Its a difficult time for all of us to decide this election what to do.  In the past 2 elections Labour have won and at the first one I voted labour but slowly I am losing faith in them as a party dedicated to the providing the best all round for the people of Britain.  I never agreed with the conservatives and hated some of the things maggie did to us.  So for me at present the speech and manifesto of Lib Dems is my favourite for 6th may.  To be honest none of the big three are that good but Lib Dems so far have addressed some of the issues facing me at present.

Whilst some MPs have clearly being treating their job as a means of getting rich and disregarding their constituents I have to say there are equally MPS who do try to help their constituents.  My MP, who also held a ministerial post, did intervene when I contacted them for help with a local business that was acting unfairly towards me.

I voted for that person in the last election, and would this time, but sadly I will not as I detest that Buffoon Brown who is unfortunately our PM.  I will be therefore voting for the candidate I feel most likely to beat the incumbent not because they are doing a bad job but because of what they stand for.

As has been suggested before, I would favour a disolution of national parties, and instead have local elections for a local candidate and in this way choose a shortlist of say 8 candidates from whom we then vote for 3 candidates to represent our area.  This would mean larger ‘constituencies’ but might make a more balanced representation of local views.  These representatives would then have to submit to local scrutiny annually - including an annual report on how they voted on all bills passed.  If the local people do not approve their report, then that representative will be forced to stand down, and a new election held to replace that representative.

I do believe that the House of Lords should continue as an unelected body, but hereditary peers should be replaced with life peers when the current hereditary peers leave the house.  Having an unelected body like this does generate a more balanced counter-point to parliament as they represent a wider point of view than the shorter term viewpoint of a politician looking to the next election, but they should have the power to block bills restored to them - at present they can be forced to approve bills they disapprove of by forcing a third reading through.

GartsideR - 15 April 2010 07:16 PM

I do believe that the House of Lords should continue as an unelected body, but hereditary peers should be replaced with life peers when the current hereditary peers leave the house.  Having an unelected body like this does generate a more balanced counter-point to parliament as they represent a wider point of view than the shorter term viewpoint of a politician looking to the next election, but they should have the power to block bills restored to them - at present they can be forced to approve bills they disapprove of by forcing a third reading through.

Well said! And I thought I was the only one against an elected dictatorship. If the HoL was to be elected, we’d have a dictatorship until the next election. The HoL is the only thing that stood in Blair’s way when he had that huge majority - just think if we’d voted in a Labour HoL too. I don’t like the idea of peers being selected by political parties either - perhaps we need a new, independent body to select people worthy of entering the HoL without any recourse to their poitical leanings.

I don’t particularly like Mr Brown as a person, nor believe he is the best leader. I find both David Cameron and Nick Clegg preferable as people. However, I believe that overall, Labour has done a half decent job over the last few years. To bring in a different government now, JUST for the sake of change, will undo a lot of good that has been done.

What this country needs at the moment is consistency. Let those doing their jobs carry on. Let’s get out of this recession and back to strong growth before we start chopping and changing the people at the top.

ContehJ - 08 April 2010 08:15 PM

whoever would want to vote for any of them?

ive got an equally low opinion of them all.

selfish and corrupt

i wont waste my time voting for any of them.

got better things to do….

I believe the three major partiy members are corrupt and greedy. The expenses scandals last year proved that they want to get rich at the expense of the electorate. However, I am not resorting to such negativity and apathetic stupidity as not voting. If everyone did that they will be voted back in power for another few years. It is stupid to winge about them and do nothing about it. Instead, I am looking towards the minority parties like UKIP, BNP and Respect. These have received very little publicity in comparison with the Conversatives, Labour and Lib Dems, yet this does not say they are useless. The media dont give them a chance. If enough people voted for the underdog it would send a clear message to those corrupt fat cats in Westminster that the electorate will not tolerate their greed and selfishness.

StreatfieldP - 24 April 2010 11:44 AM

I don’t particularly like Mr Brown as a person, nor believe he is the best leader. I find both David Cameron and Nick Clegg preferable as people. However, I believe that overall, Labour has done a half decent job over the last few years. To bring in a different government now, JUST for the sake of change, will undo a lot of good that has been done.

What this country needs at the moment is consistency. Let those doing their jobs carry on. Let’s get out of this recession and back to strong growth before we start chopping and changing the people at the top.

How can U say Labour have done an OK job when they lied to the people over Iraq in an attempt to pacify George W Bush, and several of the MPs were named and shamed in the expenses scandal (aqlong with members from the other two major parties). My main concern about Gordon Brown is he was elected UNOPPOSED when Tony Blair stood down.I would have expected others to stand against him. The fact they did not merely proves that apart from Brown, the rest of the party are spineless individuals who put their own personal interests before those of the people who voted them to power. Conservatives and Lib Dems are no better Hopefully the reslt of this election will be a hung parliament. OK, it does not offer much stability but it is preferable than Labour getting back into Downing Street (or being replaced by David Cameron and his cronies) for another four years. Politicians are often out of touch with the electorate and, with a working majority, they can do untold damage to a country and its economy. With a bit of opposition (such as a hung parliament would provide) they will face greater opposition and will have to consider their motives more carefully. In the long term this can only be a good thing for the electorate.

AllanahU - 08 April 2010 07:17 PM

They are all the same nothing they really affects me.

