I’m traditionally a Labour voter, but recently I’ve found myself drawn to the Liberal Democrats. After the live TV leaders debates I’m hoping for a big swing to the Lib Dems from the Conservatives to keep the Tories out of government for at least another 5 years. The most recent polls shows a hung parliament […]
Continue Reading Election 2010 Tactical Voting : Keep the Conservatives out of Government
It is the first past the post system that makes a mockery of our electoral system, not tactical voting. I would love to vote Green in my area, but a Lib Dem vote has the chance of keeping out the Tories. People only feel the need to vote tactically because they feel that it is the only way to make their votes count. The most important issues to me are climate change and electoral reform. I will vote for the party in my area which is most likely to make that happen. The Tories place such little priority on climate change that they did not even state by how much they will cut emmissions over the next decade and ranked it 19th on a list of 19 important issues.
Interestingly, Bosworth does not appear on any of the lists. This is a Tory held constituency and a Tory/Lab marginal at the last general. However at last summers local elections the results were Tory 42%, Lib Dem 35%, Lab 11% suggesting that if the obviously dissolusioned Labour voters vote Lib Dem here, we could clear out another Tory.
If you are considering voting tactically, it is worth taking any recent local election results into account because there have been some big swings, which are not well portrayed by comparing the results of the 2005 general alone.
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Helen,
It is not tactical voting that is needed in a First Past The Post electoral system, it is Tactical standing!
Duverger’s law states that FTTP systems favour 2 parties. You clearly state that you are anti-Tory. You seem to imply that if Labour, LibDem & Tory were the leading 3 candidates (as they seem to be in at least 60% of the constituencies) then you are happy to either switch tactically from Lab to Lib, or vice versa. Agreed so far?
If there are so many people like you, why don’t Labour & LibDems form an unofficial alliance, so that only one candidate from either party (the most likely to win against the Tory) is put up? This will test the hypothesis behind tactical voting to destruction, as it will be impossible for all left-leaners to vote un-tactically! Otherwise, calls & pressure to vote tactically seems to set out to pervert the democratic process as it is currently set up.
This way, no complicated system change is required, & the UK can enjoy 100 years of Progressive sunshine…
Any takers, David Laws & Ed Balls?
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Andrew, I am also very glad you do not live in the UK.
We should have a “vote against” option like “snog, marry, avoid” then the 52% of combined lib and lab votes we have seen could count against the tories.
I see you have my constituency on your list, Shrewsbury and Atcham and told people to vote Labour, LOL. Labour actually came third here, Lib Dems second which was miles behind the conservatives.
I have a friend that doesn’t normally vote Conservative but had to because she had no choice she said. There was a hustings and after seing all 3 candidates for Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems she said there was no way that she could send either of the 2 other chaps down to the house of commons so voted conservative even though she didn’t agree with the conservative policies.
The Lib Dem candidate looked like Harold Shipman, but in truth my other half used to have him as his doctor. In fact he was the family doctor and when my other half’s grandfather was dying of cancer he said there was nothing wrong with him and he didn’t get the treatment he needed as a result. That was the Lib Dem candidate.
The Labour candidate wanted to abolish the some of the smoking shelters in the town, another friend of mine said he kept talking about Union’s and it was a load of rubbish, she voted Conservative too.
Our local Conservative MP is a very nice chap, he’s done a lot for the area and i’ve never heard a bad thing about him.
Next election I suppose you’d still rather have people voting for Harold Shipman though just to keep the Conservatives out, God Help us!
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