Are you voting for Sheffield Labour MP's to lose their seats?

[plekhanov]

I'm voting Labour in Hallam to unseat that vacuous media tart Clegg. My god, if he gets anywhere near the seat of power we'll be having policy changes every few hours.

The Lib Dems have had some significant policy changes recently, thing is they were rather forced upon them by your Labour's disastrous failure to regulate the banking sector (in the face of repeated warnings by the Lib Dems to do so) which has placed the entire country in an appalling financial position.

 

Clegg is a man of real intellect, character & principle to go along with his personal charm (which you are clearly hopelessly jealous of thanks to your leaders conspicuous absence of such). That you should attempt to criticise Clegg as lacking substance whilst your arguing for a Labour when it's represented by nonentities like Angela "I've taken a vow never to vote against my party" Smith is just absurd.

[wednesday1]

I really can't see the 'appeal' of Clegg. The only people he seems to appeal to, to me anyway, is people who don't know anything about politics.

The reason he appeals to them is that they have seen him on the televised debates coming over reasonably plausible and likeable, and remembering the questioners names.

It is not about politics.I was talking to some student types in the pub tonight and they said that they liked Clegg but when I asked them which Lib Dem policies they liked they couldn't tell me any. One of them banged on about how bad Labour had been on immigration yet the LD's are offering an amnesty on illegals who have been in the country for more than 10 years!

Although in some ways the televised debates have re-energised politics it seems they have also reduced politics to the level of X-Factor, where image counts for everything and substance for nothing.

[plekhanov]

I really can't see the 'appeal' of Clegg. The only people he seems to appeal to, to me anyway, is people who don't know anything about politics.

The reason he appeals to them is that they have seen him on the televised debates coming over reasonably plausible and likeable, and remembering the questioners names.

It is not about politics.I was talking to some student types in the pub tonight and they said that they liked Clegg but when I asked them which Lib Dem policies they liked they couldn't tell me any. One of them banged on about how bad Labour had been on immigration yet the LD's are offering an amnesty on illegals who have been in the country for more than 10 years!

Maybe he meant that Labour have been bad in that they've tried to talk tough whilst horribly mismanaging the system leaving the need for something like a limited amnesty to try and clear things up some what?

 

"I agree with Nick" on many key issues:

• pragmatic belief in free market economics, which means unlike tories I realise the market is not always the solution & the state can sometimes be the best provider of essential services
  
• concern for social justice
  
• determination to preserve & take back our ancient liberties from tory & labour attacks
  
• pragmatic internationalism combined with a desire that power be exercised at the lowest practical level

so I consequently will be voting for the party which shares those concerns. That the party happens to be led by a nice guy who seems to be appealing to other voters is a bonus.

[Unregistered]

 

I've met almost nobody that says they are voting Labour and lots who say that they are voting Lib-Dem instead.

 

 

I've noticed that too.

 

Perhaps the people are sending a message to Parliament.

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[barny_100]

If I was undecided I think the sheer amount of leaflets and annoyingly personally addressed letters that have dropped through my letterbox from the Lib-Dems would have put me off!

[jfish1936]

In Britain, you have two problems with your voting systems:

 

1/. It's not compulsory; so the "confused" and "can't be bothered" let the election be won by a party which may not have real majority support (what percentage of voters will turn out? 30%, 50%, or a record-breaking 70%?)

 

2/. if a party is on the nose so much they can only expect 40% of the vote -- no problem! they can still win, if they can get two other parties involved, with similar appeal to the people. E.G. the "Anti-Egg Party" can only hope for 40%; but if they can divide the egg-eaters into "BigEndians" at 32% and "LittleEndians" at 28%, then the "Anti-Eggers" win government, and the egg eaters have to go without, though they are 60% to 40%.

In Australia, we have to go to the polls; yes, you can write "Stuff this" on your paper and then go home, but you have to go. Then you have a transferable vote: Say Lib-Dems 1, Labour 2, Cons 3.

If one party get 50% of the 1s, then that's what she wrote, they're in. Otherwise, the lowest 1 vote party are eliminated AND their 2 votes are allocated as "preferences". So you can vote for a minor party without "splitting the vote" and letting the party you hate get in.

Anyway, enjoy your election; my ancestors in the Radical and early Labour Party risked a lot to get you the right to vote, so go out there and exercise that right!

[Cyclone]

Neither of those are the biggest electoral problem, the uneven spread of supporters and uneven size of constituencies make it much more difficult for the LibDems to actually win. They could get 50% of the vote, a clear majority and end up with a minority of seats leaving them in 3rd place still, clearly not a representative result.

[mj.scuba]

Judging from SF's pages and what I hear around and about the Lib-Dems seem to be flavour of the month right now. I've met almost nobody that says they are voting Labour and lots who say that they are voting Lib-Dem instead.

 

So, will this translate into them winning more MP's seats around Sheffield?

 

Is it conceivable that Angela Smith, Meg Munn, David Blunkett or Clive Betts will lose their long-standing Labour seats to the Lib-Dems?

 

No they're far too comfortable in their seats they know mugs will keep voting them in.

[Unregistered]

Some people say that Vinny Cable is a messiah - sent to save us.

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[hitman2010]

liebour will still have those MPs in office after the election as its very much ingrained in people round here to vote according to how their parents voted,its a shame but its how it is.Liebour have been a disaster for this country and this city and if they win again god help us all.