Your Voting Intentions Part 2.0 (End Is Nigh)

[Mr Penguin]

E63eeeeee... said:

There I was thinking he stood 7 times on a Brexit ticket and failed to get elected every time. If the money hadn't got behind Brexit and the BBC hadn't coincidentally decided to foreground him he'd still be a fringe loon ranting about it now. To be fair, he was mostly a fringe loon during the campaign too, iirc.

Most of those were when he represented a very small mostly single-issue party. It's like saying Screaming Lord Sutch was a failed politician because he never got elected despite trying 39 times.

[PositronicRay]

I'm voting for the person not the party.

The only local candidate that communicates, is organised, locally active and I'm happy to represent me happens to be Lib Dem.

[EmBe]

dandarez said:

I still intend to spoil my ballot paper (first time ever that I have 'not' voted, and I've seen 'em all since Atlee!). Sadly, the 'None of the Above' petition to get this on all ballot papers earlier this year got too few people to make it an issue. Those 'in charge' don't want this to ever happen! Hence why publicity was woeful.
Can it work? Oh boy yes! In the USA it was put on a ballot paper earlier this year, and guess what? 'None of the Above' got the highest votes and won!!

'Spoilt Ballot Papers' are 'counted', hence why I am 'voting' (no way would I ever not vote - for obvious reasons).
However, the may be a fly in the ointment - I'd decided to query what really happens?
I was informed via TEC (The Electoral Commission) that the counting of a spoilt ballots is down to the Returning Officer - christ is it vague... it needs rewording/updating.

Here you go:
Spoilt or doubtful ballots
If a ballot paper is blank, spoilt, or count staff are unsure of the voter’s intention from the mark on the paper, the Returning Officer will consider it and decide if the vote is valid and should be counted, or (how handy eh?) '...if it should be rejected'.

I checked elsewhere
'Spoilt ballots are ballot papers that have been marked incorrectly, and do not indicate the voter’s intention.
For example, the voter may have voted for two candidates in an election where they can only vote for one.
Doubtful ballots are ballot papers that do not absolutely show the voter’s intention. For example, the cross [X] to mark the vote may cover two boxes.

I messaged a councillor I know - he just replied:
'Dan, if you wish, yes you can spoil your ballot, and I can reassure you that it will be COUNTED!
Even Returning Officer's 'rejecting' a ballot doesn't matter, again, it WILL BE COUNTED!'
He just sent this over to me - so yep, I'm definitely spoiling mine.

---

I've seen it all my life... Labour will likely romp home and in 5 yrs time (or prob less) the 'ping pong' will happen again.
For those who want 'Change', you ain't gonna get it! All you'll achieve is a change in colour like all before.
If only 'None of the above' was on ballots, eh?

Once in government they don't want to 'serve you' they all 'serve themselves'.
Yep, you can have superb 'local constituency' MPs of any flavour - take when ours was Cameron, regardless of his 'rosette colour' he was great - he held regular local surgeries, always on hand for your queries and problems, he helped my wife's family and went beyond the limits to do so, I still have all his HoC letters addressed to us over the year he helped.
Months after he became PM my wife said to me as he was appearing on TV: 'Dan, is this really the same guy who helped and assisted my mum so much? He's changed beyond all recognition.'
'Yes Minister' was hilarious, but not far off the truth.

Well said. As I said on the previous thread:

EmBe said:

So many people have been operating on the assumption that Britain is broken because the wrong people are in charge, and all will be well just as soon as the other lot take over.
Soon they will come to learn what the rest of us have known for quite some time, that the system is completely unresponsive, bureaucracy is killing businesses but is the stock-in trade of the civil service and that the complex problems we face are simply beyond the wit of our mediocre, focus group-led, short-termist politicians.

So you can't get different results by voting for the uniparty and anything else is a wasted vote.

Reform aren't the answer for the disaffected, they have no ideological grounding. A truly reformist party would have an actual reform agenda - a strategic manifesto that informs all of its policies; a blueprint for what Britain should look like, with all the steps identified to get us there.

Reform is tapping in to the disaffection of those on the right, but in reality they're just doing the same as the other parties, looking at a demographic and telling them what they want to hear. I confidently predict that in 5 years there will be a similar party for disaffected Blairites for all the same reasons and I wouldn't be surprised to see King of the Centrist Dads, Rory Stewart at the head of it.

The electorate knows the country is in decline and suspects that it's largely thanks to politicians of all stripes that we find ourselves in this state. The electorate mostly also knows or fears that there's no-one to vote for who would halt the decline. So a lot of people will just withdraw from the process and stay at home.

My feeling is that for many though, that's too much to admit to themselves so they're pinning their hopes on 'anyone but the current lot', despite the evidence before them. They'll learn, eventually.

Or it's just bovine, tribal voting, those people will never learn.

So I have no hesitation but much disappointment, for the first time in my life to say 'None Of The Above' and spoil my paper.

Edited by EmBe on Wednesday 19th June 10:02

[S600BSB]

philv said:

I would not vote labour as they wont openly state what they are going to do.

