[Closed] Anyone voting liberal as a protest?

Liberal? What’s that when it’s at home?

And while my political inclination puts me roughly between Labour and Conservative, I have to admit that the Liberals have rarely reflected my own attitudes. Which makes putting an X in a box a slightly fraught experience.

No, I’m going to conduct a six hour howlatthemoonathon as a protest. It’ll be just as effective.

Liberal? What’s that when it’s at home?

i thought it was an american political leaning hence the confusion

Not a chance.  bunch of pale blue tories.  I used to vote liberal democrat on occasion but since they propped up the tories in office they have lost my vote until they apologise for that.

And as for the prposal from Jo Swinson that there should be a statue to thatcher on the vacant 4th plinth it really shows how detached from reality they have become.

I think we could all do with a bit of sensible pragmatism in our politics right now, so maybe.

Not sure I get the hate towards them after the coalition. It's it bit like me saying I'll never vote Labour because of their unilateral nuclear disarmament policy.

Not that we are voting but I’ll vote for them ,not as a protest but because I can’t vote for anyone that is Leave.

Plus I really ****ing hate tories.

The fact they propped up the tories led to all sorts of serious damage to the country and serious monetary loss to me personally.  They need only have done a "confidence and supply" support then they would have had real power to constrain the tories.  We would sill have publicly owned mail and we would not have had the brexit referendum nor would we have had a wage freeze for healthcare workers.  they were supposed to be the only party of true principals - but they sold them all for ministerial cars and still are unable to say they made a huge blunder.  I expect them to lose more seats.  Good riddence.

I loath hypocrites more than I loath tories

I'll be voting LD. Quite keen to see the back of the current Conservative council.

Not a chance.  bunch of pale blue tories.  I used to vote liberal democrat on occasion but since they propped up the tories in office they have lost my vote until they apologise for that.

I’ll be voting LD. Quite keen to see the back of the current Conservative council.

And there in a nutshell is the irony of the current voting system. Someone of TJ's persuasion living in the wrong constituency choosing not to vote LD because they propped up the Conservatives and either not voting at all or voting green/labour and therefore helping to let in the Conservatives in in their own right.

It would be interesting to know what Clegg would do if given a second chance with hindsight in the situation he was in. It would also be interesting to rerun history and see what a pure tory government would have done in 2010 - i.e. if the LDs made a difference.

Who'll notice the "protest"? Nobody. If you want to protest, protest, if you want to vote then vote, don't piss about. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION WINKY FACE. Vote for the person with the best combination of electability and bearability, literally nothing else achieves anything.

I still reckon ballot papers should have the option to vote for “A constituent, to be selected at random”

I have no confidence in anyone awful enough to endure the machinations of local party politics.

I'll be voting Liberal Democrat.

Can't vote Labour and certainly can't vote Conservative in good conscience.

I voted Labour in the last GE purely tactically to prevent a tory majority.

But I certainly can't vote for a pro brexit party, (yes I know these are local elections).

Quite likely I'll vote for them, as it's the only chance of getting the useless Tory council out of power where I live.

I quite like the LDs in their own right. Having come from Canada, where you generally have 3 functional parties, coalitions are more common, and it sometimes means that one you like has to make compromises.

I don’t hold what Clegg did against him or against the LDs.

Not that any of this is relevant to those of us in Wales, mind...

Convert - tactically to get rid of a tory council?  I might just hold my nose and vote for them.  Fortunately neither the tories nor the lib dems get much in the way of votes in my area and also we have a proportional system here for electing councils.  Multi member constituencies

It would be interesting to know what Clegg would do if given a second chance

Thing is the Liberal Democrats held back a lot of tory crap whilst in a minority coalition, (any one remember clegg getting peddled out to deliver any negative news whilst Cameron would deliver anything remotely positive?) the tories have since reversed a lot, and they are running wild, and the Liberal Democrats had to make some serious concessions to keep them in check to some degree, and they are demonised for that till this very day.

You have to ask who are the worst party in the coalition equation.

