Bollitics: The General Election 2010 Exit Poll

[mjmooney]

Voting tonight. Still don't know who for though.

Same here.

Genuinely undecided, except it obviously won't be for the **** Tories.

Complicated by the fact that we have a simultaneous council election.

I've always voted Labour, for 38 years now. It would be a big decision indeed to desert them now. Except that I feel they have deserted me. How do I convince myself that I am voting for the Labour Party of 1945 when they are clearly not? They have effectively been Tories-lite since the accession of Blair.

Sadly, there is no even remotely socialist option these days, but any analysis of policies tells me that the Lib Dems are now considerably to the left of Labour. Many of their policies are ones I agree with in principle - scrap Trident, scrap tuition fees, disestablishment of church and state (something that has hardly been mentioned in the media), electoral reform. But the fact is they cannot get a majority, and even if they could, would they (or anyone) have a cat in hell's chance of implementing social reform in the face of such a severe economic crisis?

I'm not averse to the idea of a hung parliament/coalition, with the Lib Dems acting as a brake on some of the more repressive tendencies of the Tories. But would it work in practice?

Looking at the candidates in my constituency also gives me food for thought - I know the Labour candidate personally, and while he's a nice enough bloke, I'm not convinced he is MP material. He's a solicitor with no political experience, whereas the Liberal guy is an experienced local councillor with a good record.

And my constituency (Pudsey) is a key marginal, with a very close three-way split. It's a Labour held-seat (the current incumbent is retiring), but both Tories and Lib Dems have made major inroads since 2005 and it's a very hard one to call - could go any way.

And then I heard Gordon Brown speak in the flesh yesterday, and I was surprised how impressed I was with him. It's had an effect, no question.

In the local election, it's a Lib Dem ward, and Labour have made no attempt to campaign. The current councillor is the outgoing Lord Mayor, he's a neighbour of mine, and he's pretty sound.

So voting "on conscience" is not cut and dried. And the tactical vote is not obvious.

Having more or less decided to vote Lib Dem a few weeks ago I am currently being pulled back quite strongly to Labour, for the general election at least, with a possible Lib Dem vote in the local. But as I say, I'm genuinely undecided.

[Jon]

i am thinking lib dem, but that might help labour so might vote cameron

:?

so, you want to vote for a left of centre party, but worry that doing that might let in another left of centre party, so you might vote for a right of centre party?

Okaaaay.....

stick with your principles Dem.

Unless they're Tory principles. Then you can ditch them. :winkold:

[choffer]

Off to the polling office tonight but am not really sure why I will bother.

I have my vote to cast and a proxy vote form my flat-mate who is away. We'd discussed how he was going to vote and he'd decided he was voting the same way as me. He texted last night to say he's changed his mind. There's only two viable options in our ward - Tory or Libdem.

So, now I have to decide if it's even worth going as his vote with nullify mine. Seems a bit pointless but I've never not voted so I guess I'll just go through the motions.

[tonyh29]

Don't usually vote , The Tory dude romps it here anyway , Labour could give every voter a night with Scarlett Johansson and £50k and they still wouldn't get elected in Foxhills ... but i put my card in the car this morning so might pop in and put my X for the Tories on my way home

Fingers crossed , from Friday the country will start to get back on track , God knows it's been mismanaged of late and needs turning around

For Tony – Election Day

I have So Red the Rose on my i-Tunes .. sounds a wee bit dated now but I loved it at the time

[djdabush]

Am going to vote in a bit, although it's been a staunch Labour seat for years now. The labour candidate took over 50% of the vote last time, so obviously more than the Tories and the Lib Dems put together. Still, if I'll be voting Lib Dem in the hope that the majority goes down and next election more people will regard them as a more viable option.

[bickster]

i am thinking lib dem, but that might help labour so might vote cameron

:?

so, you want to vote for a left of centre party, but worry that doing that might let in another left of centre party, so you might vote for a right of centre party?

Okaaaay.....

stick with your principles Dem.

Unless they're Tory principles. Then you can ditch them. :winkold:

Actually he wants to vote for a left of centre party but that might let in a right of centre party so he might vote for the other right of centre party.

Lets be clear here, the Labour Party are not left of centre and haven't been for at least 15 years, they just want you to think they are

[Richard]

My big fear is a hung pariliament with a bun fight in the next two weeks. We could see the UK lose it's triple A investment rating which will affect the markets and could also have the effect of the money tied up in the Icelandic banks not coming back to us. Big worry

[under_the_bridge]

I am strongly opposed to ID cards.

So its conservative for me.

Our civil liberties have been eroded away in the last few years.

[sellyoakvilla]

Labour.

[mjmooney]

I am strongly opposed to ID cards.

So its conservative for me.

Lib Dems are also opposed to ID cards.

[tonyh29]

I am strongly opposed to ID cards.

So its conservative for me.

Lib Dems are also opposed to ID cards.

