Poll: Which party will get your vote in the General Election?

[Biohazard]

How Mark Lazarowicz voted on key issues since 2001:

Voted moderately for a transparent Parliament. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for introducing a smoking ban. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals. votes, speeches
Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws. votes, speeches
Voted strongly against the Iraq war. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly against replacing Trident. votes, speeches
Voted moderately for the hunting ban. votes, speeches
Voted moderately for equal gay rights. votes, speeches
Voted moderately against laws to stop climate change.

So basically my MP is a total retard. (which ive known for a long time, he's been MP here for a while)

Go labour!

Edinburgh North & Leith

 

[RDM]

How Vincent Cable voted on key issues since 2001:

...

Overall, the only severe issue of disagreement is the hunting ban, which isn't important enough to matter, so I'll happily vote for him again.

They problem I have with the Lib Dems is the fiasco over the Lisbon Treaty means I cannot trust their manifesto promises. I understand full well that circumstances can change and so a promise you made may not be viable or able to be fulfilled and have no real issue with that but to basically ignore a manifesto promise that could easily have been fulfilled for the sake of party politics means they have lost my vote.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Sigh, my current torry mp has twitter.

 

[bigredshark]

They problem I have with the Lib Dems is the fiasco over the Lisbon Treaty means I cannot trust their manifesto promises. I understand full well that circumstances can change and so a promise you made may not be viable or able to be fulfilled and have no real issue with that but to basically ignore a manifesto promise that could easily have been fulfilled for the sake of party politics means they have lost my vote.

Personally I'm very glad they didn't. We elect MPs for a reason - to make decisions, so I'm really not clear on the purpose of second guessing those decisions over a single treaty.

That and europe is one of the least important things I can think of when it comes to UK politics. We aren't leaving no matter who's in power and the general posturing and obsession over europe does nobody any favours.

More relevantly I'm more interested in the general outlook of the party rather than whether they keep every manifesto promise because lets face it nobody does.

 

[Naffa]

Vince Cable is beyond any shadow of a doubt the most competent man in politics today. If I may steal from Ian Hislop for a second, if I were to vote in an election of sorts, I would vote for the 'Vince Cable for treasurer party' as he's one of the very few people that I would actually want in the government. Robin Cook is another one that springs to mind...

 

[bigredshark]

Vince Cable is beyond any shadow of a doubt the most competent man in politics today. If I may steal from Ian Hislop for a second, if I were to vote in an election of sorts, I would vote for the 'Vince Cable for treasurer party' as he's one of the very few people that I would actually want in the government. Robin Cook is another one that springs to mind...

...he's a reasonable constituency MP as well, luckily enough I get to vote for him!

 

[Naffa]

...he's a reasonable constituency MP as well, luckily enough I get to vote for him!

I rather idiotically didn't consider that either... Good to hear though.

The late Robin Cook .

Yeah, it was part of the point I was making that one of the only other MPs I would want to see in government is dead. Not that I wish to dishonour his memory by speaking of him in this way, the man was incredible, this was demonstrated by his parliamentary performance regarding the Scott report. If you don't know about it, look it up, seriously impressive.

 

[Dolph]

Personally I'm very glad they didn't. We elect MPs for a reason - to make decisions, so I'm really not clear on the purpose of second guessing those decisions over a single treaty.

Of course, whether those MPs are going to make the right decision, on the right basis, for the country, is another matter.

That and europe is one of the least important things I can think of when it comes to UK politics. We aren't leaving no matter who's in power and the general posturing and obsession over europe does nobody any favours.

More relevantly I'm more interested in the general outlook of the party rather than whether they keep every manifesto promise because lets face it nobody does.

If they felt that strongly, they should not have promised the referendum in the first place. I frequently speak out about the dangers of allowing popular opinion to dictate what we do, but MPs acting as our proxy doesn't change that...

 

[JonJ678]

Labour.

The choice seems to be Brown or Cameron. The latter is far more charismatic, but the former appears better informed. Based primarily on "question time", I won't trust Cameron as far as I could throw him. Responding to reasoned arguments with personal insults while the women beside him point and jeer? **** no, I'm not voting for that.

This is not a very informed decision, as until a month or so I completely ignored politics on the basis that it was more practical to roll with whatever punches our government threw my way than to try to effect change. Still, at least I'll vote this time.

It's quite likely that I don't understand what "general election" means though, so feel free to ignore this if it's irrelevant.

