Dr. Shades wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2024 7:54 am
IWMP wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2024 6:42 am
Voting anything other than labour or conservative is a wasted vote because they have no chance of winning.
If people voted for who they actually wanted to win, then that party would have a chance of winning, wouldn't it?
But when we get down to brass tacks, voting for a party who has a chance of winning is also a wasted vote, because your chances of affecting the election either way are statistically far, far less likely than getting into a car crash and dying on the way to the voting booth.
In practice, given the British 'first past the post' system, sensible voters look at the way votes in their constituency are trending, and vote on that basis. In my own case, I want a Labour government, and to do that I need to get rid of as many Conservative MP's as possible. Thus:
(a) If Labour is likely to attract most of the votes in my constituency, I add mine to the pile to make sure they win.
(b) If Labour is running close to the Conservatives, but is in second place, I still vote for them in the hope that they may manage a winning total on the day.
(c) If Labour is running a poor third, and another party that I do not positively loath (such as the Liberal Democrats or Greens) is either likely to win with the Conservatives second, or is running a close second to Conservatives, I will give them my vote in order to do my best to avoid getting a Conservative MP.
As you can see, I regard my vote as something to deploy as part of a real world political strategy. For me, it is not an exercise in political self-expression.