I don’t think I even want to vote this election. Labour is to far left for my center self, lib dem well they are the lib dems and I’m not sure if I can bring myself to vote Tory 
The Conservatives?
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I wasn’t sure if you meant Labour have an edge over the Tories, or if you meant more generally that it’s the smaller parties who really do get truly fucked by FPTP compared to parties like Labour. It was my understanding that the biggest beneficiaries, more than Labour, of FPTP is the Conservative Party. So I’m genuinely interested to know if this was simply misguided thinking all along, once correct but now outdated, or still the case. I wasn’t challenging you so we could debate it in a tribal way, I’m just generally interested in hearing more about it.
Tony Blair changed the boundaries and the constituency lines still favour Labour.
The Tories Wanted to change it with the new census data, but since they win anyways they didn’t bother.
Gerrymandering generally requires regular interference in boundaries to be truly successful so I googled a bit and find this.
The current system is indeed biased in favour of Labour, although most academics say this is the result of historical accident rather than deliberate “gerrymandering” by Labour.
Small parties of course do get screwed by FPTP and if you have an election that threatens to boil down to a single issue then it becomes even more so 
Lab/Con got 80+% of the popular vote last time out.
If you think about ideas of constituency sizes in different parts of the country and the way population is concentrated in urban areas, this is why Labour does well out of it and the Tories not so much
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Can safely say I don’t want to vote for anyone this election, and may just spoil my ballot
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I’d rather hold my nose and vote Labour.
What’s the situation in your constituency?
It used to be a Labour seat up until 2010, and was always considered a marginal. In 2015 and '17 it has become more a safe Conservative seat though, with it being a majority of c.12000 I think.
It’s becoming more and more of a entrenched working class conservative/brexit sort of town though. Albeit Labour won the local elections here so there is hope…
In general though I’m just really fed up with how inadequate all the parties have been on Brexit and other big issues. We really need a massive shake up of our politics and fast!
Yeah I hear ya mate. Was just wondering about the wider context of you feeling tempted to spoil your ballot. I’ve had three opportunities to vote in general elections and spoiled my ballot the first two times (2010 and 2015) so I definitely respect the choice. But I lived in what I’m pretty sure was the third safest seat in the country in Newham, East London, so I didn’t feel conflicted about it. In 2017 I lived in Plumstead on South East London, but my seat was Welling and at the last election the Labour majority had been whittled down to a few thousand. So I had to stop and think about how I’d feel if I spoiled my ballot and the Tories narrowly got in, and then voted for the incumbent Labour MP (happily he seems like a decent enough sort as well)
But I’d always spoiled my ballot as I believe our first past the post electoral system is bollocks, so there was a principle behind my spoiling my ballot, as opposed to me just being pissed off with the parties (not that that isn’t a valid reason because it absolutely is)
Either way, you’ve just got to get out to the polling station and put something on that paper. I’m still of the opinion that if a lot of people who don’t turnout instead came along and spoiled their ballot in protest that would be a meaningful message being sent.
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Basically this.
With a few issues, particularly Brexit, the country is so polarised, I doubt hardly anyone will go to vote really pleased with what they are voting for. It’s got to be Labour if for no other reason then investment, schools, NHS.
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Definitely! I’ll always go out and vote. I would much rather have a none of the below option so it’s clear how despised the three main parties are…
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I was in London yesterday having lunch with a fund manager who was looking at trying to get me out of retirement to help him manage one of his businesses that is in trouble. He looks after a very large amount of money for a European family worth well over a billion quid.
What was clear and what all his colleagues have told him is that if Corbyn becomes PM they are all moving country and no further investment in the UK. Even though they are Europe based and not British they are not that worried about Brexit but they describe Corbyn as an extreme Marxist who is well to the left of Francoise Hollande. They honestly believe he will do a Venezuela on the UK and that his plans are completely unpractical and unfunded when everyone with money to invest runs away and/or stops investing in the UK the day after Corbyn gets in.
It is very nice to think we could tax the rich to death and pay for every single public service deficiency we can by doing so but the fact is that in an international world they will all move in a second come December 13 and the economy will crash so badly there is nothing left to pay for the already badly under funded public services.
I just wish we had a centre left labour party and centre right tory party with both being sensible and pragmatic and therefore being completely happy if either won power as a result. I just want a balanced society where the better off look after the worse off, where equality of opportunity is encouraged (for example by a great state education system) but also where enterprise is respected as something that helps pay for the public services we need and where really hard working, talented people can get ahead if that is what lights their candle.
Could be scary times ahead. I just wish we could have reliable and moderate politicians on both sides who I might be happy to vote for.
Given the extremism of Corbyn and how he could crash the economy no matter how emotionally appealing he may sound, for me it will now be a toss up between Lib Dems, Greens and Conservatives.
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Seriously?
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despite everything, Corbyn’s manifesto is pretty tame, centre-left policies that have majority approval.
Notions of Venezuela are just daft. Just because he will tax the very richest a little more doesn’t mean the economy is gonna crash lol.
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Make sure I ask someone asleep in a shop doorway how he feels about us going down the Venezuelan route in the morning.
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I was surprised when the guy said it but what I don’t understand is how Corbyn would fund all his spending pledges. I don’t think the numbers stack up with just a little more tax on the super rich. I’ll have to read the manifesto myself.
I fully agree the homeless problem is terrible and that key services are not working well. The NHS does not seem to be coping either and crime is on the up surge. So I am all for doing a lot better on those (in fact anyone with a heart should care desperately about these problems and want/insist we find a way to do a lot better on them) but think they need to have clear funding plans that are realistic and sustainable. If the rich all f -off to Florida and the like then it won’t work.
Homelessness is a massive problem not least because mental health care is so poor and under funded and resourced so peoples lives fall apart and then circumstances mean they end up without a home, sometimes after falling into addiction/drink. Not the only cause but certainly a big contributor and I feel that mental health problems are growing and growing across our society. So it’s not always easy to solve but we must find a way.
Usual Labour fearmongering. I’m only surprised the ‘magic money tree’ wasn’t mentioned.
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They had to concede to the Tories over a referendum for proportional represention in order to stregthen their political might.
Now I’m not sure if it was you or MrHappy who said ‘healthcare isn’t a right’. If you agree with that (and I do get you both mixed up, sorry) Why is subsidised higher education a right?