Sks stating that they wont raise taxes for 'working' people.

It turns out his definition of 'working' people are those with no savings just getting by.

Disingenuous and untrustworthy.

If you have anything, expect to pay higher taxes.

The worst thing the tories have done is to allow labour to win.

You will pay more tax, probably quite a bit more, whoever wins the election. The country is fked after 14 years of almost zero economic growth, COVID, war in Ukraine and one of the most incompetent governments in our history. Period.

[E63eeeeee...]

Mr Penguin said:

E63eeeeee... said:

There I was thinking he stood 7 times on a Brexit ticket and failed to get elected every time. If the money hadn't got behind Brexit and the BBC hadn't coincidentally decided to foreground him he'd still be a fringe loon ranting about it now. To be fair, he was mostly a fringe loon during the campaign too, iirc.

Most of those were when he represented a very small mostly single-issue party. It's like saying Screaming Lord Sutch was a failed politician because he never got elected despite trying 39 times.

He was. It's just that nobody ever invested in trying to get people to take him seriously.

[swisstoni]

I heard quite a good quote the other day;

Polls are like perfumes. Nice to sniff but you shouldn’t swallow them.

[PositronicRay]

PositronicRay said:

I'm voting for the person not the party.

The only local candidate that communicates, is organised, locally active and I'm confident to represent me happens to be Lib Dem.

[Mr Penguin]

E63eeeeee... said:

He was. It's just that nobody ever invested in trying to get people to take him seriously.

[JagLover]

Main change between this poll and the earlier one is a big chunk of the Tory vote has moved over to Reform.

Mirroring the national polls but on a larger scale.

[B'stard Child]

119 said:

We now have a new poll with the same options now we are only a couple of weeks away!

Not quite - SNP option isn't there

[B'stard Child]

JagLover said:

Main change between this poll and the earlier one is a big chunk of the Tory vote has moved over to Reform.

Mirroring the national polls but on a larger scale.

Looking at it in terms of percentages yes I'd agree - however it only has 21% of the previous poll participation level (255 votes v 1187 votes)

I've made the points before

- Polls on PH rarely go above 1500 participants - Even the majority of pre EU referendum ones didn't

Clicky for pre EU referendum Poll on PH

- Most people on here have already baked in their position and are unlikely to change so I'd expect a slow slide back to the same result as the previous poll

And of course as many PH'rs have said repeatedly it doesn't represent the UK as a whole when you bear in mind the last Poll with 1187 votes represented a sample size of the UK electorate of 0.0025%

Edited to add link to EU ref Poll that was open for 143 days before the vote and pre PH rule change for NPE to have a min of 1000 posts

Edited by B'stard Child on Wednesday 19th June 11:17

[E63eeeeee...]

Mr Penguin said:

E63eeeeee... said:

He was. It's just that nobody ever invested in trying to get people to take him seriously.

[mwstewart]

I know I'll be worse off under Labour even compared with the diabolical Conservatives, so I was going to vote Conservative again, but I've now swung to Reform.

I like Reform and think they can deliver on some aspects that are important to me, like immigration, but I don't think that they would do so well at the day-to-day management, so it wasn't an easy decision.

[Drezza]

I've swung from voting for none to voting for Reform, I know this will only help Labour get into power but I can't bring myself to vote Tory so they're the only right-leaning party left to go for.

[BOR]

My postal vote has turned up, so after voting Labour my whole life every chance I got, this should be a victory lap for me.

But no.

I thought I could hold my nose and vote Starmer to get the Tories out, but after his diabolical treatment of the Labour left, I can't personally stomach it anymore.

I'm voting Green as the only choice for the left.

[Tommo87]

Lotobear said:

philv said:

I would not vote labour as they wont openly state what they are going to do.

Sks stating that they wont raise taxes for 'working' people.

It turns out his definition of 'working' people are those with no savings just getting by.

Disingenuous and untrustworthy.

If you have anything, expect to pay higher taxes.

The worst thing the tories have done is to allow labour to win.

I've noticed that Kier's go to disingenuous phrase of choice has become "it's not in our plans to...." A very untrustworthy man IMO

I’m old enough to remember the prior Labour governments and had no interest in returning to a union directed regime with non job civil service posts everywhere.

The clear deceit around their intentions to hide the raid on the true working man’s income, just put another nail in their coffin.

[119]

B'stard Child said:

119 said:

We now have a new poll with the same options now we are only a couple of weeks away!

Not quite - SNP option isn't there

Would you like to borrow my spectacles?

[B'stard Child]

119 said:

B'stard Child said:

119 said:

We now have a new poll with the same options now we are only a couple of weeks away!

Not quite - SNP option isn't there

Would you like to borrow my spectacles?

Don’t need them now

[119]

B'stard Child said:

119 said:

B'stard Child said:

119 said:

We now have a new poll with the same options now we are only a couple of weeks away!

Not quite - SNP option isn't there

Would you like to borrow my spectacles?

Don’t need them now

Oh good, you found it.

Happy to help.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Newc said:

Check your policy match here:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/285d9d36-830a-484...

Paywalled