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How do you vote?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
If you vote in elections, is it placed on the basis of class?
Or is it instrumental (, i.e. placed by viewing the policies of each party and how it will personally affect you)?
Or is it instrumental (, i.e. placed by viewing the policies of each party and how it will personally affect you)?
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how i believe it will effect the world around me and the people in it.
i could never ever ever vote tory out of principal. thi eving, greedy money grubbing bastards with no sense of social need.
@there is no such thing as society" ...when mrs hatchet reeled off that absurdity i knew i had been right about them all along.
For example in a general election I would vote Labour because I live in a marginal seat so realistically it's a choice between Labour and Conservative hence I vote Labour. But if I lived in a Conservative/Lib Dem marginal I'd vote Lib Dem instead to get the Tories out.
The only time I have actually voted was in a local council by-election where I voted Labour because I met the candidate and she was a very nice woman and I agreed with what she said. (Not that it would actually matter I live in a strong Labour ward).
In the London elections next year I'll be voting for Ken Livingstone for Mayor 1st preference, then for Nicky Gavron (Labour candidate) 2nd preference as Ken's policies are more in tune with my own beliefs than New Labour. In the GLA I'll vote Labour for the constituency vote as it is the closest Labour/Conservative race in London and I'd love to get rid of the Tory Thatcherite scumbag we have representing us at the moment. Then in the Londonwide vote which is proportional representation I'll vote for the London Socialist Alliance as they have a chance in this vote and they're more in tune to my beliefs than New Labour.
I'm unsure how I'll vote in the European elections I'll see how I feel in June. Certainly won't be Conservative though!
Damn, I wanted to do voting behaviour for the 3rd module of my AS course but we had to do electoral systems instead.
Although I've yet to vote, in terms of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections (if they ever happen again) I'd put more moderate parties like the SDLP and Ulster Unionists down as my preferences. I don't actually agree with their policies in all aspects (particularly the Ulster Unionists) but under the Single Transferable Vote system we have here, voting for them will do more to prevent the likes of Sinn Fein and the DUP winning so many seats.
Since moving to Europe and having firsthand experience in the political sphere on an international level id have to say my first priority is to establish the foreign policy platforms of the differing candidates (I dont bother voting in Gubernatorial or Congressional elections since in my state the incumbents are repeat shoe ins and im not remotely affected by state politics.
We have a saying in Spain: there is nothing more stupid than being poor and voting conservative. Yet this is a surprisingly common occurance. I wonder how many of the people in this forum who vote Tory are rich or even middle class. I'm willing to bet that many of those who support the Tories are working class people and depend on good public services and free health. And yet they're happy support a party that would privatise most public services and remove free health. Others support CEOs' right to award themselves massive pay rises and bonuses at the expense of 'normal' workers, even though they're probably office clerks themselves and fat cat salaries by their CEOs might affect their own jobs and lives. How stupid is that?
My father came from a Tory background, my mother from a socialist background.
At the last elections (Local) I voted Liberal for the first time and gave my other vote to the green party. This was because I was so against what Tony Blair did RE the recent war.
At the next election (General) I will be voting but I can't be sure it will be Labour, it depends very much on how they change (Or not) in the next few months and also on whether they continue to support the USA the way they have.
For me it has nothing to do with class but everything to do with my principles.
A friend of mine in work votes for whoever her husband tells her to!!!
Why is this so unusual?
i have a a very close freind of many years ...out of this country for the last 11/12 yras ... ...he went to the same public school as prince charles ...gordonstoun or something ...10yrs older than me ...he was educated to believe that people like me have been bred over centuries to serve people like him who are by birth and blood bred to use people like me.
he has a lot of bizz stuff going down all the time ...huge turnover and some spectacular losses. we are as different as chalk and cheese. he no longer believes in his education. i'm responsible for that. we met in the seventies and changed each others lives and understandings forever. he still votes tory of course ...i didn't change him that much. your idea that the workers and tabloid readers look up to the well educated is so fucking far off the mark of reality you have just lost all credance mate. people who understand reality ...people who understand that man IS ...a social creature ...now thats my kind of man. you are obviously one of those who's 'great' ...thinking and superiority have bought the once great tory party to it's knees.
Yes, some Labour's MP's had an Oxbridge education (like Tony Benn for example) but Conservative MP's had been seen as better educated.
the best economists are the likes of g. sorros and the local iron monger. you cannot have a full view from a fucking school desk.
You're at least fifty years out of date, if not more. The origins for this view came from the first extention of voting rights in the 19th Century when "commoners" were made to vote Tory by their landlords because of the open ballot - pressure still continued during the introduction of the secret ballot. Hence you got bosses up to the 60s or so who'd say stuff like Labour would put you out of work and so intimidate the working class into voting Tory.
Thankfully since then no boss could get away with such comments. Also all MPs are well educated - although not all went to university a vastly greater proportion did than in the population at large.
The age of deference is long gone Mono. The working class vote Tory because their newspapers tell them to and because they want lower taxes regardless of the consequences. It's stupid of them to vote to harm themselves but there you go.
Going slightly off topic here-if i havnt already-voting can be influenced by other factors. For example, tactical voting in a margin seats, and protest votes in by elections.
So I think its the Socialist Alliance or maybe the Greens next time.
I thought the working class voted labour... no wait... you talking about the 80's and the Thatcherites?
Um .... sounds like New Labour too. I'll ceratinly never vote for them again either. I don't think the Lib Dems are any better ... so that leaves the Greens and a few other satelitte parties like the Monster Raving etc
Either way, could I vote I'd vote somewhat conservative. Probably for the Christian party or the now-ruling party in Denmark.
While Mono was talking about 50/60s Britain. I was referring mainly to the Thatcherite vote in the 1980s from the working class which was to a large degree based on the increased readership of The Sun giving a larger Tory base, especially given the attacks it threw on Labour at the time with articles like "Why I'm backing Kinnock, by Stalin" in the 1987 general election and most crucially the "If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights" in the 1992 election where it was really "The Sun Wot Won It".
Incidentally, I think you'd find far more extremist right wing policies from the Tories than Labour (even New Labour).
BTW As an aside generally, is it possible to get postal votes if you're at university for your home constituency?
While I agree that New Labour are the Tories in disguise, you seem a tad confused...