Post by johnpaul on Jun 2, 2017 5:51:40 GMT -6
OK, I'm not terribly happy with my choices in the upcoming Election, so wondered how other Shackers would vote (if they had the choice). I'm NOT in any way committing myself to go with the outcome of the vote, but I really am undecided ATM.
A brief summary of the political positions of the parties: this is obviously subjective, but I'm trying to be as fair as possible. Still, I can't deny I have my own prejudices and that other posters might like to offer their own views that might be different. But essentially going from right to left, here's my brief thumbnail on the positions of the parties:
UKIP: The party of Brexit - have rather lost their way since unexpectedly winning the Brexit vote and have had 3 leaders in the past year. Have adopted reducing immigration as their main political selling point now.
Conservatives: The current government party. Chose to go to the country despite having 3 years of her term left thanks to a massive poll lead, which has narrowed dramatically over the campaign. Their selling point is "Strong and stable government" and the tautological "Brexit means Brexit".
Liberal Democrats: Broadly centrist (which would count as left wing in US terms) and dedicated to liberal, pro-European values. Massively lost support having gone into coalition with the Conservatives between 2010-2015 (having gone from about 50 seats in 2010 to under 10 in 2015) and their main platform is a second referendum on the terms of Brexit (favouring a "Soft" rather than a "Hard" Brexit).
Labour: Have moved distinctly leftwards since losing power in 2010: now led by the decisively Socialist Jeremy Corbyn. Have proposed renationalising the Railways and the power grid paid for by increased borrowing and a slight increase in taxes for the highest earners and corporations.
The Green Party: Hard to pin on the left/right spectrum as they are mostly interested in protecting the environment - are broadly anti big business (or as they might put it, big tax evading polluters). But with Labour under Jeremy Corbyn it's hard to say which is further left.
I haven't included the Nationalist parties (SNP and Plaid Cymru) or any of the Northern Irish parties as I'm not from there, although at present the SNP are the third largest party in the House of Commons.
I've set the poll to close when the real poll shuts at 10pm (BST) on polling day.