Tactical voting
There’s been a lot of hot air of late about tactical voting, and how disaffected Labour supporters can use it to ‘give Blair a bloody nose’ by threatening the majorities of safe seat MPs, or cutting the overall majority. Very silly, and only really for those self-important whingers who that politics is more about the fun of navel-gazing than about making a difference to people who might need it.
That said, I am very much in favour of this new (well, new again this time) tactical voting initiative, www.tacticalvoter.net. It lets people in marginal seats swap votes with each other, so they won’t miss out on voting for the party they prefer and wasting their votes. It scores on both fronts:
1: it’s about keeping the Tories down and out, by getting the best result for Labour and LibDem. Real result - let Labour get on with Government for the people, whilst getting a LibDem opposition would mean some sensible scrutiny from a civil liberties standpoint.
2: if you want a whinge, it gets the protest vote in there too (and a sensible protest this time). By mucking with the electoral system, it’s helping make the case against first-past-the-post, and towards a way of voting which actually reflects the government people want.
So go check it out - very clever site for analysis of constituencies too. It only applies to a smaller number of seats, so not in safe ones. Doesn’t apply to me as I’ll be voting Labour with a very strong chance of an MP with a good majority, but if I were in a Tory/LibDem battleground, I’d certainly be doing this.
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