General Election 2024 - How Will You Vote?

[Brad]

The only poll that matters!

How do the fine folk of BordersDown intend to vote?
Votes are anonymous.
Let's keep the discussion to the regular old UK thread though.

[egparadigm]

I shall be voting Labour. If I were living in a different constituency where the Lib Dems were second I’d be voting for them to get the Tories out!

[Cepp]

Sent my postal vote off yesterday for Labour. I’d also vote Lib Dem if it was a two horse race between them and the conservatives.

[QualityChimp]

I always used to find politics boring. Maybe it's because it's not that interesting for younger people. Heck, even now I think my vote is whistling in the wind, especially after Brexit.

I honestly think it was in the Blair/Brown era where I started taking notice.
Going to war in Iraq when it turned out we had very little concrete evidence to do so, so we mainly did it for the oil left a bad taste in the mouth.

By the time the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition took over, things just seem to get worse as they brought in austerity measures.
Loads of libraries and community hubs closing, but food banks starting to open.
I felt the Lib Dems made a mistake for joining the Conservatives as people don't remember the coalition for what they reigned the Tories in from, but what policies they had to jettison, such as Student fees. Something they're still getting bashed about some 14 years after the coalition started.

I do hate that it's a 2-horse race because you're not voting for who you want in, you're voting for who is more likely to stop the party you dislike the most.
I'm definitely more aligned to the Lib Dems and Greens, but Labour are most likely to win in my constituency, so tactical voting for the win.
Even then, it's been Tory here for over 40 years so they may retain it, even worse, I'm worried people will fall for the Reform manifesto without questioning it.

However, I remember when there was a time where if MPs were caught lying or being corrupt, they'd resign.
Even since the start of the coalition, politics have shifted and it feels like The Invention of Lying where the Conservatives have realised there is very rarely repercussions for their actions. Since Brexit, where a lot of MPs that were at least capable in their jobs were ousted for stating they were against it, whittling the cabinet down to a handful of lickspittles and yes men. Now we have not only MPs that have regularly lied, but even the PRIME MINISTER has been found to have lied to Parliament, The Queen and the nation as a whole.

Which is how we ended up with a Government of self-serving, not people-serving miscreants.
Having parties and affairs under lockdown. taking bribes from other countries, taking bribes from businesses, sexual assault, giving themselves money to provide PPE that is unfit to save lives and so on and so on.
Don't get me started on the MPs with second jobs or have presenter gigs on the likes of GB News.

I think the recent news of various Tory MPs using their insider knowledge to place bets on the general election is just another example where they're using their position of privilege to take advantage and be ahead of everyone else.

I'm hoping that this relentless drip of opportunism has finally woken the nation up to how badly the Conservatives have sought to look after themselves first, party second and the nation a very distant third, however I'm worried that some people still confuse politics with X-Factor and vote on personalities, not policies and the likes of ranty Farage is enough to get their vote because they think he's "telling it like it is".

People say they don't trust Starmer or he's boring, but I'd rather have a human rights lawyer in charge than any of the recent PMs.

On one hand, I hate voter apathy and not turning up to vote, but I also worry that people with very interest in politics will turn up on the day to have their say, having only heard the soundbites of the loudest candidates and that a certain someone has had a disproportionate amount of coverage, even despite his love of Trump and Putin.

I would never tell anyone how to vote, but I would ask anyone if they think the country has improved in the last 14 years and if not, to look into who to tactically vote for in their area.

[Yakumo]

Labour for me but first I need to know how I can cast my vote from overseas. Surely it must be possible.
Time for some research.

[briareos_kerensky]

Labour for me but first I need to know how I can cast my vote from overseas. Surely it must be possible.
Time for some research.

Don't UK embassies automatically send ballots via mail? It has been the case for me (Italian in Switzerland).

[Lebowski]

I'd love to see Libdem gaining seats and being in opposition to Labour, just because it feels like we need something different to the constant posturing about boats, immigration and trans rights issues.

What I'm finding alarming is the amount of coverage Reform is getting and the amount of momentum Farage seems to have with his party. Reform getting behind a candidate with the view that maybe this Hitler bloke had it right is crazy, ive seen lots of defence for this online too. They are also in a massive amount of trouble with candidates standing for them with racist view points and are blaming a vetting company for not being good enough. For me, the issues they're currently having speaks volumes about what sort of people this party attracts and the voters it attracts too.

Who would have thought that Farage would have gone from being a joke of a personality begging for change online and eating kangaroo penis in the jungle to a figurehead for a party with a very real possibility of gaining a lot of seats.

[QualityChimp]

Labour for me but first I need to know how I can cast my vote from overseas. Surely it must be possible.
Time for some research.

I suspect you've been a little tardy at sorting this, so if the Tories get back in, I'm blaming you.

Voting from abroad says you can use a postal vote or vote by proxy.
According to the postal vote section, it's too late to vote by post.

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/voting-from-abroad

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/postal-voting

Have a read of the proxy details, but I don't think you'll be able to vote.

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/voting-by-proxy

[QualityChimp]

https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/episodes/7Drig8S/

The Newsagent Podcast dropped in on a focus group in Whitby and I was screaming at the radio. Literally screaming.