And while my political inclination puts me roughly between Labour and Conservative, I have to admit that the Liberals have rarely reflected my own attitudes.

I see myself firmly on the left yet they very often do reflect my attitudes - remainer, voting reform, some green issues etc...

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Mattyfez wrote,

"Thing is the Liberal Democrats held back a lot of tory crap whilst in coalition"

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For me they don't get any credit for "holding back some of the tory crap" because the liberals were the only reason there could be any tory crap at all. It's like opening a gate then expecting congratulations because you stopped 10% of the sheep from escaping through it.

Really? When was the last time there was a party with any influence in office that wasn't the same old tired fluctuation between labour and Conservative?

The fact they propped up the tories led to all sorts of serious damage to the country and serious monetary loss to me personally.

Well we’ll never know how bad it could have  been for the country or you personally if there had been a Tory minority government.  There wouldn’t have been any extra cash, in fact the markets don’t like uncertainty so there may have been less.

 they were supposed to be the only party of true principals – but they sold them all for ministerial cars and still are unable to say they made

or did they sell it all out for the hope that the AV vote would bring them increased leverage in the future?

however I assume the OP was referring to some local council elections.  It always strikes me as odd that people would allow Westminster behaviour to lead their decisions for local council elections.  Actually what you want at local level is intelligence and backbone - that comes down to the individual not the colour of their rosette.

Voting Lib Dem as a protest is like throwing your shoes at the sky to protest against clouds

I voted for the orange team as my son calls them in our local election a few weeks ago as they were the only team who could beat the blues. My son wanted me to vote green like I usually do but I really wanted the blues to lose...and they did!

Poly - the point is if the LDs had only done a supply and confidence deal the tories would not have been able to get many of the bills they did get thru parliament and its very likely we would have had another election

Anyone not voting Labour due to them introducing tuition fees is 97?

Vote for what they propose and what they offer you not historic mistakes.

vote for what they propose and what they offer you not historic mistakes.

Exactly.  Makes me laugh when tories challenge Corbyn on what the labour party did in 2004.  It had nothing to do with him or what he is proposing (fair chance he voted against whatever they were doing most of the time anyway!)

Why use Liberals as a “protest vote”?

Clearly you’ll vote either Contard or Labtard, so off you go and do that.

Then you’ll moan about the current state of political areswipes, and proclaim “it’s not my fault”

Definitely not.

Whoevers in power you'd all moan about them for some reason.

If we are damning the libs for the coalition,how can anyone vote labour due to Blair or conservative due to all of them.

Vote for a better future not the past.

Whoevers in power you’d all moan about them for some reason.

That's simply because you can only vote for the party that overall best matches your beliefs in how the country should run.

If you are very lucky they will match about 80% which still leaves 20% to be unhappy with.  The only solution for 100% happiness is to become a dictator but as there can only be one at a time that seems a little unfair.

I'll be voting Lib Dem because I cannot support a party that will allow Brexit to go ahead. I'm Corbynista normally, but just can't vote Labour while Brexit's hanging around stinking the place up.

I have this weird way of voting that nobody else seems to do.

I read the manifestos of the parties at national and local level. Then I vote for the one who best aligns to my own beliefs as they currently are.

Revolutionary, eh?  This time round is was Lib Dem.

I think we could all do with a bit of sensible pragmatism in our politics right now

I think we could do with dismantling our political system and starting again.

I have this weird way of voting that nobody else seems to do.

I read the manifestos of the parties at national and local level. Then I vote for the one who best aligns to my own beliefs as they currently are.

Mental.

Do Labour in England and Wales encourage their voters to vote for the Tories, and vice versa to block out the Lib Dems?

Yep.

Labour have a nasty hard left element coming to the fore & likewise the Tories have an equally iffy hard right.

I feel I've no other choice & TBH it sits far better than contemplating either of the above for the foreseeable future!