Oi ..the man said Tory , stop trying to change his mind :-)

[bickster]

My big fear is a hung pariliament with a bun fight in the next two weeks. We could see the UK lose it's triple A investment rating which will affect the markets and could also have the effect of the money tied up in the Icelandic banks not coming back to us. Big worry

My big hope is for a hung parliament with the Lib Dems wielding enough power to get electoral reform high on the agenda

[jonno_2004]

BBC says Cameron has just voted - can he vote for himself?

[mjmooney]

BBC says Cameron has just voted - can he vote for himself?

Standing as an MP, yes, he can.

EDIT: Or he could of course, vote for one of the other candidates if he prefers!

[tonyh29]

My big hope is for a hung parliament with the Lib Dems wielding enough power to get electoral reform high on the agenda

for someone that was a spoilt paper / don't vote in the other polls you seem to have a lot of woolly tendencies in you :-)

[blandy]

Where I live is a safe Tory seat.

There's almost nothing about the Tory party that I like. I also remember the Thatcher years, and there's no way on earth I'd want to go back to that type of society or Government. And I honestly don't think that the current tories are any less toxic than the last lot. Behind shiny Dave is the same mad old mix of right wing nutters, racists and climate change deniers that have led them to tie up with Fascists in the European Parliament. Cameron wrote the nasty manifesto for the previous election.

So who do I go for? The choice is only 5

UKIP - Single issue mentalists. Mad. I know what they're against, but not what they are for.

Tories - No chance. Toxic and nasty. Got the calls on the economy wrong, repeatedly.

Labour - Possibly best for my job, but they're not going to get in to Fylde, which is safe Tory, so a wasted vote. And while I agree with some of their policies, I vehemently disagree with others.

Green - I agree with a fair few of their policies, but it's a lost vote here, and some of their policicies are daft.

Lib Dem - ANother one I agree with a fair few of their policies, and there's a few which are not for me.

So the way I'm leaning is a kind of tactical vote, albeit one which won't affect the local outcome. If I vote Lib Dem and nationally they get to have a say , then hopefully a change in the voting system will come about so next time my vote will count under a changed electoral system. But that needs enough of the country to vote for them, so they can point to weight of votes. The same would apply to the Greens, but there's no chance of them holding any balance, so I think Lib Dem it is.

[chrisp65]

Probably a bit late for this election, but my new personal manifesto…

I have a dream. A dream of an independent Wales, physically detached from mainland UK and parked somewhere warm and benign in the Oceania qualifying zone. All of us tall slim tanned ex ballet dancers (but in a totally hetro way, except those that don't want to be hetro which is also totally cool) making an honest living driving 15 year old Jags as taxi’s, brewing our own hooch and hand rolling cigars. Where being a woman with a single mono eyebrow or a man with a bit of a gut isn’t automatically a bad thing.

We would be self sufficient from the toll money on a much longer Severn bridge and Dr Who merchandising. The M4 would have four lanes, but each side, not in total. English would still be the first language, so that way we can still make use of cheap east european labour and watch Ashes to Ashes without sub titles. Welsh would be strongly promoted, but only when the English were listening. England would regularly play Ashes matches in their new spiritual home, Cardiff.

This new Wales would be improved in many ways (no, not napalm). For a start, we wouldn’t tell Bangor, Merthyr, Cwmbran, Newport or Rhyl the new address. We would all have a full and rounded education in practical subjects and the classics. But we wouldn’t be up ourselves, like Brian Sewel or Switzerland. We would be a fundamentally happy and content people without western levels of spending on pointless shite. A Wales of modest material needs. This would be a nation with good access to wifi and large format flat screen technology. Perhaps most importantly, there would be a liberal attitude towards patching into Premier League football without the fussy formality of subscriptions. The law would be stripped down and simplified. We could see how we get along with a body of law along the lines of ‘don’t be an arse’. If you do something and people agree you’ve been an arse, that’s you sent back to Rhyl. We would retain our European status, so if it all went tits we could come back or get bailed out.

slow day

[Simon_Jones]

Conservative

[choffer]

I have a dream. A dream of an independent Wales, physically detached from mainland UK

As someone living in England - I whole-heartedly agree with the above (just don't tell my gf in Swansea!)

[tonyh29]

Cameron wrote the nasty manifesto for the previous election

Was just talking about this to someone in the office .. i seem to recall that Howard played the immigration card 5 years ago and got spanked as a result (amongst other reasons of course)

funny how things change in 5 years and immigration was almost one of the top issues in this campaign

I also remember the Thatcher years

I wonder if 20 years from now we will all be saying I remember the Brown years and thus I'd never consider voting labour ?

As previously stated Brown and Blair were keen to be seen with Thatcher and invited her to number 10 a few times .. meanwhile Cameron seemed to be trying to distance himself from her ... strange turn of events

and climate change deniers

You say that like it's a bad thing :-)

I think you are wrong about Cameron and I hope(if he gets the chance ) the next 5 years will change your mind