Thetownend.com

only a month to go until the election, do you know how you'll be voting?

i still have no idea how i'll vote and probably won't until i get to the polling station.

a concise and quite useful website, offering an overview of each party's policies on your four chosen topics can be found at http://voteforpolicies.org.uk

obviously it's flawed but it's interesting nevertheless.

does your result reflect how you were planning on voting? mine was overwhelmingly labour and my previous feelings had been (and still are) anyone-but-conservative.

I haven't a fucking clue tbh. They're all a bit shit really.

<pedantry>Not yet it's not, he's only just arrived at the Palace</pedantry>

Still suffering from those premature election problems, sonic?

Anyone but fucking Labour

I have no idea.  Couldn't vote for Labour after their (in my view) mishandling of the economy.  Tories feel far too lightweight as an alternative.  (What is George Osborne for, exactly?  Has there ever been a less inspiring candidate for high office?)  Lib Dems...they've had my vote before, but I'm not really sure what they stand for these days.  I think I will need to read their manifesto properly when it comes out.

None of which matters, of course.  My constituency will only ever return one candidate to Westminster, and that's the one wearing the blue rosette.  My vote is, therefore, worthless under a first past the post voting system.  I will vote, I am sure, because I see it as a civic duty.  But it won't change a thing.

PS  I can't wait to hear Talk Talk's take on all this.

what's he going to do at the palace? spend a few hours hiding in the gardens, take a dump in the queen's rose bush (not a euphemism) and then appear in front of the gathered media and announce that it was all an april fool?

now cut out the pedantry or i'll pedal your head

<Denim>I'm going to take a big poo in the ballot box as a protest, that'll bring the system crashing down ... open your eyes people ... robber barons, corruption, theft, seethe, fume ... LibLabCon ... only I can see the real truth ... radical market forces .... 9/11 ... JFK ... Titanic ... boggle-eyed US blogs written by men with foil hats speak the truth ... Fox News .... Daniel Hannan</Denim>

There you go

Ask the Queen to dissolve parliament and call a general election. I'd be surprised if he engaged in any novel fertiliser spreading while he was there

I'm not going to vote and will blame the current politicians for disenfranchising the youth first time voters

8)

Totally agree. Personally I'm voting conservative.

I fail to see how anyone can consider voting Labour after the last 13 years other than habit. Thy've failed, and failed badly.  

If you hate the tories, vote lib dem / green / ukip / whatever.  We really really need a change of government.

I'd rather have Cameron than Brown as PM, but that's like saying I prefer to be hit by a car at 20mph instead of 25mph.

Bored of hearing about it already

I wont be voting. A waste, I know. But they're all robbing bastards that make false promises.

I'd vote Labour at a push, but only if Brown fucked off.

I wont touch Conservatives if they do plan to cut family benefits (Working Families Tax Credit etc). That would impact my life, so they can get knotted.

Meh.

I have just switched off from politics for a month. Yeah, I will spoil my ballot paper but apart from that I am just going to ignore the whole charade and keep my sweet little gob shut. Oh and I am taking the fuses out of all of the tellies in the house.

I will probably vote Lib Dem, purely because of their stance on tuition fees and the fact neither Conservative or Labour government has inspired confidence in the past.  Politics has taking a battering since the expenses scandal, so it is difficult to support any of the major parties.  Does this mean another day off work?!

No.

Lib Dem.....just to dent the Tories!!

Labour likely for me. Can't see things getting much better with the Conservatives, Feed the Rich, Starve the Poor mentality. That said, Neither party is going to really turn things around are they?

I'm in two minds. On the one hand I think any political party is as bad as the other. On the other hand I don't want to see the economy go down the pan even further, something which I would be far from confident of happening under another Labour term.

I might not bother but have a grumble about things in the future :)

if i thought they'd win then i'd vote lib dem.they have no chance, so i'll vote labour to try to keep the tories out.
labour have been bad, but i think the conservatives are alot worse

I am inclined to agree with that totally.

I can't take another term of Labour. I wouldn't trust Brown on the economy at all for a start.
Cameron seems like a Blair type person to me. Will he just spout this bullshit and then do the opposite to what he pledges? I'm inclined to think so. I don't think it's even worth voting for Lib Dems because they will never win, same goes for UKIP. Meh politics in this country is shite really.

I'm hoping one of the main parties comes up with a major reform of some kind, to give me a reason to vote for them. Sorting out the welfare system, improving public transport, massive increase in renewable energy. Something big.

I dont know,most likely Lib Dem but im  put off by the fact that she appears to live in Wincanton.The Labour Candidates seems to have been parachuted in from Stanwell which I think is in London?I think if you are going to represent a town its good manners to have at least lived there a year or 2 which leaves Tomlinson and that is completly out of the question because ill never vote conservative.Im looking forward to it,I booked a ticket  for the Swindon Question Time at the Wyvern,i'll decide after that.

when is the swindon question time?

