How should I vote?

[andrewducker]

Who should you vote for? UK General Election quiz

Green				44
Liberal Democrat				43
Labour				28
Conservative	-30
UK Independence	-31

You expected: LIB

Your recommendation: Green

Click here for more details about these results



And then there are my results on VoteForPolicies, which have me voting for Green 33%, Lib-Dem 33%, Con 22% and Lab 11%.

I have strong reservations about the Greens, largely because I'm pro-nuclear, and I view some of their policies as economically naive.

So that'll be me voting Lib-Dem at the next election!

Comments

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

I got much the same and would also never vote Green. Lib-Dem it is.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Yes, I get Green just edging out Lib Dem but won't be voting Green (although it doesn't make any bloody difference in my seat).

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I got pretty much the same results, and I'm a Lib Dem member... votematch was more or less the same, too.

As a party member I'd always urge everyone to vote Lib Dem, but a good comment on LibCon from a Green member drew my eye...

"In a safe seat, then you are spot on, you might as well vote for your principles.The best signal to send is with a Green Party vote, because it not only covers the Pirate Party issue, but also signals your wish for radical reform of our political and economic system. In other words, you get more bangs for your ballot than voting Pirate, despite their romantic and Depp-like attractions.

If on the other hand you are in a marginal seat, then while I as a Green would still wish for you to vote Green, since that will lever the winner to be more green in Parliament so as to win your vote back. But I recognise that tactical voting is very appealing in a marginal seat, and here surely any thinking voter will wish to vote ABT (Anything But Tory), and if presented with a choice between Labour and LibDem, they will back the LibDem in the hope of getting a well-hung Parliament, with Vince Cable in the Treasury, and Proportional Representation well and truly on the menu.

All voters who care about democracy and political reform are recommended to murmur the words “First Past the Post Has Got To Go” to the clerks as they hand you your precious polling form."

To my mind, that should sum up the attitude of anyone with left-wing (or left-of-centre) political views that aren't represented by the major parties. In my case it's a very easy choice, because the Lib Dems most closely represent my principles *and* I'm in a Labour safe seat where the LDs are the only real challengers, but I'd pretty much use those rules as a guide...

[skington.livejournal.com]

Votematch underestimates LibDem votes, I think, because one of the questions is something like "Would you favour a referendum on the UK's continued membership of the EU?", which I took to mean "do you want a referendum *now* so we can rejoice in our splendid isolation" and disagreed with it. It turns out that the LibDem official position is "Yes - if there's ever a future treaty that significantly changes the UK's relationship with the EU".

[matgb]

The policy is partially there because most LDs generally want toa ctually make the case, but also because in some areas (like the SW where I grew up) about half UKIP voters in the EU elections vote LD in the General/local elections.

I'd like a simple in/out referendum TBH, pretty sure we'd win the in vote convincingly, and it'd shut the europhobic liars up.

[chuma.livejournal.com]

"I have strong reservations about the Greens, largely because I'm pro-nuclear, and I view some of their policies as economically naive."

Some of their policies are downright backward and anti-science too. However they have done a lot of good to make other parties need to brush up on their own green policies.

[andrewducker]

I think that they've definitely had a positive effect in general. And I hear that they've improved some of their anti-science bias, but I haven't actually gone digging to verify that.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

Who should you vote for? UK General Election quiz

Green				54
Liberal Democrat				42
Labour				2
Conservative	-8
UK Independence	-12

You expected: LIB

Your recommendation: Green

Click here for more details about these results

I'll be voting Canadian Green in Canada.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

What's your riding? If it's at all competitive, Green is a counterproductive vote, rather than just a wasted one.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

Trinity-Spadina. It's an NDP-Lib race. Olivia Chow is the current MP.

I voted Lib last time as I really liked Dion's Green Shift. Iggy would have to introduce a platform I like for me to vote Lib again.