 

[Raumarik]

How Vincent Cable voted on key issues since 2001.

Best politician in the house in my opinion and certainly the most trustworthy, would swap him for mine (Glasgow Central) in a heartbeat. Lucky you get to vote for him!

 

[Abraham]

I'll be voting lib dem, I do disagree with their nuclear policy, but aside from that I do agree more with their policies than any others.

 

[bigredshark]

Of course, whether those MPs are going to make the right decision, on the right basis, for the country, is another matter.

Indeed, but if we elect them at all we have to trust them to do their job. Representative not delegates at the end of the day.

If they felt that strongly, they should not have promised the referendum in the first place. I frequently speak out about the dangers of allowing popular opinion to dictate what we do, but MPs acting as our proxy doesn't change that...

They actually said they didn't support a referendum on lisbon but would on our membership of the EU. Which was an interesting move...personally I don't support a referendum on either because I don't like referendums. But if you're going to have one, EU membership is more logical - it's simple and easy to understand and might actually settle the issue (actually no, no chance of that but you can hope).

A referendum on Lisbon would have been stupid, 95% of people didn't understand the treaty so the only people voting would have been the daily mail europe=evil brigade who didn't understand it but knew it was the EU so it must be a bad thing and the few europhiles left in the UK. Turnout would have been abysmal.

 

[scorza]

One thing that's worth bearing in mind is that if Labour do win the next general election (and there is still a chance imo) then it's unlikely that Gordon Brown will last long as Labour leader. He probably would have been forced to resign this week were we not so close to a GE, and a lot of the cabinet don't seem particularly impressed with him and will fancy their chances of getting rid of him when it's not critical.

So to sum up, just disliking Gordon Brown isn't a particularly good reason for not voting Labour bizarrely enough imo

 

[Dolph]

Best politician in the house in my opinion and certainly the most trustworthy, would swap him for mine (Glasgow Central) in a heartbeat. Lucky you get to vote for him!

I don't know, he doesn't actually seem that liberal to me...

 

[bigredshark]

I'll be voting lib dem, I do disagree with their nuclear policy, but aside from that I do agree more with their policies than any others.

Somes up my feelings about the party too actually, I think we need nuclear power but I'll overlook that as I think they have a good outlook on social and economic policy overall.

 

[SlyReaper]

Labour have had their chance and have screwed it up. Three times. No more. Unfortunately, the Tories seem no better so I guess it's another vote for the Lib Dems. It's basically equivalent to not voting.

 

[bigredshark]

One thing that's worth bearing in mind is that if Labour do win the next general election (and there is still a chance imo) then it's unlikely that Gordon Brown will last long as Labour leader. He probably would have been forced to resign this week were we not so close to a GE, and a lot of the cabinet don't seem particularly impressed with him and will fancy their chances of getting rid of him when it's not critical.

So to sum up, just disliking Gordon Brown isn't a particularly good reason for not voting Labour bizarrely enough imo

I don't know, it would be very difficult to sell to the electorate so soon after an election. That and I think if he won the election my some miracle the entire party would be too busy overcoming their disbelief to get rid of him.

As it happens, labour must loose this election really - for the long term good of the labour party. Another term in power would do untold damage and they'd be out of power for 20 years like after 1979.

I see the best case as a hung parliament and maybe (hopefully) real multi party government and electoral reform in this country. The most likely being a tory win with a majority of 40-50 seats.

 

[bigredshark]

Labour have had their chance and have screwed it up. Three times. No more. Unfortunately, the Tories seem no better so I guess it's another vote for the Lib Dems. It's basically equivalent to not voting.

For this forum in particular I'm surprised by the level of lib dem support actually. General polling doesn't show them doing better than usual which disappointed me but there does seem to a be quiet level of support around for them.

 

[Glaucus]

Somes up my feelings about the party too actually, I think we need nuclear power but I'll overlook that as I think they have a good outlook on social and economic policy overall.

How can you over look that. Energy security and cost is probably one of the biggest issues to be tackled in the next decade. That should be at the top of the list.

 

[GreatAuk]

labour - I don't want Cameron running the country. (sorry to that 41.67% of you)... and I don't see lib dems getting in, so go Gordon!!! ...

...although tbh all of the parties do stuff I don't like, so if you ever see a GreatAuk party, vote for them! *

*this will never happen

edit: oops, forgot I'm not old enough to vote... that definitely needs to get sorted out, voting age to 16 imo.