Conservative for me.

Both Swindon seats will be interesting - both are in the top 60 marginals in the country.

Swindon Question Time is on Monday 26th April at the Wyvern.

its only a local thing,its not on telly.

(watches KOTs interest dissappear)

piss off :) it was to tell my folks

Agree with this. I'm not making a party political point as the tories in swindon seem more local, it just seems like the right thing do do and would put me off voting for anyone not local. How is anyone supposed to represent a community when they barely know where it is, let alone this issue there.

hasn't robert buckland, the swindon south candidate, only recently moved to the area?
i may have it wrong, but didn't think he lived locally.

<temporarily suspending my non-comment status on a point of fact>

No, you are right. He was parachuted in from South Wales at the last General Election. He is yet another lawyer (as are loads of MPs). He has since become a governor of Ridgeway school and has an address in Wroughton - not sure if he actually lives there - in an attempt to be a Swindonian. Nanny Snelgrove came from Stroud and the LibDim candidate at the last GE was from Newbury.

Justin T is the only major party candidate this time around who has local bragging rights, having been in Swindon for (I guess) over ten years, he moved here from Bracknell.

It used to bother me where they came from but not any more. Most MPs only live in the Westminster bubble anyway.

</temporarily suspending my non-comment status on a point of fact>

reason i raised that is because i had his propganda leaflet throught the door today, it was going on about him living here.

i think snelgrove is fucking useless and a career mp too.when she stood outside the post offices with the protesters for photos, then days later voted to have them shut that was it for me.she dont give a shit and will do as she's told.i liked julia drown.

The Lib Dems currently hold my constituency and the tories have the non-dom cunt goldsmith as candidate so my vote is definitely for the Libs this time.

Natch. Complete propaganda. He's still a Welsh tosser.


Yeah, Julia was half decent.

I agree about Nannie, she is actually a PA (or similar) to Brown now. I went to the HoP a couple of years ago to petition her about something only to be told she was on Eurostar on her way to Brussels for a very important meeting. Which is symptomatic about how important her constituency is to her. I hate the bitch.

Agree....thats why Brown should fuck off back to Scotland...meddling in English affairs.

Julie Drown was a good, honest, decent person who cared about her constituents. She helped a friend of mine when she didn't need to. I'm a Labour man but they are an absolute fucking basket case. When I think of Tories I think of smug, conceited public schoolboys - Cameron and Osborne play the roles beautifully plus I could never vote for a party that had Thatcher amongst their ranks - evil bitch. The Lib Dems - what do they stand for
There are going to be alot of votes cast for UKIP,Green and BNP at this election - not enough to win a seat but they will be real "nuisance" value for Labour and Tory alike.

Julie Drown was fit!

Still is mate  ;)

Anne Snelgrove cares as well and helps a lot of people (me included).

But helping constituents is in their job description and they have staff that solely deal with such things - I doubt the MP actually has anything to do with the routine stuff. So I'm not sure they deserve much kudos for doing their job, its more that most people don't realise the MP can and will help them out where they can.

i dont think she cares at all jonny.
her response letters to issues are just the part line all the time.julia drown's were completely different and her own views.
infact i'm thinking i might not be able to vote labour after all.all this talk of snelgrove is putting me off

I've found Anne Snelgrove to be very helpful, not least when we (the Trust) were looking for help in possibly fending off the whole club going kaboom when the old board were doing their best to take us under. She's also to my knowledge been very helpful in dealing with constiuents' issues on personal matters. And as a side note, both she and Rod Bluh (and JT and other senior councillors) were also very impressive in being prepared to set aside party interests in the best interests of the Town. Very easy to slag these people down but there's a lot of work get done that most don't see

Good point Paul but they are on incredibly good money,alot more than Anne Snelgrove recieves...they should be delivering a good service for the citizens they represent...it shouldnt come as a suprise.

I hope people go out and vote instead of whinging and moaning or spoiling the ballot.

Should make it a days holiday...and it should be online for people who cant get out.

Online voting is a good idea, but I wonder how many people bother with voting by proxy.

or postal voting

Apparently 20% by post is expected this year. Gosh!

And all will be delivered on the 7th of May!

I don't think councillors are salaried, though, I know they get reasonable allowances/expenses but it's not more than MPs' pay. Think you're confusing council officers with councillors.

You're right, it shouldn't come as a surprise but they all did come through, both Anne S at MP level (and her staff who were brilliant) and Rod Bluh et al at local level - and the ward councillors as well, come to that. I just thought it was worth bringing in what is admittedly only my own experience as a counterbalance to the "they're all useless tossers" viewpoint often aimed at both MPs and councillors.