To echo an earlier post - go ahead & damn the Libs for the coalition if you like but isn't it faintly hypocritical not to damn Labour for Bliar? One of the most odious leaders of the modern era - a liar & a profiteer are some of the nicest things I can find to say about him....

I can vote LibDem, or I can watch from the top of my nice shiny ivory tower, riding around the ballustrades on my high horse, as the Conservatives sweep to power.

Not a chance.  bunch of pale blue tories.  I used to vote liberal democrat on occasion but since they propped up the tories in office they have lost my vote until they apologise for that.

What a bunch of nasty tory-loving snowflakes:  https://www.indy100.com/article/7-laws-the-lib-dems-stopped-the-tories-from-passing--gkKwqOshgb

For me they don’t get any credit for “holding back some of the tory crap” because the liberals were the only reason there could be any tory crap at all. It’s like opening a gate then expecting congratulations because you stopped 10% of the sheep from escaping through it.

Turning that on its head, they did something to stem the tide; something the DUP is unlikely to do unless it benefits their aims in NI. We do have a coalition government at the moment too.

I read the manifestos of the parties at national and local level. Then I vote for the one who best aligns to my own beliefs as they currently are.

It'll never catch on.

I voted LD last time round as a tactical vote against the Tories (I live in a Tory stronghold). Complete waste of time.

That said, at the moment they are the party that most closely aligns with my beliefs on the big issues. Pro European, Anti-Brexit, pro Proportional Representation, pro enterprise / business /innovation, pro green issues and very strong locally at council level.

Can't vote for Corbyn because of his stance on the EU / Brexit.

Can't vote Tory. Obviously.

The lib dems didn't have to go into a coalition with the tories. Labour offered them the chance to form one with them which was declined. So I don't buy the whole 'holding back some of the tory crap" stuff either.

I have voted for the only candidate to happen to live in the area i live, happens to be Lib Dem.

The lib dems didn’t have to go into a coalition with the tories. Labour offered them the chance to form one with them which was declined. So I don’t buy the whole ‘holding back some of the tory crap” stuff either.

No chance that Clegg sincerely interpreted the voice of the people as a voice calling for change after more than a decade of New Labour rule, then?

I was so glad he did what he did at the time. Not because I wanted Cameron's crew, but because I believed - and continue to believe - that every governing party needs a shake-up after two terms or more in office. Arrogance sets in otherwise, and however much I may not mind Gordon Brown as a person, I think his party had become somewhat arrogant.

No chance that Clegg sincerely interpreted the voice of the people as a voice calling for change after more than a decade of New Labour rule, then?

The voice of the people didn't say that. It simply (through the mangle of opinion that FPTP is) said it didn't want a labour majority.

Yep, I will.  Hate the Tories, don't trust Labour any more and as others have said, they are the only properly anti-Brexit lot.

Good to see some intelligent decisions being made on this thread.

TJ: Poly – the point is if the LDs had only done a supply and confidence deal the tories would not have been able to get many of the bills they did get thru parliament and its very likely we would have had another election

OK, but you can imagine the narrative would then be: "the Lib Dems have forced you to have another election", "the Lib Dems blocked the largest party from passing key bills", "the Lib Dems are doing this to force you to stay in the EU!", "the Lib Dems only got a tiny number of seats but weald an unreasonable amount of power", "if you don't want a Labour Gov / Ed Miliband as PM - you have to vote Tory, you can't trust the Lib Dems to go with the majority.  Bearing in mind that the media not the parties influence the swing vote, the outcome could have been manipulated to give an outcome even worse than five years of Lib-Con.

All the while, the markets are going jittery with the uncertainty, the UK's credit rating falls and the cost of borrowing rises.  And whilst nobody is in control the juggernaut careers on, either burning money it doesn't have or an emergency budget has implemented changes way worse than you go.

