A
Alty
Guest
Agree with a lot of that. You seem to start from the position of believing that all parties have some good and bad eggs and no single party has a monopoly on good ideas. A position I arrived at too, albeit a bit later than I should have done.There's a lot of interesting debate in this thread, despite the occasional tantrum. It's particularly encouraging that there is little rancour compared to most local Facebook pages where you see some really nasty, usually "fashionable" attacks, particularly on Corbyn, the Lib Dems generally and Nicola Sturgeon. Quite why people in south Hampshire should reserve their venom for a small Scottish lady beats me, though.
Labour: the fact that Paul Dacre, Murdoch MacLennan, the Barclay Brothers, Whittow and the entire Murdoch clan spend so much time detesting and ridiculing Jeremy Corbyn only suggest to me that he is undoubtedly good enough to lead our country. After all, most of these odious, unelected, charmless media nasties favoured either Boris Johnson, Michael Gove or Andrea Leadsom. Labour is no less fit to govern than the Tories were in 2010. The open dissent between the PLP and local branches and unions provides some degree of hope that robust challenge has replaced the usual inerrant dogma.
Tory: There is clearly a lot of talent in the Tory party. I know this not because the media tell me, but because Tory MPs are generally better at being visible and many appear very able: Sam Gyimah, Heidi Allen, Sajid Javid, Victoira Prentis to name just a few. There are still arsewipes like Phil Davies, but then every party has some like that. They do have talent but they understand the law and business better than they understand compassion and inclusiveness, so everything on the social front will seem just a little patronising. Also, problematic is that Theresa May is as prone to bullshit spin, bluster and U-turns as any other party leader. The Tories present disagreement in the Labour Party as a negative, yet the rigidity of party dogma in the Tories is probably much more troublesome for many people.
LibDems: It is incredibly fashionable to mock and ridicule them, and in the age range for this forum, it may well be particularly acute as many here will remember the tuition fees fiasco. The LibDems were unfairly blamed for all that was wrong with the coalition government yet, looking back, it seemed a government that felt strong and stable without the nasty feel of a blunt instrument that un-coalitioned Conservatives have. Yet the LibDems are the party most capable of successfully finding, every time, a foot in which to shoot themselves. Every election they make a promise that massively damages their numbers: this year, it's the pompous declaration that they won't form a coalition with either Labour or Tories. It was that kind of statement that probably keeps half a million strategic voters in marginal constituencies in bed on polling day. A surprising number of people believe that coalition governments are preferable to the rigid dogma of left or right.
Greens: It's a brave vote but I can see a particularly strong vote for the Greens in really strong Tory seats. Personally, I can't see a huge difference these days between the Lib Dems and the Greens and I wonder if they might merge or form an alliance after this election.
So who am I voting for? I put LibDem in the original poll but I'm not so sure. I'm not strongly anti- anyone, to be honest, although I generally detest local-level Tory councillors with a passion. There are many MPs of almost shades that I admire or respect, but short of moving, I can't vote for any of them. So I'm still not sure. But I will vote.
I'm your quintessential electoral slut having voted for Labour, Green, Lib Dem, UKIP and the Women's Equality Party in the past and am leaning towards Tory this time. It all depends on the tactical situation, the type of election and the particular candidates standing.
I still can't see for the life of me how Labour are going to win enough people round. There are too many problems. Those who like Corbyn tend to dislike his Parliamentary colleagues and vice versa. I think to have had any chance they'd have needed to go into the election united.
It does make all the intra party squabbling and backstabbing look pathetic now, though. If they'd just accepted the party was being led from the left and got on board from day one, they might actually be in a position to win next week.