[Neon Ignition]

Already voted and it was Labour. The town has always been a two horse race and 'historically voted Tory last time because it's rampant with old racists. They're swinging to Reform so the town is dead set to go back to its usual Red mode thankfully anyway. Less painful than last time, it was always abundantly obvious that Johnson era was going to be a ****show before he even stepped through the door.

[Lebowski]

https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/episodes/7Drig8S/

The Newsagent Podcast dropped in on a focus group in Whitby and I was screaming at the radio. Literally screaming.

Jesus Christ talk about a misinformed electorate, It feels like we really need to sort out education in this country, and hammer home the old adage don't believe everything you read. We really do need media reform to stop the level of misinformation out there as its doing real damadge.

[fuse]

I know discussion's mainly been in the UK thread till now and I know that's what's also being encouraged, but... I find it's actually quite distressing that so many people who'd usually vote tory are happy swinging to Labour. Yes there are tribalists on all sides who are never going to change what they do, but I feel like we're now seeing swathes of people who actually do consider their vote, who've been happy voting tory up until now, but suddenly feel that labour's a now the best bet for their interests. There are so many eggs on the conservative government's face at this point that it's difficult to measure exactly what or who the breaking point was. I feel that this should've happened so long ago, with the thinking that I can't get away from being that they're no longer so dramatically opposed to what labour's selling.

And yeah, for me it's the same kind of observation just in reverse, where the issue with current Labour leadership being that rather than being actually opposed to any of the horrors inflicted upon us by 14 years of tory rule, the stance seems to be more along the lines of "we'll do the same things, just with less corruption and more efficiency". They can be much more effective in the cruel treatment of migrants, turn an even blinder eye to war crimes abroad, appease even more bigots engaging in 'culture war' bile, and so on. My core principal of "not tory" no longer cuts it; voting tactically to keep them out is one thing, but more so than ever in my life, it feels like labour is just tory in a red tie. Getting labour in is such a marginal improvement in terms of actual government, and if it's by the kind of landslide some people are predicting, it feels like it's going to enforce the message that they need to continue pushing right.

TLDR - don't mind me, just screaming into the void over here.

[Protocol Penguin]

I’m in a safe Tory seat (since 1922!) which in predicted to go Labour. Prior to 2015, the LibDems and their predecessors were the strongest anti-Tory vote. It’s been a Tory versus Labour race since.

Cards on the table here, I’m worried about my EU citizen partner. The LibDems have in their manifesto a pledge to defend “settled status” rights for EU citizens and rejoin the single market. Labour does neither, so will leave her in the potentially precarious long term situation as the current government. That worries me immensely, if I’m being honest.

[Neon Ignition]

What I hate is there's so much focus on the same hgot points when people rage against the Tories, usually:

-It's all about immigrashun!
It's not, it's never been and the Tories falling over themselves has been their undoing for a solid decade now

-Rwanda!
Very few do or ever have given a **** about it

-Truss
A fair one and a massive fail but less than a lettuce's lifespan of their reign

-Look at wut they've ruined for 14 years!
Really gets my irks up. Most of the time it's effectively by poser voters who are feeling financial brunt now but were clawing over themselves five years ago to vote Tory over getting 'Brexit done', something that was going to happen at that point anyway. A landslides worth of current Tory haters were more than happy with the near decade we'd had till that point so it's such a fake argument now. To add insult to injury, You hit the fast forward button through 2019, 2020, 2021 and getting halfway through 2022 and people still were happy with them. It took toppling Johnson and losing that PR card he brings for the veil to fall and I won't lie - if Putin hadn't have invaded Ukraine I'm not convinced many would be making the anti-Tory chanting they are now, the cost of living impacts are really the root cause.

Every single tiny element is a deep rabbit hole of discussion so I'll hold off but as much as it's nice to see the Tories slapped hard for all their fails over stuff that was insanely easy to have avoided it comes from a vast swave of public who just like in 2019 remain full of ****

[egparadigm]

And yeah, for me it's the same kind of observation just in reverse, where the issue with current Labour leadership being that rather than being actually opposed to any of the horrors inflicted upon us by 14 years of tory rule, the stance seems to be more along the lines of "we'll do the same things, just with less corruption and more efficiency". They can be much more effective in the cruel treatment of migrants, turn an even blinder eye to war crimes abroad, appease even more bigots engaging in 'culture war' bile, and so on. My core principal of "not tory" no longer cuts it; voting tactically to keep them out is one thing, but more so than ever in my life, it feels like labour is just tory in a red tie. Getting labour in is such a marginal improvement in terms of actual government, and if it's by the kind of landslide some people are predicting, it feels like it's going to enforce the message that they need to continue pushing right.

As a Labour member I am also concerned that Labour govt won’t do enough to address the inequities in society. I do think your characterisation is probably a little exaggerated. For example they have promised to scrap the Rwanda policy which will be sweet relief to my mainly asylum-seeking clients. They therefore won’t be ripping up the human rights act. I do believe them when they say they’ll get the decision making wait down for Asylum decisions too, which would be a massive improvement.

Having said that, I am consoling my own doubts with the thought that there will be hopefully many Labour back benchers to remind the govt of its duty of compassion should it ever stray too far right-wards.