please empty your brain below

This election has left me cold, even to the extent of not bothering to watch the election results coverage next week.

It's a bit like that moment just before you're involved in an accident, where you know it's going to happen, and it's going to hurt - but there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Basically it's to decide who the captain is when we crash into the iceberg.
When I was younger and more idealistic I would always vote for party A and hoped they would be elected. As I got older I would still vote for party A but console myself that I was probably better off with party B in power.

It then got to the point where I would vote for party A out of principle but be secretly pleased that party B got elected.

Nowadays I am much more pragmatic and belief in realpolitik. I vote for the policies that I think would be best for the country as a whole. I would like that to be party A but if I think party B would do a better job then they get my vote.
as few people read manifestos they often have a perceived view of each party's values which is often incorrect. Leaders' personalities may actually provide a better indication of the party's values at a moment in time
You describe it as personality. I see it more as "voting for the trustworthiness of the leader", which is slightly less empemeral. I know, I know, leaders can be gone in a flash - but I do think the character and demeanour at the top matters.
It doesn't help when I find both the available choices utterly unappealing.... (Not that my vote matters - my seat will only swing in a tsunami level swing)
I have always said that policies should always outweigh personalities but certainly in this day and age of "celebrity culture" where everyone in public life has every move scrutinised, more and more people are going to base their vote purely on what they see and not necessarily what they hear or read.

I warmed to him when JC was first elected Labour leader when he announced that there should be a kinder form of politics without all the name calling, but that already seems to have gone by the wayside.

I have already decided which way my vote will go, but it in all likelihood it won't make a blind bit of difference either way, such is the current majority of one party in my constituency. I would never though not pass up on my right to cast a vote.
Under normal conditions, I'd say someone who can barely manage their own party has no business running the country. But against someone who's rubbing up against the "fascist" end of the scale, it really ceases to matter. I thought she was an abhorrent Home Secretary, and her fascination with abolishing human rights legislation is terrifying.

I think it's interesting that the public hasn't warmed to JC much, more that they're increasingly sceptical of what TM has in store for us all.
Don't rule out the possibility of a hung parliament (or is hanging too good for them?)

Despite their low numbers in the last parliament, there are several Lib/Con marginal, and certainly down our way orange posters are the most commonly seen - making due allowance for the "shy Tory voters".

There may also be more churn, as many sitting MPs have only had two years to establish themselves, and a lot of them are up against former MPs trying to win their seats back, who will be well known locally and even have more voter recognition.

And although I doubt they will improve on the 56 seats they won last time, it is quite possible that the Scottish Nationalists could hold the balance of power.

Interesting times.
Quote "Basically it's to decide who the captain is when we crash into the iceberg."

Do we want the 'strong and stable' one steering straight for it, or the 'weak and wobbly' one who's just going to drift into it?

Perhaps the problem (or tragedy) of this election is we're faced with choice based on who's the better deck chair arranger, rather than who can steer a course to avoid the iceberg.
"Perhaps we believe in social equality, equal opportunities, sharing resources and supporting others. Or perhaps we believe in individual rights, civil liberties, low taxation and market forces."

Frankly speaking, I believe in all of these.

The devil is in the detail, and it seems to be that neither Corbyn nor May believe in any of them, or at least what they understand by those words are far apart from mine. (I suspect DG and I also would define those words fairly differently).

I won't be voting for either of [the candidates belonging to the party led by] them.
I agree with Still Anon
I do hope that the values of social equality, equal opportunities, sharing resources and supporting others are not wholly incompatible with individual freedom and civil liberties, because I believe very strongly in all of them. I first got the vote in the summer of 1983 (one election later than dg I believe) and in this election I shall be voting Labour for the first time in my life.
As John correctly implies, we don't get to vote for May or Corbyn, unless we live in Maidenhead or Islington. We get to vote for one local MP out of 650 in the House of Commons. I live in a three-way marginal, so my vote could actually count, but for millions of people living in safe seats their vote makes next to no difference.
Leader personalities provide a very poor guide to what the party will be like in power. Both main parties and three of the four small parties have changed their leaders in the recent past. I think we do ourselves a disservice by caring so much about what the spin doctor 'PR people' want you to shallowly judge by.

And if you are going to judge by character it gets pretty one sided. Both of them have had acceptable failures of memory. One of them has made a lot of personal attacks and u turns. But public opinion judging by character is not so one sided. You can see how people are saying whatever to justify views reached by other means.
Surely we vote against the people who will do us the most harm?
The true test of democracy is that when politicians are not reelected they leave quietly.
I read those last panels as sentences

"Labour left Corbyn" - not yet they haven't, but they will if he loses.

"Conservative right May" Well, she has had a bit of a wobble recently.
I vote based on values, but in this election we have a choice between a far-left, socialist Labour party and a centrist (or even slightly left) Conservative party, so if you support a more traditional right/conservative viewpoint, you are left with a not very good choice and a really bad choice. Worse, when you try to say you don't support the "social democrat" view, you are villified as a racist
This is a difficult election for a centrist liberal... Both parties need a good slapping in my view. There must be a way of stopping either of them doing too much harm if they get in... Usually the "pendulum effect" of alternate parties taking charge every 2 elections, roughly, maintains a very rough kind of balance, where their lunatic ideas can be dampened or reversed. I just hope they don't erode the NHS any more, to feather the tory nests..
ah...another political "space-filler". as some often say, particularly me; it your blog so you write about what you want.

plus you say there are really only two choices; actually there are three. third be the option of not voting: sending the message, if it needs sending, that many people have lost faith, trust etc in the whole "punch & judy" show.
DG - have you considered voters who might be swung by either policy or issues (or policy on issues)?

