Who do we vote for in the May general election and who do we not vote for?

[Pondlife]

The LDs, on the other hand, made very recent promises on the topic, which they failed to deliver upon.

The conservatives promised to get rid of IR35, but that was in 2005… the lying Berks

Early day motion 973 - IR35 - UK Parliament

"That this House notes with concern the Government's implementation of IR35; further notes that the 1.4 million freelancers in the United Kingdom face a perpetual threat of a costly and distressing HM Revenue and Customs investigation under IR35; further notes that IR35 obliges freelancers to spend time and money assessing their status as best they can, with contract reviews, tax investigation insurances and negotiations with clients and agencies, and that this effort would be better spent generating wealth for the UK economy; highlights concerns expressed by the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) that almost all cases known to PCG have resulted in no extra tax being owed; further notes that there is no evidence that IR35 is raising any money for the Exchequer; and calls on the Treasury, in light of the current economic difficulties, to remove unnecessary barriers to enterprise and to abolish IR35 at the earliest opportunity."


Sigs
Conservatives : 2
Indy : 1
Labour : 9
Lib Dem : 19
Scottish : 3

Draw from that what you will.

AFAIcantell

Seats at the time
Cons: 210
Lab: 349
LD: 62

[NickyBoy]

It depends where you live.

Where I currently live there is no point voting Labour or UKIP as they don't stand a chance in hell of getting elected. There as I've lived in areas as long as the candidate wore the appropriate ribbon they would get elected to stand for Labour or the Tories.

If you live in a marginal then your vote does count more as it can change the shape of the country but most seats aren't multi-party margins like Brighton.

I disagree.

As you can see by the way the tory party started taking on more of a 'UKIP' slant long before UKIP had a shot of having a single MP, voting for a loosing party has a point.

When parties look at ways of expanding their support or preventing a haemorrhage of existing supporters they often pick up some of the policies of secondary parties.

If a party is offering specific support for contractors then voting for them, even if they can't win, increases the likelihood of the party who wins the election after next having absorbed that policy as their own.

If you agree with UKIP then vote UKIP. If you agree with the Greens then vote greens. If you agree with some independent that doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell of winning then vote for them. If you think all the politicians are useless then spoil your voter card with the picture of a penis and a little message about why you are not voting. Whatever you do make sure your vote actually represents your view, even if it's not the majority view of your constituency. It's critical that you do this for a democracy to function correctly.

Voting for a party you don't agree with just so you can say you supported the side that won, is not winning.

[TheFaQQer]

I don't think you can hold every party to a promise made 10+ years earlier, especially when there have been two electoral cycles in between. Tony Blair wasn't held to the promises that Neil Kinnock made in the late 80s

It depends on how important those promises are to you.

For example, Labour said "we have no plans to introduce tuition fees, and have taken steps to legislate to prevent their introduction" just before introducing them; the Lib Dem candidates all signed a personal pledge to vote against the raising of tuition fees and then the majority of them voted in favour of raising them, on the flimsy defence of "that only applied if we'd won a majority"

It also depends on how much the party has changed - there were vast differences between Labour and New Labour, whereas the differences in who is around in the party between the last raft of broken promises and this current round are negligible.

My MP can't even stick to his promise of "I'll only do one term", FFS.

[TheFaQQer]

Something has gone badly wrong with this country and it happened under Blair, Brown , Balls and Millipede

I don't care who gets in, so long as it's not any of those incompetents

It's unlikely to be Blair or Brown.

[eek]

It's unlikely to be Blair or Brown.

but it will be balls and the more inept millipede. (I rather liked his brother on the two occasions I met him, the remaining one is however utterly inept)..

[DimPrawn]

True but after the tories promised to repeal IR35 I can't stomach voting for them

WHS - Plus even more work permits issued, illusionary economy based on piling funny money and taxpayer money into house prices to give a Tory "feel good" to win the election. Weak against Europe, the Tories are appalling.

[psychocandy]

Sadly, despite being born and bred in a part of the country (south wales valleys) where a three-legged donkey would win if you pinned a labour badge on it, its got to be Conservative for me.

Also, feel like Im betraying my background a little being from a mining family too (who were treated badly by the conservatives 100 years ago).

BUT, being from a tulipty background (crap school etc) as I've got older, I've got less and less patience with people who sit on their backside all day and won't work. Especially those who moan its their background and there are no jobs around here.

Im all for benefits etc having claimed myself as you all know but its a safety net and not a lifestyle choice IMHO. Its sickening to know that you can pay £1000s per year in tax then only get £72 a week, when there are millions who do quite well out of it and choose to remain as they are and have never worked (or intend to).

I see Labour as continuing to reward these people for staying the same, with the Tories at least making an attempt to reward those who try to better themselves.

[TykeMerc]

It's no mystery that it's a matter of voting for the bunch we feel will do the least damage rather than do the most good.
That is assuming you live in an area where a vote means anything and has a realistic chance of causing a change. In many areas where there are monumental majorities voting is a fairly pointless exercise.

I just wonder what sort of coalition will be arrived at as I doubt an absolute majority is on the cards.

[VectraMan]

Contractors are the low-hanging fruit. The tax avoiders. We'll be screwed under Labour and TBH probs the Tories too who have to be seen to be "fair".

The public at large are angry about tax avoidance/evasion (not that they understand the difference), and there's votes in promising to crack down on that. No party is going to back you tax avoiders; it's not really a party political issue. If you're counting on tax avoidance then you're screwed either way. You should all be thanking Labour for doing such a half-arsed job on IR35; someone else might have done it properly.

[lilelvis2000]

I took the missus into Bolton on Saturday, first time for 5 years.
The place is filthy, litter strewn, pot holes in the roads and hardly an English voice to be heard. It is chav central and I am guessing a lot of English towns are like this

Something has gone badly wrong with this country and it happened under Blair, Brown , Balls and Millipede

I don't care who gets in, so long as it's not any of those incompetents

I haven't been there in 10 years and I only live 10 miles up the road. With the Trafford Centre only a short hop away the town centre was in the dumps ages ago. The town makes an excellent shortcut from my home to the airport...that's about all it has going for it.

Northern town have been hit hard. Accrington is not seeing any signs of any improvement at all. Recently the M&S decided to close up shop even though that shop makes a profit. The Arndale is half empty and half of what's in are charity or council shops. I'd say that small places like that will be left behind. Commerical properties are nearly worthless as there are no businesses to put in them.

The Tories are not in the habit of spreading the wealth so that's Accy, Nelson, Colne, Darwen down the tubes.