The conwoman is at it again.

[Kaz]

Well I like her and I'm glad she and the Conservatives are going to win.

Rodo you were protesting strongly against local hospital closures I seem to remember. Good luck on that score when the tories get free rein over privatisation.

[miasmum]

I like Corbyn, I think he is a true Labour politician, unlike Blair who was just a watered down Tory. I have no idea who I will vote for, but I honestly couldn't vote Conservative

For the first time ever I think I might be voting tactically which is something I deeply disagree with, but I see no other option

I cant vote Lib Dem because I don't agree with this pledge to hold another referendum if they were to win.

[Kaz]

[Workingman]

It's a shame that people can't see past the candidate and look at the policies!

Goal! Well said, Kaz.

We have local candidates, but they are not there to represent us, they are there for the party elite in order for them to control us.

In addition to your list I will add the decimation of police numbers, with the increase in surveillance with 'live' facial recognition CCTV and now the proposed interception of all our digital communications by people unseen. To keep on voting Tory is to vote ourselves into a police state. The big problem is that there is no one party strong enough or willing enough to take them on.

Shell, I also disagree with tactical voting, but if I was pushed to, well ...

[AliasAggers]

It's a shame that people can't see past the candidate and look at the policies! We do not elect a person, we don't have a presidential system here, we elect a party! I'm sick of hearing people say that they don't like Corbyn. Well without him we will have a privatised NHS, further cuts to education and services.

I agree with you, Kaz.

Throughout my working life I always voted Labour, but I was terribly disappointed and angry with the way Tony Blair
transformed the Labour Party, and consequently I changed my allegiance. I am now inclined to think that Corbyn is
more like the Old Labour style, although sometimes something in his mannerisms tends to make me a little doubtful.
At this stage I don't know how I will vote in the forthcoming general election.

[jenniren]

I don't think it is fair to say she called a general election purely for political motives. I have no doubt she weighed up the options before she made the call. Certainly she will hope to be returned with a far bigger majority, as she is in it to win it just like the leaders of the other parties. She has had a mandate from the country to leave the EU yet she is being undermined by those with genuine concerns and those who want only to make mischief, even from within her own party, so working with such a small majority will definitely weaken her hand in getting the best deal for the UK.. Does she rise above the taunts from Nicola Sturgeon that she has never had a mandate from the public to lead the Conservative Party, or does she see re-election with a large majority as a means of putting these sniping remarks to rest. She has asked for a mandate from the electorate as a means of strengthening her hand, and being a Brexiteer I am happy to give her my vote. She said when she was elected leader of the Conservative Party that she would be looking after every one of us. not just the privileged few, and I hope she keeps that promise. She made a good start by getting rid of George Osborne to the back benches.

Absolutely agree with every word.

As for Corbyn, my youngest daughter and her husband are staunch Labour supporters and were remainers, but even they can't stomach voting for a man who openly sympathises with murderers. While he remains Labour leader a lot of their voters feel disenfranchised which is not good for the country, I may be a conservative but I've always felt there should a strong opposition whichever party is in power.

[Kaz]

Aggers xxx

Jen I am just so worried about the NHS, and the schools. The Tories are already in talks with some US companies about privatisation of the NHS, and Virgin Care have taken over some children's services here in the west. There was a horrible story about them on the local news this morning It seems that almost everything we have held dear and relied on is being dismantled for the sake of profit.

Policies, not personalities!

[Suff]

The NHS and Schools were damaged, fatally, by Blair. Throwing uncontrolled sums of money at both, without the structure to manage them, created cultures of waste and became embedded into the two systems.

That might have been OK, sort of, given that 10% of the money thrown at it actually got where it was intended. But the problem is that it was borrowed money with no intent to pay back and no care where the next chunk of money was coming from.

The press talk about Austerity as if it were something that only working people feel. But services feel it too. It takes more than a decade to get that kind of culture of waste removed.

As for education? The problem there is that the whole environment is so toxic that people don't want to be teachers. However they'll come in and do a few days here and there, for which the agencies take a huge cut and make the whole system worse. Teachers spend more time writing documents to prove they have taught something than they do actually teaching. Hardly the best balance.

Education is already lost and it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with politics.

If you believe that putting the problem back in power, which I believe will make the whole thing even worse, will make it better, then that is what you believe. Me? I believe that if we put Labour anywhere near the NHS, privatisation is absolutely guaranteed in my lifetime.

[miasmum]

Do you know what I really don't know what to do, so I have read and re-read your comments. For every for, someone posts an against.

Kaz says she fears for the NHS under Conservative, Suff fears for them under Labour. Rodo thinks education will be safe under Conservatives, someone else thinks the opposite.

I seriously think I am not going to bother voting for the first time ever. I'll live with the consequences I have no choice and we're damned if we do and damned if we don't anyway

Jen I wasn't sure what you meant about Corbyn openly sympathising with murderers so I googled and I presume you mean his dealings with Jahjah? My thoughts on this are, but your daughter and her husband were happy to vote for Blair? How many of our own did he send to their deaths? No give me Corbyn any day. Obviously if I have misunderstood, which I probably have, I'm not very clever, I apologise and perhaps you would explain?

[Suff]

Talking about the NHS and Corbyn...

Mr Corbyn's personal ratings have been consistently appalling since he took Labour's top job two years ago.

The scale of the problem was underlined in a poll today that found Theresa May is more trusted to protect the NHS - an issue on which Labour usually has a big advantage.

Mrs May was backed by 42.1 per cent in the Survation research for ITV's Good Morning Britain, while 39 per cent plumped for Mr Corbyn.

For me it's a simple issue. You can vote the candidate or vote the party. If you want to vote the candidate, 1 hour of researching the different candidates record will give you enough ammunition to make a decision on election day. You can do that the day before.

If you want to vote the party, then it's a bit more complicated. You need to know the balance of votes in your constituency and you need to know the best way to achieve that party's win. The key point is that the party needs to come out with the highest number of seats. So, if there is no way your candidate can win but another party can beat the largest opposition to your chosen party, then tactical voting is the tool you need to use.

Wikipedia is your tool for tactical voting as it tells you the last election results and how the vote was split. You then need to look at the current polling results and how popular each candidate is.

Then just go an vote. I still can't vote but I would vote if I could. Everyone who lives in our house votes, no opt outs.