electoral system it hardly makes any difference what majority the governing party has as long as it is more than a dozen or so.

However FPTP allows a party that the majority o0f voters have voted against to get a "landslide" majority - as Boris Johnson did in 2019 on the basis of 43% of the vote.

With a tiny majority, they have to worry about deaths, resignations, rebellions, suspensions caused by scandals etc, but otherwise it makes no difference whether the government has a majority of fifteen or five hundred - they can still do what they damn well like for the next five years because the opposition can't out-vote them.

"Elective dictatorship", also called "executive dominance" in political science, is a phrase describing the state in which a typical Westminster system state's parliament is dominated by the government of the day. It refers to the fact that the legislative programme of Parliament is determined by the government, and government bills virtually always pass the legislature because of the nature of the majoritarian first-past-the-post electoral system, which almost always produces strong government, in combination with the imposition of party discipline on the governing party's majority, which almost always ensures loyalty.

The phrase was popularised by the former Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom, Lord Hailsham, in a Richard Dimbleby Lecture at the BBC in 1976.

Freya5

twinnytwin

With the changes to the constituency boundaries I find I've been moved to a Tory held constituency (won by 40%) from a Labour (won by 1.5%). I'm not sure whether I'm pleased or not. There'll be no tactical voting by me - I've already posted my vote for the Conservative party. If Labour win, goodness knows what will happen. I'm worried about what they're not telling us.

Same here. They're not telling us all the truth. I'll vote the same,anything to stop Laour getting a huge majority.

But people who always vote Tory voting Tory isn’t going to affect the result, unless I’m missing something here?

There are two types of voters who voted Tory at the last election - people who always vote Tory and people who might vote for another party.

If the polls are to be believed the only votes the Tories look likely to get are from people who always vote Tory - and even some of them might stay at home.i

Lib.Dems had no problem with being part of a conservative government

I think they did, have problems, Anniebach. The problems of not being able to achieve all they hoped, and knowing that they would get no credit for what went right and all the blame for what went wrong.

Varian

On the other hand a government with an enormous majority, can become almost ungovernable, as the various factions have shown in this government.

Quote Anniebach Tue 25-Jun-24 18:48:42
Lib.Dems had no problem with being part of a conservative government
Add comment | Report | Private message | Quote winterwhite Tue 25-Jun-24 18:53:29
I think they did, have problems, Anniebach. The problems of not being able to achieve all they hoped, and knowing that they would get no credit for what went right and all the blame for what went wrong.

What did they expect from a conservative government

Mollygo has said it all -“If everyone voted”.
The problem is, of those entitled to vote, there are a considerable percentage who won’t be voting, either because they don’t know who to vote for, or because they haven’t even bothered to register, or, even if they are on the register, can’t be bothered to vote anyway.
I’m afraid these people can’t then grumble if they feel the country isn’t being run in the way they would wish it to be run.
Our right to vote was hard won (initially for working class men, then women), so really, we should all make an effort to vote; but apathy or an attitude of “it doesn’t matter what I think”, or “nothing will change anyway, so why should I bother voting” or “I don’t know who to vote for”, means that your voice might not be heard; but really, if you grumble afterwards because things aren’t going how you hoped they would, then in my opinion, you’ve only got yourself to blame because you didn’t make the effort to vote when you had the opportunity. For goodness sake, do your research, then make a choice based on what you feel is right. Use it, or lose it!
Some countries don’t offer their citizens that right, or only give them one person to vote for - think on.

Whitewavemark2

I have just been thinking about tactical voting and not only would your vote hopefully get rid of the Tory, your vote would actually be more meaningful this time, rather than not actually going anywhere, this time your vote May/would actually get results.

Why wouldn’t you?

How about voting Reform? If you thought that would split the Tory vote and let Labour in would you do it?

marmadoit

No I’m too much of a patriot to ever contemplate Reform.

Churchill and our parents spent the war, giving their lives and huge hardship to getting rid of fascism and Hitler.

I’m not about to vote for a party who is fielding people who support Hitler and his ideology and Putin and his ideology.

For someone who fought Brexit talking about sovereignty, it is a bit rich for Farage to advise Ukraine to give up some of its sovereign territory to Putin.

Trump supporters also give me pause for huge alarm as I think he will do great damage to the west, NATO and it’s strength in supporting each other.

I was just listening to Marr who said that it is unspoken but a definite fact, that Labour has withdrawn its workers from constituencies where if labour voters lend their support to the Libs the Libs will win.

I assume that the Libs have done the same.

Whitewavemark2

marmadoit

No I’m too much of a patriot to ever contemplate Reform.

Churchill and our parents spent the war, giving their lives and huge hardship to getting rid of fascism and Hitler.

I’m not about to vote for a party who is fielding people who support Hitler and his ideology and Putin and his ideology.

For someone who fought Brexit talking about sovereignty, it is a bit rich for Farage to advise Ukraine to give up some of its sovereign territory to Putin.

Trump supporters also give me pause for huge alarm as I think he will do great damage to the west, NATO and it’s strength in supporting each other.

You and me both! I could no sooner chop my arm off than put a cross next to a Reform candidate. I’d have a Doctor Strangelove moment if I tried to!

🙂👍

There are a large number of intelligent people who would like to support either the Liberal Democrats or the Labour Party but have the good sense to check out which candidate is best place the defeat the Conservatives in their constituency and vote accordingly.

This is absolutely necessary as long as we have to tolerate the undemocratic FPTP electoral system.