how can i vote in the next election

For me, the NHS policy of any party is a key issue and likely to be an indicator of whether they have the best interests of all their fellow citizens at heart.
Fortunately, for those of in Scotland, our government does have the NHS at heart and is fighting to keep it free at the point of need.

Where I live is a safe Tory seat, I have voted for and campaigned at every election for Labour . Only the tories, libs and Labour stand here. I did think I would vote for the Libs this time but sorry varian has put me off voting for them. So I will not vote.

And again I am disappointed to find so many TERF-like comments on Gransnet.

It can't be a surprise that there are ppl on GN who think that being female should remain a characteristic that is protected from discrimination.

Well if you can' make your own mind up consider voting for the party who has the NHS a heart.

So you're saying obstain? Cause thats none of them

Well if you can' make your own mind up consider voting for the party who has the NHS a heart.

Although I have been as dismayed as most with how the Tory MPs have behaved recently, surely nobody in their right mind would think that this country would be safe under Corbyn?

He holds Venezuela up as a country and economy to aspire to for God's sake!

If I feel unable to support any of the parties, I would just spoil my ballot paper. At least then I have exercised my right to vote that the likes of Emily Pankhurst fought so hard for us ladies.

I will vote Labour, the only party that has a chance of beating this ghastly government. And again I am disappointed to find so many TERF-like comments on Gransnet.

Lib Dems are, in my eyes, the only people who've had any integrity over the Brexit stupidity. I will never vote Conservative again after the damage Cameron has done. Not voting is not an option, given the sacrifices made for the women's vote.

Someone upthread says that labour gather the debts and the tories try to pay them off too quickly....can I just inform her that THIS Tory government has borrowed MORE money in this term of office than ALL Labour governments EVER .They inherited 800billion ,its now sitting around 1.7 trillion...how is that being fiscally efficient or even capable ?
I am not a labour supporter but credit where its due .The tories have been the worst government in history

Folks died in order that we now have secret franchise and I feel it is beholden to them that continue to vote. I will always register my vote by going to the polling station, but will probably write "None of the above" on the form.
The art of politics is compromise and in what is now effectively a two party system, we don't get compromise as both are hell bent on their own agendas.

Castafiore. Thanks. It's great to hear someone talk about facts. We need to listen properly and look at what people actually stand for. Good for you.

Perhaps we should all just vote for the party that we think will do least harm?

Precisely. And thats not labour.
IF I vote it will be for the best of a bad bunch. The lesser evil. Not for a party I am enthusiastic about!

petunia. I suspect you may be the voice of the majority. It is a massive dilemma. It doesn't help when people say "You get the MPs you deserve" either!

I shall have to vote to get my present extremely unbalanced and untrustworthy incumbent out, more than to get the other person in, which really isn't ideal.

Wilma65. I understand how you feel because I am also in an ultrasafe Tory seat but numbers do matter and sometimes seats have swung to the other side slowly over time.
We did reduce the Tory majority in my constituency by 3000 last time which in this area (most of which is wealthy) is quite a change.
I am convinced that I have the laziest MP in Parliament, he votes with the government 100% of the time, is a third generation Tory minister so walked into a safe seat, is wealthy and married to a Countess etc. He has never reached above junior minister which, considering unquestioning loyalty to the PM, can only be because he is useless. He has been in the press twice, once for complaining that undergraduates were too lazy to take menial jobs (this from a man who has never had to apply for a job that he didn't know he was going to get) and to object to tax relief being removed from the Plymouth Brethren (we are nowhere near Plymouth but he was Minister for Charities at the time).
These are obviously issues of much more pressing importance that the rise of food banks, homelessness etc.
They really could stick a blue rosette on a pig here and it would be voted in.

Isn't it depressing? I would not vote for Jeremy Corbyn and his undemocratic and frightening bunch of leftist bullies under threat of torture, and as for the other contenders....where are there any politicians of stature, any statesmen or women who can be dignified and respected representatives on the world stage? Perhaps we just thought that the politicians of the past had more integrity because every part of their lives was not exposed by the media for close scrutiny, ridicule and comment. My Father, a strong labour supporter all his life, was horrified to read in his later years that Harold Wilson's ministerial car would drop off and collect his two sons who were at at private school; this from a party who fought to destroy grammar schools. Perhaps politicians have always been a useless bunch of self seeking patronising sharks - and we were better off not knowing!!

