It seems as though elections have become a regular fixture nowadays. We’ve just embarked on the fifth national poll in less than five years. As on previous occasions, I’ve created an opinion poll on readers’ voting intentions. This appears in the sidebar, but more and more people are now reading blogs on mobile devices on which it doesn’t appear. Therefore, as I’ve got nothing else on the stocks in the next few days, I’ve created a dedicated post for it.
The direct link to the poll is here, but I’d be grateful if you didn’t share it around indiscriminately on social media as this will make the results less representative. I’ll publish the results on the morning of polling day, December 12th. By coincidence, that’s the day of our local CAMRA branch meeting, at which I will be setting a Christmas Quiz. I will then be able to come home and watch the results.
Edit: This poll ws created before the Brexit Party announced that they would not be standing in any Conservative-held seats. Eventually, they also didn’t stand in about 40 others, some of which were Conservative targets. This will obviously affect the final outcome, although I’m not going to scrub it and start again. It shouldn’t be assumed that all, or indeed most, Brexit Party voters will automatically transfer to the Conservatives.
By coincidence I've accepted an invitation to a 90th anniversary lunch in Liverpool on December 12th, and while there shall make time for a few pubs.
ReplyDeleteRegrettably, I shall probably spoil my paper. You will know my political leanings well. I'm a natural Labour voter, but the state of the Labour party, their total failure to be an effective opposition, and their stance on Brexit means I would struggle to vote that way. I will never vote Conservative, cannot bring myself to vote Lib Dem following the coalition, and Green will almost certainly not field a candidate in my (inexplicably very safe Conservative) seat, and I'd have reservations anyway. Basically, I am not represented. In summary? My vote will not count, sadly.
ReplyDeleteSurely sharing the post will present a more accurate picture, or are you looking to skew the results to your followers alone? While I'm aware you have an followers whose views will...erm...differ from mine, its' not exclusively so.
I feel for you. The Labour Party has a long and honourable tradition, through Clement Attlee, Peter Shore, Jim Callaghan and many others, which has been sadly betrayed by the current leadership.
DeleteIn 2015 a similar poll was widely shared around and resulted in a disproportionate UKIP vote, which is the kind of thing I want to avoid.
If natural labour voters don't vote labour we will get a Tory government. If they vote labour we might get a badly led labour government.
DeleteHow any natural labour voter can prefer a Tory government baffles me. Corbyn continues that long tradition but, unfortunately he has no leadership skills.
It is not too late for us all to unite. Unite under the banner of cheap beer. To fight for that noble ideal. To ensure pints are under £2 and cans under 50p. For a better more prosperous Britain !
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of spoiling my ballot paper. I cannot bring myself to vote for any of them, none of the parties represent my political views. Cons have given up the free market economy, Labour has gone full-on neo-communist and Lib Dems are the politics of Mary Poppins.
ReplyDeleteFFS. Do you know what communism is?
DeleteLabour ambition in 2019: nationalise railways and utilities, keep the NHS in full public ownership, provide free tertiary education, ensure a good supply of social housing, provide good social security.
Conservative actuality in 1960: nationalised railways and utilities, NHS in full public ownership, free tertiary education, a good supply of social housing, good social security.
So was Macmillan a Communist?
In 1960 the numbers in higher education were only about a tenth of what they are now, so free tertiary education was much more affordable. Also, given much lower life expectancy, the costs of healthcare were also much lower.
DeleteYes I do know what communism is. It's a political/economic ideology which seeks to put 'the people' in control of the means of production. It has the best intentions at heart but has never ended well.
DeleteNone of the above, ever again, probably. I'd always voted Conservative until recently. I am conservative but the Conservative Party isn't any more, so on my last couple of ballot papers it has been "none of the above". What will work? I don't know. Our democracy doesn't work, because too many people have the vote. Too much representation without taxation.
ReplyDeleteThe Labour Party hate the working class, the Liberals want to restrict everybody's freedoms, our Police protect the criminals, our Army defends other countries. Universal suffrage has led us to this.
Andy,
DeleteYou'd "always voted Conservative until recently" yet you state "Universal suffrage has led us to this" despite women voting over the past hundred years giving a Conservative government most of the time.
I must say that I have my doubts about universal suffrage. It can only work when the electors fully understand the issues involved and , as the referendum showed, they often don't.
DeleteWhen someone tells me that they voted leave because they don't want their grandchildren to die fighting as conscripts in the EU army, I do wonder if she should be let out on her own.
Suggesting that some people are too thick to vote comes across as extremely snobbish and patronising. And one could just as easily say the same about people who voted to remain in the EU in 2016 in the belief that it was a steady state, and there would never be any further moves towards "ever closer union".
DeleteWe're on dodgy ground suggesting some people are too thick to vote, even though there's convincing evidence of that. Who decides where the vote/not vote line lies?
DeleteOne thing is for certain, and the comments here are confirming this IMO: our political system is broken and does not effectively represent us, even though commenters here clearly represent varying points on the L-R scale.
Would a move towards some kind of proportional representation system do a more effective job?
DeleteYes, "we're on dodgy ground suggesting some people are too thick to vote" but surely the woman I know of who voted 'Leave' because of "our unelected MEPs" did so from a position of profound ignorance.
DeleteIf you examine the various treaties establishing the European Union including the treaty of Lisbon which gave a member state a right to serve notice to leave the Union it is clear that the intention is to establish a United States of Europe (USE) by pooling the sovereignty of its member states. The USE no doubt would have an army and is making preparations to establish one,EU member states have a long history of conscript armies and an objection to having ones relatives conscripted into such an army would appear to be a perfectly reasonable one for choosing to vote in favour of a decision to leave the EU. DCB Whaley's implication that a decision made on such grounds would be made by somebody who should not be let out on their own appears to be based on an irrational prejudice.
ReplyDeleteOnly if viewing it from an astoundingly irrational standpoint. After all giving a country a way out kind of allows a veto against the very thing you state. Your opinion is irrational.
DeleteThe irrational prejudice is the expression of the opinion that people who voted in favour of withdrawing from the EU on the grounds that they feared their relatives being conscripted into a military force created in the future by a USE should not be allowed out their own and therefore that,in some way their views should not count. An examination of the policies and aims of the EU shows that casting a vote in opposition to such policies is a reasonable and rational thing to do, thing to do,as,indeed is casting a vote in favour of such policies. The irrational prejudice lies in expressing the opinion that people's opinions should be disregarded as they are stupid for holding such views.
ReplyDelete