tactical voting

[Guest Nov]

The long overdue Tactical Voting thread!!

 

A so far much under-addressed subject here on this forum, but to me it goes fairly close to the heart of what's going on in quite a lot of constituencies.

 

Is anybody voting tactically?

 

By which I mean : are you prepared to vote for your second or even your third choice candidate/party, in order to defeat or keep out your least favourite?

 

And if you are prepared to do this, how do you feel about NOT voting for the candidate you'd most want to vote for, but who hasn't got a hope in hell of winning in your area?

 

Have you thought through the pros and cons? Are you prepared to accept that given our very flawed voting system and almost as flawed choice of candidates/parties, there might be some point in voting tactically -- to keep or kick out (for instance) an especially loathesome Tory who has for eg banged on a lot about right wing populist themes, or to get rid of a particularly dire and spineless Blairite Nu Laybore MP?

 

Would you ever vote Tory tactically (shudders )?

 

Would you ever vote Labour tactically to get rid of an even worse Tory?

 

And if you're against tactical voting, how do you feel about the actually existing possibility that voting for the party you most like (let's say Green just for the sake of argument ) may deliver you a Tory MP or someone else you neither like nor respect?

 

Has voting tactically, or non/anti tactically, come easy or difficult for you?

 

 

 

(I can't cope with the Lib Dems in my local area for various Southwark-specific reasons)

 

What's going on in your area, tactical voting wise?

 

News, anecdotes, opinions welcomed ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS, very important!!! The above post is not mine, I just copied n pasted it from a 'leftish' forum.

 

The idea is good, all you need to do is where the aurthor of that post says 'tory' you insert 'labour' kind of thing.

 

Whilst you ponder this idea, i'll try and dig out all of last terms results to see which seats the tories have no chance in, the idea been so that you can vote the candidate closest to the labour guy inorder to loose a labour MP.

[Guest Nov]

Use this engine to see who is standing in your area

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vot...ies/default.stm

[Guest Nov]

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ this site will tell you how your current mp voted on the huntban and more.

[Guest Nov]

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?...9-15&number=250

 

this link shows you who voted against party majority.

 

So you have 6 tories who voted FOR the ban

 

Party Vote

David Amess Southend West Con aye

David Atkinson Bournemouth East Con aye

Roger Gale North Thanet Con aye

John Taylor Solihull Con aye

Sir Teddy Taylor Rochford & Southend East Con aye

Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe Maidstone & The Weald Con

 

 

 

 

3 labour who voted against the ban

 

Mark Fisher Stoke-on-Trent Central Lab no

Kate Hoey Vauxhall Lab no

Barry Sheerman Huddersfield Lab no

 

 

and 16 lib dems who voted against the ban

 

Lembit Öpik Montgomeryshire LDem no

Rt Hon A J Beith Berwick-upon-Tweed LDem no

John Burnett Torridge & West Devon LDem no

Rt Hon Menzies Campbell North East Fife LDem no

Sue Doughty Guildford LDem no

Matthew Green Ludlow LDem no

Evan Harris Oxford West & Abingdon LDem no

Nick Harvey North Devon LDem no

Paul Keetch Hereford LDem no

Norman Lamb North Norfolk LDem no

Michael Moore Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale LDem no

Mark Oaten Winchester LDem no

Sir Robert Smith West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine LDem no

Sir John Thurso Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross LDem no

Paul Tyler North Cornwall LDem no

Roger Williams Brecon & Radnorshire LDem no

 

 

 

 

 

SO, my theory is... If one of the lib dem 16 is closer to the labour candidate than the tory candidate in the opinion polls/last election result, then wouldn't it be wiser to vote for the pro hunting liberal who has a chance of beating the labour candidate, than voting for the torie candidate who hasn't got a cat in hells chance in that particular constituency???

[Guest Nov]

It appears that post 2 changes it's links, iv'e edited the link to the current working one.

[Guest Nov]

Well, this thread went down like a Bankok boy chick

[Guest baldie]

No Nov, good post, where our hunt is kenneled, [ holmfirth] the anti is Kali Mountford, lib dem, with around a 500 vote majority, we have activly campaigned against her, with the tory candidate, she can realistically be f****d off, and the four packs in her constituency have worked hard against her

[Guest Geordie]

Its a great post Nov,just a lot of people cant get their head round the politics side of things,i dont understand some of the ways people vote,"labour,cos ive always voted labour" whats all that about?? The thing is there are a lot of people out there who are voting,for all the wrong reasons,and most of them dont want,or wont be swayed in their voting choice. They wont vote tory cos "its for the posh people" and a vote for the lib dems is a "wasted vote" a lot of voters i fear are in a rut.

 

And how many of the older women vote for Tony,"cos hes a lovely lookin fella"

 

Frightening i tell ye ,frightening

[polecat 1]

good one nov (nov for pm) :ph34r:

[Guest Keeps]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/hunt/Story/0,2763,1473778,00.html

[Guest Nov]

Thanks for the link Keeps.

 

Everyone should check their constituency, check what margin labour/libdem won by last election (if you are lucky enough to already have a conservative MP, get out on thur and vote tory), check how far behind the tories were last election, see what each candidates opinion is on the ban.

 

The idea behind this is, if you can't get the tory in, at least try to get the labour mp out.

[ChrisJones 7,975]

The idea behind this is, if you can't get the tory in, at least try to get the labour mp out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's it in a nutshell.

 

All the candidates are reachable through email so it's piss easy to get hold of them. If you're in a marginal constituency they'll contact you if you make the first move.

 

Labour supporters have used the tactical vote in the past with great success. If people decide not to bother then they're part of the problem.

 

I'd vote for you Nov