Things I'd vote Lib for:
- National High-Speed Rail
- Federal Formula for Investment in Transit (say, always picking up a third of the bill)
- Carbon Tax
- Hikes in the GST
- Hikes in the federal gas tax
- Maybe something energy or higher education related
- Amending the constitution to give municipalities status and more power

The NDP is unlikely to change its platform to please me.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly confused. I got LibDem 41, Green 38, Conservative 2, UK-Ind -6, and Labour -14.

I'm trying to figure out why that is. Do Labour have some kind of extremely stupid tax plan? Do they not like civilised medicine, or something?

Or am I missing something?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha! Found it by retaking the test selectively on my "XX" and "YY" questions only. Apparently Labour are fascist assholes who don't understand the internet - the "law and order" section alone, excluding the cannabis question, drops them to -16.

[andrewducker]

That would explain it. It's mostly those things that turn me against them too.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I was just surprised to see it. I didn't *think* the UK was one of the places where "Labour" was a euphemism - I thought they were more like the Canadian NDP - socially sensible if prone to bouts of PROTECT THE CHILDRUUUN if not properly restrained, generally good-willed, economically nightmarish due to failure to understand basic concepts - and my impression was the Labour were significantly better than the NDP on the "economic nightmare" part.

[andrewducker]

Labour are authoritarian left. Well, I say left, they're left of the middle, but only fractionally. We don't have any strongly redistributive parties in the UK mainstream at the moment - the Greens are, but they aren't going to get power in the near future.

Labour are definitely prone to bouts of Protecting The Children, and also Protecting Everyone From Themselves, the most recent case being the banning of mephedrone, but previous examples being attempting to bring in mandatory ID cards, and body scanners at airports.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

http://politicalcompass.org/extremeright shows where the UK political parties are now, and have been historically, on 'economic left/right' and 'authoritarian/libertarian' axes. Until *fairly* recently (like 15 years ago) you'd have been essentially right about Labour, but after 18 years out of power the parliamentary party seemed to go mad, and ran screaming as fast as they could in the direction of fascism on that graph as soon as they got a whiff of power...

I'd note however that that graph is true of the *parliamentary* parties - the Lib Dem activist base is for the most part right next to the Greens on that graph, while the Labour activists are solidly in the centre from my experience...

[matgb]

I don't even think it's true of the PArliamentary PArty. Goldsworthy has the compass on her FAcebook page (or at least did), and she maps pretty much the same place as me and SB.

I sincerely doubt their methodology for assessing the parties. Either that or the compass itself biases output to the bottom left.

[skington.livejournal.com]

Labour retain a very working-class, union-worker attitude towards community issues like crime. In addition, they've jettisoned some of Harold Wilson's "white heat of technology" attitude from the 1960s in favour of cosying up to dreadful large corporations, so while they'll pay lip-service to e.g. increasing science budgets and investing in renewable energies, they're equally as likely to have some dreadful prat like Peter Mandelson who decides that cutting basic research budgets and cutting off filesharer's Internet access is not only desirable, but feasible.

A growing number of people I know who would have been Labour voters 10 years ago or even more recently than that, are now solidly Liberal Democrat voters.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Are you pro nuclear power and pro nuclear weapons?

[andrewducker]

I don't much see the point of us having nuclear weapons.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. And consistent with current Lib Dem policy on not replacing Trident, though perhaps that policy is itself a bit ambiguous as to what to do with Trident itself?

[andrewducker]

Decommission it in the most affordable manner, I'd say. Dunno what the Lib Dem policy is, as I don't pay attention to specific party politics most of the time. My main interest in changing the electoral system, and avoiding voting for authoritarian parties that want to bring in unworkable policies in order to impress the Daily Mail.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

But if the will of the people, via Daily Mail false consciousness, is for authoritarianism...

I agree with you; just being a gadfly

[andrewducker]

I do agree though - if the people wish to be herded then they will be.

[draconid.livejournal.com]

I got 40 Green, 20 something Lib Dem. But like the other comments I'll be voting Lib Dem, although it's a Labour stronghold here, with Plaid the only other party with a chance in hell of getting in