Does your vote count ??

Remember when I came over here...........The first election I can remember was the local elections.........I was living in a leafy suburb called Prestbury.....Prestbury is the sort of place where a dead parrot could get elected If it had a blue rosette pinned to it !!....We didn't even have a Labour candidate !!...It was just Con v Lib..........As I recall it was something stupid like 960 votes against 71..............Would have been 72 If I'd been eligible to vote back then !!....But that would come later..

All these years later I'm living in a constituency called Manchester Withington and the good thing is my vote counts..........It's a tenuous Liberal hold.......Judging by the amount of Liberal leaflets coming through our door they are pretty worried about keeping it.....

Britain suffers from the same bellwether sickness we have back home where unless you're from Florida , Pennsylvania, Colorado your vote doesn't really count.....

PR would have been a good idea...........

As the old saying goes...

"If voting changed anything...it would be illegal"

However, just like a wife, they let you think that slipping your little effort into that slot means something special.

DAVE667 wrote:As the old saying goes...

"If voting changed anything...it would be illegal"

However, just like a wife, they let you think that slipping your little effort into that slot means something special.

I vote more regularly.........

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

DAVE667 wrote:As the old saying goes...

"If voting changed anything...it would be illegal"

However, just like a wife, they let you think that slipping your little effort into that slot means something special.

I vote more regularly.........

I try to get into as many different areas as possible

I am a firm believer every vote counts. I live in about as safe a constituency Labour has, however it only remains safe whilst people get off their arse and vote. Marginal parties outside of the main three have limited resources and so cannot contest every seat. As such they target the seats they think they have a sniff of either winning or bloodying the nose of the big three. Take Rotherham where I live, on the back of the sex scandals and our previous MP being imprisoned for expenses UKIP are targeting the town pretty big. Whilst I don’t think they will get in if enough people decide their vote does not count or that Labour are going to win anyway so why bother you never know.

It’s an oft repeated quote in these instances but is no less true for that but evil succeeds when good men do nothing. (and before the eternally stupid get all wound up I am not saying UKIP are evil, the quote is not to be taken literally)

Rowley wrote:I am a firm believer every vote counts. I live in about as safe a constituency Labour has, however it only remains safe whilst people get off their arse and vote. Marginal parties outside of the main three have limited resources and so cannot contest every seat. As such they target the seats they think they have a sniff of either winning or bloodying the nose of the big three. Take Rotherham where I live, on the back of the sex scandals and our previous MP being imprisoned for expenses UKIP are targeting the town pretty big. Whilst I don’t think they will get in if enough people decide their vote does not count or that Labour are going to win anyway so why bother you never know.

It’s an oft repeated quote in these instances but is no less true for that but evil succeeds when good men do nothing.  (and before the eternally stupid get all wound up I am not saying UKIP are evil, the quote is not to be taken literally)

How dare you say UKIP are evil !!

We the people vote with a pen but some vote with their wallet.

You've lost me..

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:We the people vote with a pen but some vote with their wallet.

???

I dont vote. I probably wont for a very long time.

How come Dolph? (If you don't mind me asking of course)

Maybe it doesn't count, but it will certainly make me feel better inside once I have voted for a pro-British, pro-English party (that can be construed as either a Conservative or UKIP vote, Truss!).

My Plaid Cymru vote doesn't usually count as for some reason all the idiots in South Wales vote for the Red Tories and us decent folk can't kick them out

Steffan wrote:My Plaid Cymru vote doesn't usually count as for some reason all the idiots in South Wales vote for the Red Tories and us decent folk can't kick them out

When they film Leaders questions in the welsh assembly.....All the other parties speak English apart from these Plaid morons......

Hope they get hammered..

Live in a safe Tory seat but will voting anyway. Only the third GE I've been eligible for so, matter or not, I'll be voting.

Plus I'm looking forward to completing the Party hat-trick!

TopHat24/7 wrote:Live in a safe Tory seat but will voting anyway.  Only the third GE I've been eligible for so, matter or not, I'll be voting.

Plus I'm looking forward to completing the Party hat-trick!

Mum and dad voting ??

Don't think so as it's labour all the way up here. Still be voting though just not sure who for yet. (It won't be labour unless Milliband resigns and Woolas takes over.)

Derbymanc wrote:Don't think so as it's labour all the way up here. Still be voting though just not sure who for yet. (It won't be labour unless Milliband resigns and Woolas takes over.)

Woolas ...Didn't he put out naughty literature..

Effin Woolas, still thinking I'm in Oldham, meant Graham Stringer. The only one that seems to get anything done round here to be honest.

Although it does annoy me that we no longer get anyone campaigning as even the parties think it's a foregone conclusion.

Derbymanc wrote:Effin Woolas, still thinking I'm in Oldham, meant Graham Stringer. The only one that seems to get anything done round here to be honest.

Although it does annoy me that we no longer get anyone campaigning as even the parties think it's a foregone conclusion.