I'm just curious.

If you are bored over summer there is a large literature out there on why people vote the way they do.

You seem to be saying that there is something different about this election.

I'd be curious to know why you think the UK has lost the 'middle ground / smaller alternatives' that has been provided by the lib dems and ukip ...

And how does this explain Scotland?
Three things most of us adopt: 1)The religion our parents choose for us before we are mature enough to judge for ourselves,
2) We generally read the newspaper our parents read
3) We generally vote the same way as our parents.

For my part the woman interviewed in the west country the day TM declared the election got it right: "God, not another one".
For me I fled the country, and will be back to vote judging the parties on what they had done/said before that day, and not the scripted soundbite drivel that they have uttered since.
Interesting that DG puts voters into two groups, party-philosophy based and leader-personality based. In theory we are not voting for a party or a leader, we are voting for our local MP. Who is completely free to join a different party whenever he (it's usually a he) wishes - and the party could theoretically change its philosophy too.

But the third kind of voter (who judges by the personal qualities of her local candidate) seems to be almost extinct.

Of course, many people are hybrid, with perhaps a preference for one party's philosophy, but prepared to let their impression of the rival premiership candidates over-rule this from time to time.

There is also a fourth kind of voter, who has a definite party preference, but is not too bothered about voting, and only does so if it's not raining and the cat is not sick.
As a party activist, I know leaders with (or without) personality come and go. The fundamental principles of the party are what matter. Having said that, I spent hundreds of hours working for a by-election candidate in November, because I believed in her and am doing so again. Other candidates have not always inspired such commitment.

I am hoping that voters who have so recently made a choice, can be bothered to do so again.
On the basis I can't stand either party or leader; and my constituency always elects a Labour MP....I'm going to draw a comedy cock and balls on my voting paper
In some respects we're in the same position that the Americans were in last year: two dislikeable people to vote for.
I wish there were a 'None Of The Above' box on every ballot paper. Turnout would increase, and the mainstream parties would certainly get a rude awakening.

I'd normally vote for the incumbent party in my ultra safe seat constituency, but their candidate is so awful that I'd only be able to cast a protest vote, and I don't much care for any of the other parties.

The only time I've felt empowered was in the Brexit vote, because for once my vote really counted.
@GrumpyAnon. Not voting means you have no right to criticise a government. If you cant be arsed to walk a few hundred yards to vote you come over as not being interested and have no whinging rights.
Get off your backside and go to the polling station to spoil your vote. In fact by spoiling your vote you are in the mix. The Returning Officer will read you out and if enough of you do it you are making a collective point as well as an individual one.
Two party politics? This time it sounds very much like a Tory-one-party-dictatorship to me.
Lets hope the beginning on June is the end of May!
An interesting note: In the USA, the Liberals(Democrats) are Blue... and the Conservatives(Republicans) are Red.
It isn't at all about 'personalities' for me.
It was maybe about 8 months ago I was interested to know the policies and views of the Green Party on certain matters, so I figured a good place to start Googling was Brighton.
Hmmm... what a time to be entering searches that included the words 'Brighton' and 'Party'!!!???
Some of the search results that started coming up [which were predominated by what Labour activists were trying to do there at that time] were little short of shocking. Frankly, it had all too many echoes of a Munich 1923 beer hall putsch :O
Vote for a party like that!!!???
Seriously ???

I am a mix - I know broadly what policies I like, but I also want to elect a government which will deal with the unexpected issues that come up.

And as for the last 3 elections I will ignore both of the above in my considerations and vote for my ex-MP who is standing again as I think he was/willl be again a really good local MP.
'None Of The Above' is gaining ground as an option that should be on ballot papers. The 'i' newspaper has recently had a thread about it.

My improvement (which I've mentioned before in DG Comments, probably at the time of the last general Election) is that if NOTA gets a majority of the votes, then the constituency election must be run again, but with the none of the first candidates allowed to run.
In uni student union elections I consistently vote for reopen nominations (RON), more than anything to vote against the fact most candidates for most roles offer so very little between that voting becomes a popularity contest.

And popularity is the reason this general election was called in the first place. In the words of my fellow millenials, LOL.
"So, for simplicity's sake, allow me to slim down the election choice to red versus blue." Except to my Yankee sensibility, the Red should be the Conservative and the Blue should be Labour.

After all Trump wears a RED hat!

I was once very impressed by a political observation from the UK that the right wing in the UK is more liberal than the left wing liberals in the US. I don't know if that's true, but it made me think.
No. of comments: 34
No. of comments about personality/policy: 16
Is there an election going on?

Count me out, I won't watch the news until it's over, or any political programmes which probably means the whole output of the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. Wake me up when it's over!
There's personality, and then there's ethical conduct.

If a party's manifesto contained every value I hold dear, but the candidate clearly and repeatedly behaved as a corrupt, autocratic bully, then I would not trust that their words would be followed up by actions.

Thankfully, most MPs are merely the same level of self-interested that we all are, so it's not often the deciding factor.
Of coruse most people are probably going to vote SNP :)
I hope I vote on the basis of policies and my own beliefs and principles even though it is difficult to avoid the impact of the "personality cult" media onslaught. I will also consider the qualities of the constituency candidates.

Like some others here I find this entire election loathesome and unnecessary. I have not watched the news or any political programming since the campaign began. Unfortunately it is impossible to miss bits of news and bias on Twitter.

I still have not decided if I will vote. I am not in a marginal constituency so one vote missed won't make any difference. Normally I have no issue with voting but I just hate this entire palaver so much and what is going to follow regardless of who wins. I'm also not going to watch election night coverage either. I'll awake to the nightmare the next morning.










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