General Election

[NosretapH]

I'm voting Lib Dem, always been good in my area and I agree with their policies on education, Trident and immigration (although rather uncertain as to how their policies on this are going to be put into practice and what repercussions they may have. But then immigration is a difficult and sensitive topic without a clean solution). I am also a bit worried about some of their tax policies but I am obviously keen on National Insurance levels being raised.

I won't vote Labour as I think the last 6-8 years of them in power have been poor. I still haven't forgiven them for Iraq, even if that was Blair's decision. They should have lost the last election over that in my opinion. I also think that, while Brown is probably the most qualified of the three PM candidates to guide us free of the recession, he is also the man who got us into it in the first place. Admittedly this was always a global disaster waiting to happen and Brown can't be soley blamed for the UK being a part of it but he certainly didn't help us. He was reactive rather than pre-emptive which is not a great quality in a PM.

I won't vote Conservative as they're Conservative. No, seriously, I was thinking of voting for them a year ago but all my initial optimism over the 'new' Conservative party waned as their policies came under greater scrutiny and it was revealed that they were much less sure on them than they appeared at first. In the end Cameron seems to have fallen back on standard Tory policies - lower inheritance tax, hard on benefits, cap on immigration - which I can't in good faith support.

So I'm voting Lib Dem.

[TokyoRose]

This will be my first time voting and I'm going for LibDem. They best represent what I want out of the government, and Clegg seems the least childish from the debates. Seriously, the past two Thursdays have just been Brown and Cameron b****ing and sniping at each other like four year olds. I don't think I'll ever vote Tory, my local MP is with them and from what I've heard of him he's an awful, horrible man involved in all sorts of scandals, and has been for years now. I don't think Brown should be PM simply because he wasn't elected.

I think this is part of the problem with the elections, a lot of people dismiss options because they don't like Clegg or Brown or their local MP but forget they are not electing a personality, they are choosing which policies they prefer. This is one of the reasons the debates weren't a success imo, it became about personality and performance and not the actual issues for a lot of people.

Brown and Cameron are childish (watch PMQ's, it's like a rabble in a kids playground) but that is our system and they're conditioned to perform in it. I think the system has to change then we'll see a difference in our politicians.

I think Clegg is a risk, being too inexperienced and naive to run a country, particularly this one right now, but I do agree with some of their policies, and disgree with some of the others.

Labour is also a risk, they have made a mess of a lot of things, but I, personally, have benefitted from some of their policies and have seen the difference they've made in my area (new schools, hospitals etc). However I have to bear in mind that is because they have had the opportunity to make these changes, the other two parties haven't.

Brown is the most qualified and experienced to get us out of the recession and back on track, but while he wasn't solely to blame for the financial crisis he should have had more foresight and done more to prevent or at least reduce the effects.

I'd struggle to vote Conservative, I saw what they did last time around (yeah I'm that old ) and am very nervous of them doing so again. I'm also Scottish and the anti-Conservative feeling is stronger here, and with good reason. The new Conservative party did look interesting but it doesn't seem to be sincere now. However I have agreed with what they say at times.

I guess it all depends on what you personally feel are the important issues. For me, it is education, health. and taxes which directly descends from the financial issues but I still am unsure who will be best placed to tackle these issues and who to actually vote for. :/

I do know though that a hung parliment would be a very very bad outcome.

[SolutionFinder]

What worried me last night the most, was hearing Lib Dems were wanting to switch to the Euro - Cameron thankfully pointed out how much of a stupid idea this was. All of our money would be going towards the Euro in Greece and whatnot instead of it being independant.

And I agree about Clegg not having what it takes to run the country.

If I could vote, i'd stick with Labour.

[TokyoRose]

Yeah, joining the Euro is not a policy I agree with. At all.

[LostHeroes]

Not from the UK, but UKers, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T SWITCH TO EURO!!!!

[I Love Kevin Johnson]

he also wants to have an amnesty and let a million illegal immigrants who have been here at least 10 years, stay! basically saying well done for successfully escaping detection and breaking the law for 10 years, heres ur passport (oh and u can get a council house and claim benefit too).

[Locke67]

Still not sure yet I dont want the tories getting back in power partly because of what Thatcher did when she was in power near enough destroyed this country and the Ireland troubles well I wont get started on that, Lib Dems really not sure about them either, and well Labour not a fan of Brown at all, on another note I hope the BNP get nothing.

[NosretapH]

he also wants to have an amnesty and let a million illegal immigrants who have been here at least 10 years, stay! basically saying well done for successfully escaping detection and breaking the law for 10 years, heres ur passport (oh and u can get a council house and claim benefit too).

Well, for a start best estimates place the figure at around 600,000. Cameron claims that if Clegg wants to legalise them then they can all bring a relative over, making it 1,200,000 but whether Clegg will actually allow that is unknown, it seems unlikely. But the whole point with this is that it isn't adding anyone to the population. The 600k they're talking about are already here, so basically Clegg is proposing a solution to a problem while Brown and Cameron are ignoring it. Obviously the fact that people who came here illegally will have amnesty goes against the grain for many people but in my opinion if you put aside your righteous indignation then it's probably the most practical solution. These people will still be here if we ignore them, if we want to deport them then they're hardly going to come forward and own up are they so it has to be a mutually beneficial solution. If it was as easy as locating and deporting them it would have happened by now. There also seems to be an assumption that all of these 600k are immediately going to sign onto benefits, which is not necessarily the case. The long-term benefit of having 600,000 extra tax payers is surely worth the short-term benefit expense and pride-swallowing. People talk about the 'message' it send out, etc etc. To me that's irrelevant, what I want is a solution to a problem which is not going to happen with either the Conservatives or Labour. I also strongly disagree with an immigration cap, as proposed by the Tories, which to me is a ridiculous idea that would be terribly unfair were it to be put into practice.

Also the Lib Dems are not wanting us to immediately join the Euro. Clegg is open to the idea, being much more Europhilic than the other two candidates, but has already stated that now is definitely not the time and if he does propose us joining the Euro then there will be a national referendum on it.

[Nathan182]

Still not sure yet I dont want the tories getting back in power partly because of what Thatcher did when she was in power near enough destroyed this country and the Ireland troubles well I wont get started on that, Lib Dems really not sure about them either, and well Labour not a fan of Brown at all, on another note I hope the BNP get nothing.

BNP got no seats, but the amount of votes they had all over the place is shocking.

[Shyatt]

Also the Lib Dems are not wanting us to immediately join the Euro. Clegg is open to the idea, being much more Europhilic than the other two candidates, but has already stated that now is definitely not the time and if he does propose us joining the Euro then there will be a national referendum on it.

This exactly ^^

A lot of people I know used the fact that Clegg proposing a move to the Euro was the reason why they didn't vote Liberal. I say that is utter bollocks. If they took the time to even scan through the Lib Dem manifesto they'd see otherwise.


With regards to the immigration policies, there's far too much controversy surrounding the subject, and the way David Cameron specifically targeted Clegg about the Lib Dem immigration policy was completely blown out of proportion. In my opinion Cameron used this as a key focus to turn interest away from Lib Dem (which they aroused among the first and second leader's debates) and onto himself.
Pure dirty politics at its worst.

Gotta love the British parliamentary system though!