We only get the Tory coming round during local Election time...........He takes it for granted the whole estate votes Tory..........So I take great pleasure in wasting his time agreeing with him for 15 or so minutes before telling him I'm voting Labour !!

I imagine the Liberal and Labour fight will take place in more agreeable parts of the constituency more is the pity !! and as the Tories can't win.....I imagine we won't see anybody !!

Ha ha, that's what i'd like to do (especially with our crappy councillors) the only other party that's even done anything round here is UKIP and that was a leaflet about a month ago.

To be fair though, I wouldn't be walking around here dressed in a suit all day either. I feel out of place if i've washed me hoody

Wearing a hoody is the only way I get a "hug" these days !!

"Hug a hoody" .......Think that was about the time he was sledging with huskies, Going on about the Big Society and telling everyone to just call me Dave !!

Those were the days..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Live in a safe Tory seat but will voting anyway.  Only the third GE I've been eligible for so, matter or not, I'll be voting.

Plus I'm looking forward to completing the Party hat-trick!

Mum and dad voting ??

Not sure I understand what you're getting at.

But, FWIW, both my parents will be voting and, despite residing in another Tory safe seat, will almost certainly be voting Labour as they have done for decades.

Your parents must regret spoiling you...

They raised me right - to have the confidence and ability to come to my own decisions and make my own choices, not just be a sheep or stick beligerently to the same path in the face of new information.

I'll stick to my principles and be a sheep..

Not really if you take proportional representation for what it is.

I'm switching my vote. Home is Castlederg but I work in Belfast.

West Tyrone is a safe Sinn Fein seat.What makes it worse is that the Shinners don't take their seats, so we've been without a MP since 2001.

South Belfast is a different matter, at least 3 candidates can win that and perhaps a fourth by a perfect split. Gives me more choice too, as I would vote for a pro union party, but not anyone with links to any of the Orders nor a candidate obsessed with flags and parades. And I'll never vote DUP again. I don't have that option out West.

As I can't edit on my phone, I should point out I work in Belfast during the week and have a flat there. And I'm in Belfast much more now than Tyrone so it makes sense I feel.

Good stuff Mate....

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Steffan wrote:My Plaid Cymru vote doesn't usually count as for some reason all the idiots in South Wales vote for the Red Tories and us decent folk can't kick them out

When they film Leaders questions in the welsh assembly.....All the other parties speak English apart from these Plaid morons......

Hope they get hammered..

I didn't realise speaking a language other than English made you a moron

Can you speak Welsh Steffan?

Steffan wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Steffan wrote:My Plaid Cymru vote doesn't usually count as for some reason all the idiots in South Wales vote for the Red Tories and us decent folk can't kick them out

When they film Leaders questions in the welsh assembly.....All the other parties speak English apart from these Plaid morons......

Hope they get hammered..

I didn't realise speaking a language other than English made you a moron

It does when everyone else is speaking English in there......

I wouldn't say it makes you a moron, but it is moronic.

You're there to get the best deal for your constituents, to best represent their views needs & interests, you can't do that if beligerently sticking to speaking a language nobody else in parliament is for the sole reason of sentamentalism.

You can do your tax return in Welsh if you choose. You can complete most government forms in Welsh if you wish. Have dearly wanted to do this at work just to annoy them. Not particularly fair on my clients it would have to be said.

Paperwork is wildly different to parliamentary debate though.

Rowley wrote:You can do your tax return in Welsh if you choose. You can complete most government forms in Welsh if you wish. Have dearly wanted to do this at work just to annoy them. Not particularly fair on my clients it would have to be said.

I do mine in Scouse..........Welsh is easier to learn !!

Rowley wrote:Can you speak Welsh Steffan?

To certain extent. Back when I was a wee lad in the 80s and 90s we still had the typical Thatcher culture where Welsh was considered bad Mkay...and if you spoke Welsh...you were a bad person Mkay so I never got to learn it properly.

Then once Blair gave Wales an assembly (only decent thing he did do while in power) and European Bi-Lingual and Multi-Lingual laws came in suddenly we had a massive re-surge and I learnt quite a lot from about age 21 to 25. Unfortunately I switched jobs going from public to private sector where not many people spoke it in my business and I forgot quite a lot.

Since then, it has become more or less compulsory to speak if you want a decent public sector job in Wales and even private companies are willing to pay Welsh speakers more for dealing with compulsory Welsh written paperwork (European Law again) so when I graduate in June I plan on doing an intensive Welsh speaking course to get my knowledge back and increase my employability.

Times have changed since the 80s and 90s and most of my nephews and nieces along with my cousins kids all go to Welsh speaking schools now so they will be speaking it from age 3 and will be fluent by the time they leave.