Its very easy to imagine how a scenario could have developed differently, but its impossible to have any confidence on the actual end situation.  I'm pretty sure whoever was in charge, Nurse's (especially those who are also landlords!) would not be sitting here today saying, "I'm glad it panned out like that, not only is the country in a great place but I'm financially better off than I could have been if there was a Lib-Con coalition".  Its like trying to imagine what the UK or Scottish Economy would be like if either of the referenda had gone the other way.  Indeed if I was wanting to dwell on what if's - it would be interesting to ponder what the political landscape, and therefore the potential for Brexit votes, the economy etc would be if the AV Vote had gone differently.

If you're really feeling disenchanted, please consider protesting with a capital P. Organise, march, picket.

Your ridiculous notion of a protest vote is as potent as crying into your pillow

Its very easy to imagine how a scenario could have developed differently, but its impossible to have any confidence on the actual end situation.

Taking a holistic view, I'd gently suggest that the scenario of ungovernable quagmire without brexit i.e a scenario with NOM in which a coalition wasn't formed in 2010 would still be distinctly better than the apparent strong, stable, brexiting quagmire we're blessed with currently.

Can’t vote for Corbyn because of his stance on the EU / Brexit.

Can’t vote Tory. Obviously.

Aye.  This pretty much sums it up for me too.

I have this weird way of voting that nobody else seems to do.

I read the manifestos of the parties at national and local level. Then I vote for the one who best aligns to my own beliefs as they currently are.

Revolutionary, eh?

Odd, i do this too and find it astonishing that very few others do.

In answer to the OP, I'll be voting LD, not as a protest but as I think their policies are better than the rest of them. plus Brexit of course.

For the local elections, I dont really care, whoever will get the potholes fixed & blocks new social housing. Obviously not labour though.

I have this weird way of voting that nobody else seems to do.

I read the manifestos of the parties at national and local level. Then I vote for the one who best aligns to my own beliefs as they currently are.

Revolutionary, eh?

I took the additional step of joining that party, actively taking part in the local running of the party, and standing for election.

We have all-out Council elections every four years, so none here this time around.

In our local elections last year the tories promised to fix the roads. They didn't.

Plus it's always been a tory council , what was stopping them mending them I have no idea.

It's probably that they are a bunch of ****s.

fifo - Taking a holistic view, I’d gently suggest that the scenario of ungovernable quagmire without brexit i.e a scenario with NOM in which a coalition wasn’t formed in 2010 would still be distinctly better than the apparent strong, stable, brexiting quagmire we’re blessed with currently.

Yes but blaming the only party with a clear and consistent pro-EU message for Brexit seems far fetched.

I'll be voting labour.

1) My tory MP is John Redwood, so as a former resident of Wales I have to hate him.

2) My local councilor came round moaning about how wokingham  the most underfunded council in the country.  It's not, it's one of the richest boroughs in the country, if there's a lack of funding it's because we don't have the problems that properly underfunded boroughs have.  And I'm confident in hypothesising it makes up for it with council tax receipts given the average house price!

3) In the same paragraph he was very proud of how they'd had to cut services but maintained the important stuff, apparently we're one of the few boroughs still with weekly bin collections.

4) You could actually see him back away when he asked what I did and I told him I'd just lost my job as a result of Brexit.

He had absolutely no interest in meeting the needs of those that needed help, only in maintaining the nice middle-class-ness of Wokingham.

Our labour candidate came round for a chat about local services, speed limits in villages etc. I think he might actually have a chance as the week after his visit the tory councilors massively ramped up their leafleting telling everyone how they were actually going to protect local services and reduce the speed limits etc. I sincerely hope they get a gook kicking in the polls, if ever there was a definitive complacent tory council it's Wokingham!

If my constituency were voting (which it isn't!) I would be voting Liberal .... and not as a protest vote. I would vote Liberal as they have the best candidate and policies for our area.

This liberal bashing is quite simply pathetic. All parties make mistakes and on balance coalition was a relatively good government. That not to say they didn't make some howling mistakes. How much are we to blame for squandering the opportunity of AV which would have led to more representative governance?