Agreed..my sister had a problem so i got in touch with Mr Tomlinson...he got in touch with Rod Bluh.
He got things sorted...we all think they are worthless..untill the day comes we need them and generally they do a good job.

The SBC basic allowance for 2010/11 is £7,633. Obviously you get nice addons for sitting on various committees etc... But from experience it wouldn't be too much more. I'd be surprised if Bluh, as Leader, saw more than £15k total.

http://www.swindon.gov.uk/yourcouncil/electoral/wanttobeacouncillor.htm (http://www.swindon.gov.uk/yourcouncil/electoral/wanttobeacouncillor.htm)

Cllr Bluh is on about £21k IIRC. Way below what he was earning as a full time partner in an accountancy practice.

It seems Lib Dem are becoming an increasingly popular option, but most people tempted to vote for them are either too apathetic to vote or don't think they'll win so vote for one of the other big two.  If enough people vote for Lib Dem this time around and they run one of the other bigger parties close, then that may well pave the way for a Lib Dem government in the future.

yeah i was thinking this.
i've always voted labour previously in general elections,but was only going to do so to keep the tories out this time.
changed my mind and will be voting lib dem, even if it has no effect on the outcome.

I'm not all that knowledgable on politics to be fair, but from what I've read I think I'll end up voting Lib Dem. Shame they won't get there, but I suppose if enough people think like me then you never know!

Someone needs to start a vote Lib Dems Facebook group. Always works. I stopped killing puppies when i got 100,000 members to my page.

Ive never voted Labour, and prob wont be this election, Have never spoilt my ballot either. I usually go for an independant.

Why? Because I cant trust the smug politcal spinning gravy train chasing wankers for Lib Dems/Labour/Tories. However, I would prefer Cameron as PM then 'jump on the band wagon Brown'. Of course he is going to cheer on England at the World Cup, Hes a fucking sweaty sock!!

Given that there is a realistic prospect of a hung parliament for the first time since the 1970s, the usual argument against voting for the Lib Dems ('they'll never get in anyway') disappears.  I think they could perform quite strongly this time around as people realise this.

"If the Lib Dems get 5,000,000 votes, Nick Clegg will change his name to McLovin"

?

That's assuming the Lib Dems will have any part to play in a hung parliament. It's feasible, and in my view likely, that the Tories (should they be the largest party) will govern as a minority government and tell the Lentil Munchers to go take a hike. Then go back to the country later in the year.

Could do.  It really depends on the numbers.  If the Tories win 310-320 seats, they could be quite tempted to soldier on as a minority government.  But anything less than that and life would be very difficult, and they would need to form some partnerships.

Although not civil partnerships, obviously

Tbf to the Tories, they've always been tolerant of gays at the Parliamentary level, even if not the grass roots.  What with all those public school boys, it's only to be expected....and what about that Edward Heath...nudge nudge, wink wink, he never got married did he?

My take is that I could never vote for Brown & New labour. I can't understand why any one would vote for them (apart from maybe those who benefit from their predeliction for throwing our money away).  They've lied to the country too much, are incompetent & the main interest is hanging on to their careers. Liberals change policies as often as the wind changes direction, & will spout a policy to suit the audience. Alos a vote for them is a vote for Brown where I live in Chippenham. UKIP does appeal & had my vote in the Euro elections but would be a wasted vote. I'm not entirely happy with the Conservatives, but they are in my opinion the best bet for the country aminly based on their underlying philiosophys rather than the policies. I also think labour are a bunch of hypocrites when they use the class war card as most of labour have never done a real days work in their lives & are "career politicians". I also admire Chippenhams conservative candidate as he is someone who has worked & made a sucess of his life. I'd rather have someone like that in charge than a career politico.

A sure fire winner would be to bring the troops back from that debacle in Afghanistan,i cant believe its not been mentioned or thaught about..any party who suggested we would bring them back would walk the election.
Lets face it a large proportion of MP,s were against us sending troops there and i am really suprised that someone hasnt given it a serious thaught...UKIP etc are always banging on about us hanging on about us being tied to Europe...but its about time someone showed some balls and cut the ridiculous ties with the US.

Yep...I can just see Cameron stating that he'll withdraw British troops, because he wants to cut ties with America...

The last PM to tell the Americans to do one, was Harold Wilson over Vietnam...which is why there was talk of an attempted  MI5 inspired military coup against Labour government in 74.

Politics was so much more interesting back then....

I was starting to lean towards Lib Dem but I just checked up on their candidate for Swindon South and now I'm not sure sure. I prefer a local person rather than someone just dropped in, he is currently the Mayor of Frome (where he lives) and he has absolutely zero ties with Swindon. It's like they're not even making any effort, probably as the seat isn't very high on their list of priorities.

