Should you vote tactically?

No

Where I live our parties are very different from mainland UK.
Often voting is done not to vote that particular party in, but to keep a party out.

I think many people do vote tactically, Mishap - perhaps for similar reasons to your own. Someone wrote somewhere today that he would vote for the party that put the most promotional leaflets through his door. If there was a tie he would vote for the party that had best proof read their publicity material. He went on to say that so far Labour were ahead as no-one else had leafleted him but their proof reading was so bad that he had eliminated them.

Yep, our local Labour candidate has sent out leaflets full of spelling and grammatical errors (including, would you believe, spelling the name of her party Labor!!!)

www.constituencyexplorer.org.uk/

This makes interesting reading, to look at what happened in the last election, to see whether you ought to vote tactically or not.
In my constituency, the Labour Party will get in however I vote, so I do not mind voting Green. Tories and Libdems were so far behind, and I cannot imagine any Labour voters the last time voting for either of them.

Always vote for the party that best matches what you believe will be the best

I just vote Labour always have always will- no hope here though its Tory land.

Tactical voting means that, if the Lib Dems stood a chance of toppling the Tory (as they have done in the past) in my constituency, then my vote for a Lib Dem might topple the Tory. That would be a good thing.

It is mad that the incumbent had more votes placed against him getting in than for - and yet there he is!

Vq - voting for what I believe in will open the door for the Tory to win - I must just as well vote for him! The effect is the same.

I know, because a Labour MP told me (!) that Labour voters in an adjacent contstituency were quietly advised to vote tactically for the Lib Dem candidate to keep out the Tory. Our Lib Dem candidate did win and has proved to be a fine MP for the past 18 years. Whether it was the votes of the erstwhile Labour voters that won him the seat in the first place, I don't know; but it was his own hard work on behalf of constituents that kept him in place in subsequent elections.

As I live in a very strong safe Conservative seat, my vote is unlikely to alter the final result, but on the other hand I do not have to work out how to cast my vote tactically, and I can vote according to my beliefs and principles which surely is the best way, for my conscience anyway.

I must see things so differently

I remember listening to Peter Hain telling Labour voters to vote 'tactically' during the last General Election. All I thought was you can't have any faith in your candidates or you would be saying vote for us at all costs we have excellent candidates they deserve your vote. It just says to me we are so assured we cannot possibly win so second best is all I hope for, namely keep the opposition out by ganging up on them.

This is I accept politics in it's crudest form and NO ONE party is innocent of these sort of backdoor shenanigans . I find that very sad to be honest but politics is as it always has been and will be , 'a grubby, dirty little game'.

I would never ditch my principles to vote for the candidate I felt the best . If he/she lost well so be it , that's democracy, but at least I put my cross on the ballot paper for the right reason not just to spite the opposition.

A fair - proportional - voting system would make tactical voting a thing of the past, but the two main parties have always been scared of it, believing that it would lead to coalition.

A lot of tactical voting goes on supported by the major parties to keep someone else out. Where I live the Lib Dems want to win back their seat which they lost at the last election and they tell us not to vote for a minority party because then the current Tory will get back in.
I don't want to support the Lib Dems, I didn't like the last MP and I'm happy to vote Green, I like the Green policies anyway.

I hear people saying 'vote local', that is look at your local candidates and see what they are saying they will do for YOU. That's one option, I guess, but I prefer to take a wider view, so will be reading the manifestos with interest.

Incidentally, did anyone hear this joke on the radio yesterday?

Q What does MANIFESTO mean?

A MANIFEST means 'we will make it happen' and 'O' means 'whoops, we didn't'.

It's 50 years since I voted for a winning candidate, and I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future - or ever in my lifetime!

I cannot understand why anyone who has a brain would vote Labour, everytime in recent history that Labour have been in control the country went to hell in a handcart. That is not to say I like the Tories much but at least they dont bankrupt the country. There are many better qualified people who should be in control, sadly they just dont go into politics. At last though it seems the minority parties are shaking up the Lib/Lab/Cons, a good thing.

We live in a marginal so will not be voting tactically my party needs all the votes it can get!!

PS if I lived in Brighton proper I would probably vote Green!

Agree POGS, that's exactly how we should vote, for the candidate we want, and not tactically.I would like to see the Conservatives and Lib Dems back in power together, iit may or may not happen, but I would always vote for the party I wanted in power and not otherwise.It's going to be a very close election again, and If I had to put money on it, I would say that Labour would win and they will go into power with the Lib Dems, but you never know, and polls don't always tell the whole story.

Why do iPads always alter words, it is so annoying!

Oh rose you have made my day! I do hope you are right about Labour. I dread the Tories getting back in.

Agreed whitewave. Labour, Libdem and SNP are the only grouping that could form a majority.

No matter how you vote it makes no difference, they promise the earth and deliver a door step

They blatantly lie and get away with it every time

That goes to all politician from all parties

Our MP was Gordon Brown and he is not standing so it is possible that we could go SNP. Not sure whether to stick to my principles, which is always a 'wasted' vote here, or to vote tactically for the first time ever for Labour - not sure I could do that.....