Politics is polarised at the moment which is just not healthy, it invites a winner takes all attitude (i.e. Brexit). I don't believe that the Conservatives or Labour are fit to govern at the moment. If anything I am dissapointed that the Liberals have failed to seize the center ground. Many people may have complained that in the past their was little difference between the Tories and Labour; the reality is that this is healthy in a first past the post system. Its a symptom that government is governing for the country and not the narrow interests of their party members!

I really don't like the political situation where we have a hard left Labour party with an autocratic leader that wishes to turn back the clock to failed socialist politics and a hard right Tory party that want's to shut our borders and turn back the clock in a different way. Maybe we do need a new party - one that is forward thinking and looking. The only thing is ...we would need an electorate brave enough to take a risk.

I’ll be voting labour.

1) My tory MP is John Redwood, so as a former resident of Wales I have to hate him.

That's all the justification required!

Can’t vote for Corbyn because of his stance on the EU / Brexit.

Pretty much this too. I actually admire the man's ethics and persistence incredibly, but couldn't bring myself to vote for him on the above issue alone.

100% agree

If you vote for labour all the Leavers pounce on that as you actively  voting for the hardest brexit possible and whatever shit those tory ****s can dream up.

Is Corbyn standing in the local elections? Local elections are one place where voting actually does make a difference and smaller parties can get a few wins. Seems and odd place to protest vote or tactical vote. We have several greens here, largely because people vote for what they want. It took a little while to get traction but now the greens regularly get a good return, as do the lib dems, the tories not so much.

These are council elections so I put aside the main party politics. Not that I have an issue with LD like many still do over the "broken promise" of tuition fees, which was impossible to keep in a coalition with the tories anyway. Stupid thing to get upset about and let bucket loads of Tory muppets in instead.

Anyway, local council is corrupt Tory who support the bonkers unelected chief exec idiot that has fingers in every wasteful development pie, wrecking the town centre and wants to make the town like Singapore with skyscrapers (yes, he actually compares Woking to Singapore!) which he wants to be visible from the Shard (huh?). Need to get rid and without Tory backing there may be more of a chance. Labour have zero chance here, and I'm no socialist anyway. LD it is.

Makes no difference probably in strong Tory blue area, but I want to vote in this one as we've got the experimental ID thing to deal with voting fraud, which was an issue in Woking.

I voted Conservative in a Labour/Lib Dem stronghold to protest does that count ?  🙂

The last general election I voted tactically for a lib dem to get the SNP candidate out. On the basis it was a SNP /lib Dems marginal and  I didn't want another indyref.

Job done. One fewer SNP MP. Obviously another bunch of local voters had similar thoughts.

With FPTP it isn't always best to vote  for your preferred candidate.

"I’ll be voting LD, not as a protest but as I think their policies are better than the rest of them. plus Brexit of course."

+1

Plus our current county councillor is LD and she works her little socks off.

How much are we to blame for squandering the opportunity of AV which would have led to more representative governance?

This^^^^^ and was the only reason I've ever voted LD. The end of FPTP would be a stepping stone IMO and could enable some of the change people claim to want, whatever side of the divide you associate yourself with!

TBH I’ll vote for anyone who’ll get rid of the Albanian Gypsies plaguing the local town.

Voted LD is the last general election - partly on their policies and partly to ensure that the SNP didn't get in again - Edinburgh West.  Job done.

Can't bring myself to vote for loons off to the left and right of our politics, so it pains me how ineffective the LD are in the centre ground.

And locally they are superb, doing far more than any other party.

And I don't blame Clegg for going into coalition - seeing the Tories governing on their own makes me think they did as good a job as they could have done.

I do have a lot of sympathy with anyone who intends to vote Lib Dem right now.

The lib dems didn'ty even get a p0roiper vote on proportional representation.  AV is a poor system adn Cameron broke his promise on it.  That set the tone.  The li8b dems showed they had no backbone and Clegg saying they were in it for the fulol fi8ve years handed over any p-ower they might have had.  the lib dems got no significant policies thru sand instead pushed thru Tories policies that were not even in the manifesto like selling off the post office.

the lib dems have simply turned into pale tories and sold all their principles.  When your USP is that you have principles and you sell those principles then yo have nothing left.

