British DU'ers: Who Are You Voting For in the elections?

Who/which party are you voting for, and why?

Where do you live?

I hope this thread stays alive :)

It's about 6 am there right?

I guess I'll let it sink and kick it in the morning.

Stupid me.

:kick:

You may get more answers in the UK forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=191

There are 3 ways of approaching a vote in a British election:

1) Get an idea of the personal views of each local candidate, and make you mind up based on that. I think very few people do this these days - some candidates just parrot their party line, and local news coverage of them can be very poor, so it's difficult to know all the candidates well enough, I think. You might know enough about an existing MP to want to support them, though.

2) Vote for a party based on their national manifesto, which is written by their central leadership.

3) Vote based on who you think is able to win your local constituency - which might mean voting for your second choice, to keep out someone really bad, like a Tory.

Left-leaning Brits, like those you'll find on DU, are now arguing whether we should be taking approach 2 or 3. Similar agonising will be found in the opinion pages of The Guardian and Independent newspapers. When it comes down to it, the economic policies of Labour and Lib Dem aren't that far apart - neither is definitively more left wing than the other. But Blair took Britain into an illegal war, and has got a bill through to allow people to be put under house arrest without any trial. He wants to introduce a computerised national ID card system.

So, do progressives punish Blair, and therefore the whole of Labour, for the war, and vote Lib Dem whatever the effect on the local vote? The Conservatives would have to take over 100 seats from Labour to become the largest party in Parliament - which isn't going to happen (they have under 170 now). So in a seat where it's a race between Tories and Labour, could a 'protest vote' for the Lib Dems allow the Tory in - and would that be a problem? Some here say yes, and so you should never risk a Tory winning anywhere. Others say that since the Tories won't gain power, you should send a strong message to Blair, and make him depend on the antiwar Labour MPs, by cutting his majority.

Personally, I say vote Lib Dem, unless your seat is a close contest between a Tory and Labour - AND the Labour candidate was clearly opposed to the Iraq war (about one third of Labour MPs were). Then you should vote Labour (because that Labour MP would then be likely to help get rid of Blair as Labour party leader as soon as possible). A large Lib Dem vote across the nation also helps make the moral case for voting reform - that parties with big shares of the vote should also get big numbers of seats in Parliament, by introducing some form of proportional representation.

as we are voting for the local MP, not for the party leadership directly unless you live in Sedgefield or Folkestone.

After that approach #2 is a fairly good guide. However, I for one find approach #3 to be the political equivalent of supporting Manchester United. IMHO it should always be about the best candidate with the best policies, not "tactics".

just a few sentences from the party manifesto. The candidate is apparently running the reelection campaign for the 2 Southampton Labour MPs. Since Labour got 8% of the vote here last time, I think Labour is indulging in 'tactical campaigning'.

Luckily, my choice between Lib Dem and Con by method #1, #2 and #3 all coincide. So it's simple for me. But I could easily be tempted by method 3.

But all the same they don't seem to have bothered campaigning in my part of the constituency at all. The only people who seem interested in sending me campaign gumph are the Lib Dem's and UKIP! Evidently Labour don't want my vote and they don't want the local Tory MP unseated.