How to I decide who to vote for?

Stretch said:
You can see why that's not posible though right?
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I can, hence why the next alternative has to be strong constitutional protection for citizens from populist laws and evidence free policy making. We can't eliminate the stupidity of the electorate, but we can mitigate the damage they can do.
 
Dolph said:
I can, hence why the next alternative has to be strong constitutional protection for citizens from populist laws and evidence free policy making. We can't eliminate the stupidity of the electorate, but we can mitigate the damage they can do.
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The trouble is to create a strong constitution you need a mandate from a political party elected under the current system, or worse a referendum.
 
Give him a break. If you don't know something, you don't know. Is he supposed to just pluck information like that out of the aether? Perhaps I should mock anyone who doesn't know what a Calabi-Yau manifold is.
 
SlyReaper said:
Give him a break. If you don't know something, you don't know. Is he supposed to just pluck information like that out of the aether? Perhaps I should mock anyone who doesn't know what a Calabi-Yau manifold is.
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I think this is more comparable to thinking you boss is a woman, when in fact you're unemployed.
 
I personally see it as a dereliction of duty to not know about how your country is run. Are you that ignorant that you never watch the news or read a paper?
I'll bet you have stood in a pub at some point bitching about getting taxed too much, intrusive CCTV surveillance, no road grit, student loans, Iraq war etc, etc...
As far as I'm concerned, you have no right to complain about the state of affairs if you don't vote. A full grown man (not a kid) not knowing anything about his own country's politics is no laughing matter, it's pretty disgraceful!
 
Rich_L said:
Whether it is useless or not depends entirely on your constituency - if you happen to reside in one of the close-fought marginals, your vote in the current circumstances is actually quite important.

If you're in one of the terribly one-sided constituencies, it is pretty much worthless.

That said - if half of the non-voters who thought voting was 'hopeless' came out and voted in the 'one-sided' constituencies, I suspect there would be a lot more marginal constituencies out there.

So it's worth voting - even if your chosen candidate doesn't win, because in a future election it might make your constituency seem less hopeless, and therefore prompt more people to vote, and increase the chances of your chosen candidate/party winning in the future. :)
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This should be graffiti slogans everywhere so many people can catch a wake up
 
Rich_L said:
Whether it is useless or not depends entirely on your constituency - if you happen to reside in one of the close-fought marginals, your vote in the current circumstances is actually quite important.

If you're in one of the terribly one-sided constituencies, it is pretty much worthless.

That said - if half of the non-voters who thought voting was 'hopeless' came out and voted in the 'one-sided' constituencies, I suspect there would be a lot more marginal constituencies out there.

So it's worth voting - even if your chosen candidate doesn't win, because in a future election it might make your constituency seem less hopeless, and therefore prompt more people to vote, and increase the chances of your chosen candidate/party winning in the future. :)
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Very one sided constituency and I'm gonna vote for the guy who will end up in third place, it's been the same party since world war 2. I'm gonna vote, just feel it's useless.

I'm not sure what the best system is because there are negatives with proportional representation but this first past the post system just isn't fair.
 
Well to look at the positive here, at least he's asking questions. How many people vote the way they do without ever looking into the issues or policies of the party they're voting for? Where I live has always been a traditional Labour stronghold, and I can't help but think that it will always remain so (despite our glorious Labour MP Derek Twigg being a complete sellout and Judas to his own constituents, but I digress) simply because they've "always voted Labour, and always will." My gran, and a lot of her friends are of that mindset, habitual voting and sleepwalking us off an economic cliff.
 
Just don't let other people influence your vote. Just because all you're mates are voting for party x doesn't mean you should to. Vote for who you think will best protect your interests.
 
msm722 said:
I don't follow politics, so I don't think I'm in a good position to make an educated vote. So how should I go about deciding who gets my vote? One thing I keep hearing is that labour are morons, so I guess that means I have to decide between Tories and Conservatives? Help?
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It depends on what you want to achieve. Do you want to vote for the party you best feel reflects your stance and beliefs? If so, then you need to read their manifestos to find what suits you best, bearing in mind of course that what parties put in their manifestos does not always bear fruit. You then need to do a bit of reading and have a look at their track records, again to see what they do and how they handle power.

If however you wish to vote tactically - ie vote for a party, not because you believe what they stand for, but because in doing so you help them to win a seat thereby ousting another party from power, then you need to do a little more research. You need to find out which parties are in power in your area, who your MP is, and what the swing vote is likely to be.

You have the option also to not turn up, which I do not agree with.

If you do some research, and feel that no party upholds your beliefs, and you don't wish to vote tactically, then you can abstain. In a perfect world, everyone who "can't be bothered" with politics would vote accordingly, and we would be able to show the politicians that we're not happy. But that will never happen.
 
The whole point of this thread is because I want to make an informed vote, which seems to be what a lot of people think is best.
 
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