JC wouldn't know which way to vote if he was pressed for a second referendum--------so what does that tell us ? He literally doesn't know how he'd vote.
Where's the confidence of his voters in him being a future leader ?

Perhaps we should all just vote for the party that we think will do least harm?

Not a pleasant thought, but are there better options? I can't see them.

Try to look at each manifesto - do not read or believe anything in any of the newspapers - most of them are owned by moguls who, for a start are terrified of Jeremy Corbyn getting into power, as he has stated he would be looking into their conglomerates. That is why they have conducted one of the most disgusting and virulent campaigns against him since he became LP leader
As a Jewish woman and member of the LP I can only say that I have NEVER experienced anything in the LP in any way remotely resembling anti-semitism. Many of us are against the extreme right wing government at present in Israel - does not make us either anti- Israel or anti-semitic.
The Tories have been continually dismantling the NHS, that is essential to save before it is too late. We have more poverty, homelessness and real poverty in UK in past few years than for a very long time. Nobody who at all cares about other people and the future for our children and g.children can really vote for the Tories.
no brainer to me as to how to vote, even though I do not agree with all that JC has done and am very disappointed that he is not supporting a second referendum

If there is a second Brexit referendum (or "peoples vote") will we be entitled, at the next GE to ask for a revote if we don't like the result of the first?

Castafiore spabbygirl I was less than impressed when JC was elected leader but went to remain rally to see my mates and was gobsmacked by him, in person. A much more personable individual than he comes across as on (no doubt carefully selected) tv clips. I agree, voters should not look at the party of the candidate but at what they are undertaking to do for the country - then look at the evidence. The NHS will (sort of) continue to exist under the Tories but they have successfully pulled the financial rug from under the, mostly, dedicated professionals and the care they provide, for decades. We have been paying for the reckless bankers with the austerity measures for the last 10 years - do you want to pay for Brexit for the next 10?

Read about each party on their own website, ignoring what is said by newspapers and tv, they are all pretty much one sided. But if you don't agree with any of them, don't vote - that's a statement in itself.

Brexit has certainly split the main parties so that it has become difficult for 'natural' left or right wingers to put their 'X' in the usual place.

I feel that the Conservative party does not espouse core values any more and it becoming more centralist, authoritarian and nannying by the day. In addition to this, it is piling on stealth taxes and supporting a Brexit deal which defies the voters' intentions to leave the EU and its federalising instincts. May's deal is the worst of all worlds:- out of the EU so we have no input but with all of the strings attached which people voted 'out' to get rid of.

From my point of view, if I wanted to vote Conservative I would be voting for a Brexit deal which is anathema. However, the alternative is to split the 'blue' vote and let the Marxists in to destroy the country.

I can see that for many natural Labour supporters they will have the same dilemma. Many Labour voters support Brexit but do not support the hard left, Corbyn and the bullyboy tactics of Momentum and they find themselves in opposition to their M.P.s, the majority of whom are defying both the leadership and their own constituents.

I have never seen such a state of affairs. I suspect that many normal, ordinary hardworking, decent, taxpaying, compassionate Conservative and Labour voters have much more in common with each other than with their elected representatives and/or the cabinet and shadow cabinet.

BRedhead59, I don't think it matters how you "spoil" the ballot paper! I think candidates want to/are required to see them anyway.

I don't want to seem like a Labour Party troll, but will just make a couple of points on Corbyn's voting record - he voted against the war in Iraq. If more MPs had had the courage to do that, there might be considerably less chaos in the Middle East today. He voted against the 2014 Immigration Act that deprived many of the Windrush generation - people who had helped to rebuild Britain in the postwar years and who had paid taxes all their lives - of their citizenship. Few other Labour MPs had the courage to do that.
And how did he behave 'disgracefully' during the referendum campaign? He campaigned for Remain up and down the country, making speeches, stressing that the benefits of EU membership far outweighed the disadvantages, which he did not attempt to gloss over.
I won't post any more on this question, but I agree with Jaycee5 that we should vote on the basis of the positions that politicians take up on the issues, not on the basis of distorted reporting. We can ask ourselves why certain sections of the press are likely to be unsympathetic to a social-democratic programme that promotes greater equality and that does not govern on behalf of the vey wealthy.