I got a friend learning Welsh and she said people on her course are from places like England, Germany, American, Japan and Australia. Plus a lot of my Welsh mates have girlfriends from other countries that have learnt it, infact only last week in the pub, I was hearing their Spanish and Norfolkian girlfriends have a full on conversation in Welsh. Music to your ears it is

Ymlaen

If I was going to learn another language it wouldn't be a dead one !!............Pretty competent in Spanish and can speak some Mandarin as we were told China would be the next super power years ago...

Don't see the point in learning a language of a country where they all speak English anyway !!....

Still each to their own..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:If I was going to learn another language it wouldn't be a dead one

I thought a dead language was one that has ceased to be spoken at all by anyone  

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Don't see the point in learning a language of a country where they all speak English anyway !!....

From your Mancunian point of view that's fair enough. For people living in Wales wanting to gain decent employment it's different

Either way, its no more pointless that you learning Spanish and Mandarin

You ain't ever gonna work or live in a Spanish speaking country

And super power or not you won't be dealing with any Chinese people and even if you did Truss they would speak English anyway

Still as you say...each to their own...

This electiong is going to be a farce. Votes won't count, it'll be the deals done amongst parties that secures who runs the country.

Cons/Libs, Lab/SNP, Cons/UKIP, Lab/Lib. Will not come down to the voter.

I think Lab/SNP has it sewn up, if they can come together.

Which will be an absolute disaster for London & SE.

The only thing is: will Labour/SNP generate enough seats to form a coalition government?

Whilst the SNP are on a surge in Scotland, the only seats they are taking are Labour ones.

And then there is, of course, UKIP. No one really seems to know how many seats they will win. I have seen predictions from zero seats (support too thinly spread) to winning over a hundred (ludicrous, surely). Farage seems to be more hopeful than expectant about the prospect of forming a coalition with the Conservatives.

I think we will have a Conservative minority government, followed by another general election in less than a year.

I'm going for a Tory minority...

Duty281 wrote:The only thing is: will Labour/SNP generate enough seats to form a coalition government?

I think they can definitely get enough to form a coalition government, though I'm praying for a Tory minority.

Even hamstrung and unable to enact their desired policies, a Tory minority would be less of a disaster than Labour/SNP.

The effect of UKIP on the general election is likely to be more in terms of how they change the Lab-Con-Lib balance than in any final counts. They are likely to get between 2 and maybe 6 seats (possibly as many as 10 if they have a very good night, but highly unlikely to be more).

It is one thing winning "open goal" bye-elections, but for a general election their resources will be spread more thinly, they will be dealing with bigger party operations and the population may end up getting cold feet (like they did to an extent in 2010 - remember predictions of the Libs getting 80+ seats?).

Having said that I would be surprised if Farage and Carswell didn't win their seats.

But even so, 2-6 seats is unlikely to hold much in terms of balance of power, and I think the Conservatives will be very wary of entering a formal coalition (or even any kind of informal agreement) with UKIP given their toxic image. The Lib Dems won't even consider it, so if Con-LD don't have enough seats to form a coalition on their own then they won't do it with UKIP.

Speaking of the Libs I don't think they'll do as badly as some are saying. They will lose seats where they are basically the "student vote", but they have a number of rural/semi-rural seats in places like the South West where I think they will be able to hold. I think they will still get around 20-30 seats and could feature.

I'm not yet convinced that the SNP will do as well as is being currently predicted. I don't doubt that they will do a lot better than last time, and this will damage Labour, but I think once the campaign gets started and the Labour operation gets itself sorted they might be able to limit the damage somewhat.

I don't believe that having the SNP in any kind of coalition would be good for the country.

As for the topic on the conversation, I will vote. Anybody who doesn't is IMO worthy only of contempt. Voting is a privilege which many people around the world don't have. Oh and I don't believe in spoiling your ballot paper or leaving it blank either - if really there is no one, then either stand yourself or get involved with your nearest party and campaign for them to change their views. All else is apathy.

I won't be voting.

The Tory right won't put up with a 30 strong Liberal coalition..Mike.

They are upset now that a 50 odd party are holding them to ransom..

Tory minority or Coalition will lead to a move against Cameron who will be viewed by failing to get a majority against dead ducks Brown and Mili..as something of a two time loser !!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2982663/Labour-SNP-half-way-aisle-striking-deal-Miliband-Number-10-Sturgeon-drops-red-line-Trident.html

The end of England is in sight.

Even when I feel that my vote doesn't matter a damn, I still go out and do it.  I consider it a duty as much as a right.

A lot of men died in two world wars to maintain this country's liberties and freedoms.  Without them we'd be living in a dictatorship and then you'd know what it was really like to have no say in how your country is run.

Women chained themselves to railings and threw themselves in front of the King's horse in order to get the vote.

For me, voting shouldn't be something that's taken for granted and treated as a tedious, bothersome chore.  Rather, I see it as a privilege that I have and millions the world over would love to have.

Whether or not my vote actually changes the outcome of the result in my constituency isn't the main issue for me.  The important thing is that I go out and do it.