everklear wrote:As a Canadian, I can firmly state that I don't understand the issues.
Who should I vote for?
Don't worry, as most of us don't understand them either
The issues superficially are what people vote on - in reality the vast majority vote for what they always have done (which is usually what their parents voted for in turn).
For example - how many people will come out and say "I was against the Iraq war (55%+ of the UK population apparently) so I will vote Lib Dem, the only party against the war". We will not see them get 55% of the vote.
As it looks like it could be quite close I would dearly love to vote Labour in order to do my bit to help keep the Tories out. Unfortunately, I really can't bring myself to ever vote labour again whilst Blair is their leader, I just can't. So I'll be voting Lib Dem again this year.
Tepic wrote:Life long Labour voter voting for Lib Dems because they are more socalist than Labour.
What a sad state of affairs.
It makes a statement that the conservatives get more votes here than labour.
Anyways I voted abstain. In the upcoming Dutch elections (1 1/2 years or earlier if the cabinet falls, which has nearly happened a few times already) I'll probably do the same because I have no idea who to vote for. Parties don't matter much, they all part of this little clique that holds power and just wants to continue holding on to it, with an occasional reshuffling of the deck chairs (even though the ship of state stays on course for that huge iceberg ahead).
Boy: "Have you met monsters before?" The Doctor: "Yes."
Boy: "Are you scared of them?" The Doctor: "No, they are scared of me!"
Stone wrote:
Looks like it's going to be a close one. Howard was laying into Tony earlier, was quite funny
It's a nasty flashback to the 1997 election where the "Anyone but them" mentality got Labour a landslide.
It's also really interesting with polls how the "How would you vote" variable conditions the "Will you vote?" variable. Actually, there's so many conditionals that doing any sensible projection or forecasting is an exercise in futility. But fun .
I'm not going to talk about my personal politics, as I'm (officially, legally) part of the media as far as this General Election is concerned.
What I am going to do is raise the issue of local swing. There are certain seats - Folkestone and Hythe (Michael Howard, Conservative), Cambridge (Anne Campbell, Labour)- where the LibDems are trying very hard to unseat the incumbent based on local issues (in Cambridge, tuition fees is the big one), and *they* like their chances of getting the 10% swings needed. Charles Kennedy is certainly scheduled to visit.
Plus, Brighton Pavilion might be the most interesting seat of the whole campaign - if it pans out as I expect, it's a three-way marginal where the third party are the Greens. It's not inconceivable at all they could get a big result - they have six councillors there and polled over 30% in the European elections, and the seat is 15% LGBT (so there is a big demographic effect).
There may be a few big shocks. With the current YouGov poll today (36/36/21/7), and 1% of tactical unwind from the last election, we're looking at a Labour majority in single figures. I think they'll do better than that, but there will be one or two Labour ministers - and quite a few of the Tory front bench - who find themselves jobless.
If Howard gets it in the neck, that'll definitely be this election's "Portillo moment"... any other candidates? Adam Ingram and Tony Blair are being challenged by the parents of soldiers killed in Iraq; there's George Galloway vs Oona King in Bethnal Green and Bow (which might let the Tories through the middle there, if the vote splits)... there are a few seats like that. It's going to be a very interesting and intense campaign.
Messageboards: http://www.vote-2005.co.uk/ (mostly populated by Tories, but if you can see through the bias there are some interesting local debates/facts here)
Edit: all links fixed and now working, thanks Aureole, sorry
Last edited by Acronym on Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:49 pm 0, edited 1 time in total.
Does anyone know where I can get images of the Conservative posters? The ones about your kids being killed and how it's not racist to want fewer immigrants. Cheers.
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