Yes all parties make mistakes - but being able to own up to them and admit you were wrong is a key nthing.  the lib dems refuse to do this althjough every lib dem activist I know ( and I know a few) now accept coalition was a massive mistake

KM - there was no possibility of a coaltion with labour. the arithmetic did not support it.  They should have ddone supply and confidence - that way thay would have retained a lot ofpower and would not have ended up as tory poodles.

As for Clegg - he is a tory in the wrong party.l  He single-handedly killed the party  He is no liberal - he is a moderate tory

Well, us in NI dont have a council vote this year can't even can't vote LD (or labour for that matter) anyway... but if I could it'd be LD.

All of these comments about them getting nothing and pushing through tory policies clearly haven't looked into the work they did in their departments and stuff like the triple lock pensions were LD policies. But I guess you dont get that detail when all you do is read a politically motivated tweet.

They are the only middle ground party in parliament at the minute and have never played the "political idiology over the facts" hand. They have the right approach to brexit (and in NI thats what people are crapping themselves over) and have a lot of common sense policies. But **** that, they raised tuition fees.

Sooner or later voters will have to take responsibility for how they cast their vote. Love how the UK is right now? Vote con and lab. Want somecommon sense? Vote LD

I voted leave as a protest vote. That ended well.

Odd logic from a few people here who like most of Corbyn's policies and approach but because of Brexit stance won't vote for him.  You know the Lib Dems have absolutely zero chance of getting elected so why throw away a vote for a party that have a chance of winning and would do a lot of things you like?

I don't want Brexit either but no party that has a chance of a win is going to reverse it.

Because both main parties are desperately trting to work out what the electorate actually wants and a swing to the Lib Dems in the locals will be clearly be a sign of growing anti-Brexit sentiment.

This will hugely increase pressure on the Tory and Labour leaderships to either pursue  a sane/soft Brexit or to support a final say referendum on the deal.

Labours members, voters and MP's are already overwhelmingly Pro-EU, if the leadership start to see that thier current policy vagueness and always being one notch less Brexity than the Conservatives is no longer working for them they will have to move.

Odd logic from a few people here who like most of Corbyn’s policies and approach but because of Brexit stance won’t vote for him.  You know the Lib Dems have absolutely zero chance of getting elected so why throw away a vote for a party that have a chance of winning and would do a lot of things you like?

It's just too big a deal, my conscience won't let me vote Labour, even if the Lib Dems don't have a chance, at least I'll be able to sleep at night. And yeah, if they get a surprise swing, who knows how that might shape things going forward?

Odd logic from a few people here who like most of Corbyn’s policies and approach but because of Brexit stance won’t vote for him.  You know the Lib Dems have absolutely zero chance of getting elected so why throw away a vote for a party that have a chance of winning and would do a lot of things you like?

You do realise that this is a local election?  This is about whether your bins get emptied once a week or they spend that money on education, or social work etc.  Its nothing to do with Corbyn's policies really, and the "approach" at local level is often very different (for better or worse) than national level.  At local election level the Lib Dems often do OK - in fact I think a recent headline was tipping them to gain 100 seats.

You do realise that this is a local election?

Yup, but it's also long been an opportunity to show the current government just what you think of them and it's very  much seen as such within Westminster.

If the Tories do well it will be loudly proclaimed as a vindication of Mrs May's current course, if they do badly the press release will be that it 'was all about local issues' and of course nothing to do with the natrional picture but the message will have got through internally.

A poor showing at a local level has historically been a very good indicator that a party's heading for a bruising at the next GE, The Lib Dems losing over 300 Councillors in 2014 was a harbinger of the near wipe-out they suffered at the 2015 GE.

You do realise that this is a local election?

Yes and the number crunchers will still extrapolate the figures and come up with a 'if this were a general election' type projection.

A dam good kicking for the tories could help concentrate minds if they see their meal tickets in danger.