Dosnt have to be Cameron...wares the libs when you want them...after all they have been spouting of for years about the war....but as usual theres a big
Dont have to be Cameron..i am sure the libs have in the main been anti war...course it makes for good ammo in party speeches,but as per usual it was all bravado and its all gone quite on the Lib/Dem front.

I'll go Labour I expect this time, but i will read all the manifestos (again). I'm not bothered about local MPs - it's not a big deal any more. I have no problem with Unions fighting for workers rights, no problem with CEOs fighting for directors rights, no problem with LibDems fighting for lentil rights, Greens fighting for a return to the Middle Ages, UKIP fighting for Inspector Barnaby, Miss Marple and a pound of home made jam, oh, and I quite like seeing the BNP fighting with themselves!! . On the whole we are a well balanced civilisation and I'm not moving. I would like to see a preference vote system though.

A pound of home made jam..like that.

Totally agree. I really just dont get why anyone would vote for more of this labour government. Any other party I could understand even if I totally disagree with their views.

Does anyone really think that

A. Nu-Labour have done a good job?
B. They will do a good job in the future based on their track record?
or C. that there isnt another political party of any persuasion that couldnt do better?

 The level of grass roots political activism, is at an all time low.  The Lib Dems in Swindon probably only have 20 or 30 members...quite possibly none of whom want to be considered.

 I was involved in Labour politics for some years, and it tended to be the case that local candidates had made as many enemies as friends within the party, so it suited everybody best, to bring someone in from outside who could unite the factions..

 Read Francis Noel-Baker's autobiography, to get a god insight into how the system works..

And those of you voting labour for "class war" reasons need to wake up a bit.

Labour is dominated by public schoolboys these days (Blair, Brown to name a couple) admittedly its not quite to the extent of the Tories, but the image of tories as toffs and labour as northen men in flat caps is a touch out of date now.

And does anyone really think that labour have helped low income working people? Sure they've helped the career benefits class but I dont see what it is they've done to help low / average income people and families. Frankly the tax burden has gone up, even on average income people.

So what is it they actually stand for these days? As far as I can tell its big nannying government, wasting taxpayers money and buying votes from wasters and people employed in the public sector (to re-use talktalks phrase "turkeys dont vote for christmas")

God I fucking hate them.

 

If Hugh Grant was running for PM, I'd vote for his silly dance in front of the Thatcher picture......

Seriously though for a moment, my voting strategy is very dependant on my local situation. Tories currently hold the seat with a <3K majority, and a 4% swing to Lib Dem would unseat them. Labour are nowhere. I thought it was a safe Tory seat until I did some research a couple of months back and was quite surprised to find it isn't.

I had reason to contact all of my local propesctive parliamentary candidates a few weeks back regarding a campaign being run by Action for Children. Within 30 minutes, I had an e-mail and telephone call from the Lib Dem candidate signing the pledge to support the campaign and him telling me in simple terms what he would do as my MP to further support it. About 3 weeks later, I received a nice letter from my current MP criticising Labour's current policies, but giving no indication whatsoever as to what he would do (nor indicating that he'd signed the pledge). Would it surprise you to hear I haven't heard a peep from the Labour candidate? I thought not.......

I took the opportunity to quiz the Lib Dem candidate on a number of other issues important to me - taxation, public services, transport etc. - and I generally felt he took the time to listen, acknowledge the faults of current systems and services, and promised to look into them further. While I'm not stupid or gullible to think he'll solve all these issues at a national level if he gets elected, I was just appreciative of the interest he took in the campaign and the time to listen to my POV and concerns. In this case, the personal touch really did count.

So I'll be voting Lib Dem come 6th May.

Does anyone actually vote Labour for "class war" reasons? Seriously? I think that's just why Tories think people vote Labour isn't it?

Oh, and your points overall would be a lot more effective if you didn't keep using the "Nu-Labour" thing which just makes me think of some sputum-filled hateharriden wacking themselves out over the comments section on the Daily Mail site. Which I'm quite sure isn't you, so please stop it, it's quite silly

Don't worry the feeling is mutual

OK, well perhaps there's one then :)

Wasn't PMQs shit? Bunch of wankers shouting over each other, even worse than usual.

Heaaaaagh,Heaaaaagh.

Well, better that than the other way round

 :D

The upside though, it was the last time (probably) that we'll see that useless, lying cunt of a Prime Minster standing at the dispatch box.

I think that's called Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement.

A few people on this thread have mentioned that Nu-labour will look after the poor, tories only interested in the rich. you tell me why people vote Nu-labour. As I said in a lengthy rant I dont have a fucking clue why anyone would bother.

I'll continue to call nu-labour what I like thanks. What that has to do with the daily mail I've no idea. I'd never read that shocking excuse for a newspaper.

 :girlgiggle: