Anybody voting Lib Dem?

If so, what do you think to this, brief though it is?
Lib Dem plans would do more for poorest than Labour https://www.markpack.org.uk/173267/lib-dem-plans-would-do-more-for-poorest-than-labour/

 

I sent my postal vote today. in the end I plumped with green. The boundary has changed so we're in a completely different ward to last time. Looking at 2019 there was no lib dem candidate and green edged tories into 3rd, while labour won by about 25000 votes. So my reasoning is green are perhaps most likely to finish above lib dems here.

 

Well I've got a postal vote because the Tories disenfranchised me. I am seriously considering LibDem or green based purely on policy which I can identify with. I am, or was, a natural Labour voter, or so I thought, but I am really displeased with Labour on two or three issues and with the attitude of the leadership to people of a left wing orientation. The Tories will lose now, almost certainly so I may very well just go with my principles - I'm not letting them back in..........am I?

 

Yep, I've already cast my vote for LibDem, so has the wife. Only candidate here that has a chance of taking the seat from the Tories.

 

My constituency has changed and I am now in Wimbledon, apparently, which was 38% Tory and 37% Lib Dem last time, so gives me an incentive to vote Lib Dem.

 

A protest vote then, KCP?

 

Probably in context, but in the big picture no. Labour will win in the country and probably in the constituency. My vote wont change that. I'm marginalised by Labour at the moment so therefore I may as well vote for a party whose/who's policies can identify with. Green or Lib Dem. At some point also, if enough little people like me vote for what they actually believe in the two party system will crumble and a better form of PR will be introduced. Happened with Labour in the early 20th century. Longest journey starts with a small step.

 

While a lot of people would prefer PR, I don't see a huge groundswell of public opinion such as would compel it's introduction. Labour's emergence was fuelled by very obvious social injustice and inadequate employment rights. I don't see a similar degree of force behind PR, and there is the argument that it would offer disproportionate influence to the likes of Farage.

 

I would in a constituency where it mattered. Ed Davey seems a lovely guy and their manifesto is great but as it stands Green. I couldn’t vote for any of the right wing parties like Reform/ Labour / Tories but I’d happily vote for any of the rest.

 

Its not so much the groundswell of opinion in my view. Its that we've got a splintering of public opinion which, paradoxically, is actually eroding the FPTP system which is supposed to deliver strong government. Labour will win this time and we may actually have that strong government but look at the % vote share when it comes in. Also look at the solidarity/support for Labour soon after the election. Honeymoons dont last long. The electorate is becoming more volatile over time and smaller parties are breaking through if you look at local elections. There are now potentially more big swings in the FPTP system than ever before. People are less constrained to vote for the big two and that trend has been happening for years. The Labour collapse in Scotland in the last 20 years was an example in my view although they'll win seats this time and thats partially down to the SNP itself. To comment on your other point though are we not now seeing social injustice, massive economic inequality and, frankly, despair? All reasons perhaps not to vote for Labour which offers little for its historic base in my view. Reform as a protest? Understandable but abhorrent in my opinion. Green if you're left wing? Maybe for people like me. Lib Dems if your concerned about the NHS and social care? Clear priorities there.
As an aside, it was the Liberals that introduced 'the peoples' budget in 1909/10 which was an attempt to 'level up' and placate the voting working-class. It was also an attempt to be decent. That it failed to ultimately stave off the Labour Party was partly a result of the First World War and, possibly a) it hadnt gone far enough esp post-war and b) there was momentum behind Labour post-war and the Liberals had no answers. Also interesting to note is that after major national traumatic events - WW1, WW2, Labour has benefitted. I wonder if covid will be classed as a Labour enhancer by historians. Anyway, Starmer needs to be cute and suggest a PR system that is more representative than FPTP. He wont though because he'll win and therefore we may, in my view, be witnessing the strange death of Labour England......I for one am unlikely to vote for them in spite of the Tories' awfulness. I wont be the the only one abandoning Labour as they win either if I make that choice, They're winning an election but actually losing the support of people like me and I should be a strong supporter. I like red rosettes but I wont vote for one which has no soul and no offering of hope. I wont do it.

 

I voted SDP in 83. Also voted Lib Dem under Charles Kennedy, is the Iraq war was a bridge to far and Kennedy was more appealing than Blair to me.

I voted Green at the local election recently. The Green candidate lives round the corner from me. Really good bloke. I bumped into him a few weeks back and found out he'd won, marginally over the Labour candidate. So pleased for him.

Voting Labour at the GE, as Alex Sobel is a great MP. He's Jewish, but pro 2 state solution in Gaza and has visited the area. I always vote based on the local candidate myself. In Headingley he'll walk it TBH. Wasn't always that way. Was Lib Dem up to 2015. Greg Mullholland the outgoing Lib Dem MP was decent. Not a bad singer / guitar slinger TBH, but the coalition and student fees did for him.

I basically want the Tory bustards out. I've always supported PR and always will do, as FPTP is a poor form of democracy.

 

I don't disagree with most of what you say there. But my point is that there doesn't appear to me to be a public fervour behind a change to PR. It would be a major constitutional change and would require a referendum. A party that gains power under FPTP is unlikely to want to change the system. Why would they? I still think Keir may surprise you once he gets in. After all, isn't one of your biggest complaints that he changed tack after assuming the Labour leadership?

 

As of 2022 that I can see only 44% of people wanted to keep FPTP. 51% wanted it changed. Also:

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk...rity-support-for-proportional-representation/


Also:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...entation-poll-pr-labour-starmer-b2175512.html

 

It would be interesting immediately after the election to look at what the mix in parliament would have been if PR was in place. Read somewhere the the Tories are most frightened of it as it would affect them most but don't understand why...If it reduced their ability to ever return I'd vote for it..

 

I could have voted tactically but I have voted with my heart. The Lib Dems could just win in Wantage & Didcot. However, the last time I voted Lib Dem I got a Tory government with Nick Clegg as Cameron's pet poodle.

 

Me, for the first time ever this time. Even though Ed Davey is a weirdo, like. A combination of they're best placed to stop the Tories in my ward and disillusionment with Labour and Starmer.

As for the article, it's utterly unsurprising; Labour abandoned the working class years ago; through Brexit, the lockdown and the trans rights debates they've preferred to look down their nose at their traditional core working-class votership rather than try to engage.

Interestingly, you also see the same attitude from a number of staunch Labour supporters on here.

 

With first past the vote - every vote in a constituency past the one vote needed to get more then the 2nd candidate is in effect a wasted vote. Labour seats have traditionally anyway had more "wasted" votes - i.e returned candidates with bigger majorities (wasted votes). Moving to PR would make every vote count.

 

A quick aside, we spent the weekend in a bolt hole in the test valley immersed in nature and on the way back we stopped in Farnham and stretched our legs. Beautiful place. And heartening to see so many lib dem posters and placards around the area.

 

A party can enact any change it puts in its manifesto.