I think this is the base problem that we have today, everybody is basically saying “oh don’t like him/her they won’t do much for me” but will they do much for society in general if they make life better for a large majority of the people not just the ones you know directly. If the overall effect is that profound you will benefit in the long run. you need to question is what each party proposes better for the masses and then vote on that basis, well that is my opinion anyway.

StreatfieldP - 24 April 2010 11:44 AM

I don’t particularly like Mr Brown as a person, nor believe he is the best leader. I find both David Cameron and Nick Clegg preferable as people. However, I believe that overall, Labour has done a half decent job over the last few years. To bring in a different government now, JUST for the sake of change, will undo a lot of good that has been done.

What this country needs at the moment is consistency. Let those doing their jobs carry on. Let’s get out of this recession and back to strong growth before we start chopping and changing the people at the top.

Are you for real ” Labour has done a half decent job over the last few years” are you living somewhere else? If we keep the current lot in on that basis then we way as well say ” don’t give two figg’s about your job and if you ball’s up badly recessions and war as good examples we will stick with you because we are afraid of the pain of change even if it is for our good”. Nonsense

They are fairly similar to each other in terms of what they SAY. Their voting history shows some differences though (for example, the Conservatives say they support gay people but their voting history clearly shows that they don’t).

For myself, I have already voted for the Green Party, by postal vote - because they are the only ones with genuinely different ideas and are more genuinely left wing and idealistic than the three main parties. who are all roughly in the centre. Obviously, that supports my political orientation and I’m under no illusions - my vote doesn’t count where I am because there isn’t proportional representation, but I’d rather vote for a party I support most rather than vote tactically for samey politicians.

AllanahU - 08 April 2010 07:17 PM

They are all the same nothing they really affects me.

How can you say it does not affect you? For instance, a decision based on income tax decreases/increases would result in more/less money in your bank account/pocket. It affects everyone. However, many MPs/Potential MPs in all the main parties are only in politics for reasons of self interest and to boost thei own interests and wealth.

HunterK - 28 April 2010 04:01 PM

StreatfieldP - 24 April 2010 11:44 AM

I don’t particularly like Mr Brown as a person, nor believe he is the best leader. I find both David Cameron and Nick Clegg preferable as people. However, I believe that overall, Labour has done a half decent job over the last few years. To bring in a different government now, JUST for the sake of change, will undo a lot of good that has been done.

What this country needs at the moment is consistency. Let those doing their jobs carry on. Let’s get out of this recession and back to strong growth before we start chopping and changing the people at the top.

Are you for real ” Labour has done a half decent job over the last few years” are you living somewhere else? If we keep the current lot in on that basis then we way as well say ” don’t give two figg’s about your job and if you ball’s up badly recessions and war as good examples we will stick with you because we are afraid of the pain of change even if it is for our good”. Nonsense

If you think Labour has done a half decent job, I wouldn’t like to meet a party who you consider has done a bad job. I further believe that Britain DOES need change. The politicians in power are becoming complacent. The expenses scandal last year substantiates the fact that many are only concerned with their own interests. A political shift, especially one leading to a hung parliament, will shake them up in their comfort zone and make them reconsider what they are doing. Perhaps the MPs will put the country’s interests before their own personal ambitions.

I feel after the travesty of the last election (the diabolically ill prepared polling stations staff, the unlawful lock outs, breaks in or un-uniformly applied protocol etc), the effective political suicide of the Lib Dems,  the crushing disappointment that New Labour turned out to be, the lack of transparency and the move away from party aligned manifesto in favour of “issue based” politics it will be a hard sell for any party to get my vote. But hey this is democracy after all… 

I personally feel disillusioned and disenfranchised by the whole political process.  Essentially we are all enslaved to financial institutions and banks….. and the government is the puppet, the toothless wizard from Oz, with the “man” (be it big corporations or banks) behind the curtain really pulling all the strings.  Worse still, unlike past froms, in this new form of slavery we clothe and feed ourselves but I digress…..

So lets look over the choices….. On one hand you have political flip-flopping of our new overlords,  more eager to be seen as “being down with the kids”, with no real plan for growth, but hell bent of selling off the last vestiges of the family silver;  or will you trust the sounds bites and rhetoric from the party who’ve proved that yellow is indeed a reflection of their true nature in the empty/ worthless promises of a party with no hope of winning outright. Are you really ever going to trust them again? ...  Sadly this has also effectively killed off the Green parties, who are now left with a hand of shatter dreams, as the electorate or at least those who wanted a real change fear a pattern repeat of the cowardy custards!  Finally can you really shake that lingering bad taste of the the impostors, the well disguised wolves clad in red redding hood type garbs. And to mix metaphor, like the little girl claiming to be helping grandma or the unassuming girl scouts,  they come as the benevolent do-gooders.  However in our story the metaphorical kindly granddaughter or the door to door cookies seller professing to helping the local community is actually helping themselves to your money or encouraging you to purchase more cookies than you need or can actually afford, so it’s not until the fat cat fleeing leaders or teflon bloke left to helm the sinking ship have left the building that you realise that you were actually robbed blind the second you opened your purse or can no longer afford the cookies. 

I dispair….  however I guess that is how we are meant to feel.  It is after all far easy to control confused, fearful, down -trodden, poorly educated people than it is informed, intelligent, engaged people that have been spared the diet of of reality TV, celebrity gossip and endless talent shows.