Help! I’ve just looked up our local candidates and our choices are:
Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, UKIP, Mebyon Kernow (Cornish Party) and the BNP (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) If the BNP were elected locally I would definitely protest. I can’t believe they’re even allowed to exist. I looked at the local BNP website (probably not wise as it’s on my hard drive) and it’s blatantly racist. I can’t bring myself to vote Conservative having lived through Thatcher. Labour seem to be useless as well, so I’ll probably end up voting Lib Dem as usual. I’ll look into the local candidates for Labour and Tories, but I would rather have neither party in central Government!
I’ve just been doing some research and have found that my constituency not only has a Green candidate standing, we also have a Pirate Party candidate! Oh the possibilities…
Anriel - the people on a lower income pay a higher percentage of their earnings in tax. Fact. Although the income tax rate might go up *after* someone earns over ?whatever, someone earning a lot would pay the same rate up to that point. And the same VAT, same council tax rates, same car tax, TV license etc etc etc. If all these were abolished and a flat rate of 30% was introduced the rich would be up in arms! Especially if all the loopholes were closed. Frankly, I find it very distasteful to hear people who earn 100’s of 1000’s or even millions complaining about their working conditions! (don’t know how much your dh earned) I know all too many people with 3 and 4 jobs working 60-70-80 hours a week to bring home less than the national average wage to give a shit about the uber wealthy. It sounds like this was the situation your DH was in if he was earning the same as the average person working a 9-5 shift, and I can’t believe that after that you’d vote Tory who would make your situation even worse!!
Like Arwen-Tiw I couldn’t in all conscience vote on issues that were only relating to my family, and ignoring the plight of those in difficult, desperate or even just different situations. But it is tricky knowing who to vote for when I get the shifty feeling that a lot of (not all!) the main party candidates are in it for themselves/their mates. :(
A friend of mine is a labour councillor and I’ve never known anyone more committed to her local area, honest and reliable and hardworking. She considered standing as a candidate in Patricia Hewetts old seat (her constituency) but decided against as she has young children and couldn’t see it working out. Likewise, there’s no way I’d be a candidate now but maybe one day
I will have to look into each of them - at least its no longer Michael Howard as our MP. This area is staunch conservative, although Lib Dems do have a strong presence.
I will probably go Lib Dem, I really cannot bear to vote Tory, the home ed thing was swaying me a bit; but I kept thinking about how anti lone parent the tories are and the idea of being a single issue voter really, really did not sit well with me, as there are lots of issues I care about.
I think the BNP might be putting up a candidate too - I suppose to try and get those dissatisfied with immigrants we have in the area… although personally, I love it, you should see some of the weird and wonderful shops we have!
probably a stupid question, but how do you find out who your candidates are?
Our constituency was always a labour stronghold until the last elections when we turned blue. I think we are one of the only Welsh constituencies to be blue.
Having always voted labour, I believe that our Tory guy is the best man for the job. He is a local guy - a farmer I believe. He has signed a number of Bills that I have asked him to, including the breastfeeding rights one.
He gets my vote again I think.
Our local candidate has a good reputation of addressing local issues and she is a renowned thorn in the front bench backside! However disappointingly she voted in favour of the families/education bill and coupled with this and debacle over the MP’s claims, I cannot in conscience vote Labour. Equally so, I feel very uncomforatble voting Cons, after all they usually end up looking after their own and are quite happy to target the less fortunate. We also have UKIP, Resurgence and LibDem candidates… I am nonplussed about them all. I know I should vote but am fighting disillusionment and apathy at the moment.
Far too late and I am going to bed, but I will be voting Scottish Nationalist. I like what they are doing as the Scottish government, and I know the candidate and he is a good local man. xx
We have a Tory (Chris Grayling - the man who made those ill-advised comments about gay people recently!), Labour, Lib Dem, UKIP and a mad old independent who I’ve actually met and talked to and wouldn’t trust as far as I can throw him.
I’ve met Chris Grayling on a few occasions recently and he was quite helpful about the home ed issue (he’s the Shadow Home Secretary) but I have no illusions that he was doing it for me - it was for his own party’s ends and he will just as easily screw us over. I would never vote Tory because they are just not a party for working, ordinary people. I also, cannot vote for a party just because they are best for me, but equally I can’t vote labour this time because of the home ed issue, the Iraq issue and various other things I really disagree with such as ID cards. I’m reckoning on going Lib Dem. Our local Lib Dem bloke has a young family and an allotment and is heavily into Fair Trade issues locally, so I reckon he seems the best bet. He has no hope of getting in as this is the 2nd safest Tory seat in the country, apparently, but we can but try!
In an attempt to stay informed - and feeling as if some of the parties have hijacked some of the newspapers agenda - I’ve resolved to write three blog posts this week, looking at the main party manifesto’s approach to education with particular relevance to early years. I know folks, I often ask why I do this to myself, but the first blog post is ready on ‘Parent’s Guide’ , so here it is, would look forward to your comments….I’d like to say ‘enjoy’ but think that’s taking things a bit too far…
They are both good questionnaires, I was looking for something similar the other week but couldn’t find a thing Predictably, I am green, followed by lib dem then labour. Only thing is, the issues most important to me were not in the questionnaire but it came out good anyway!
I’m including this handy link to the Stop the War Coalition site, where you can find a tool to lobby all your candidates at once re: the war in Afghanistan. (CND have got a similar tool about Trident. See this link for the Stop the War tool:
hehe.
