HeadingNorth Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Oh dear! Oh dear what? Are you disputing the fact that only candidates, and not parties, are allowed to stand in a general election? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Soft Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Oh dear what? Are you disputing the fact that only candidates, and not parties, are allowed to stand in a general election? No more than you are overlooking the fact that the voter is not looking at the candidate but the party when voting. Some diehard tories would vote tory even if they existed below the poverty line! The candidate does not come into it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 No more than you are overlooking the fact that the voter is not looking at the candidate but the party when voting. Neither I, nor anyone, has overlooked that. We've been saying all along that most people select their candidate based on to which party he or she belongs. That doesn't alter the indisputable fact that only candidates can stand for election. Couple with the other, even more obvious, fact that people can only vote for entities which are standing for election, it is therefore true that people vote for a candidate, not for a party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Soft Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Suffice it to say that if Arthur Scargill himself stood for the Conservative party in the next election , some on here would vote for tory. They would put their cross at the side of Arthurs head but would be voting for the party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Suffice it to say that if Arthur Scargill himself stood for the Conservative party in the next election , some on here would vote for tory. They would put their cross at the side of Arthurs head but would be voting for the party. They cannot vote for the party. Parties cannot stand for election. They can choose a party and vote for the candidate which that party supports; they cannot vote directly for a party. You're actually admitting that when you say "they would put their cross at the side of Arthur's [name]" ... so your sentence is self-contradictory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Soft Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 They cannot vote for the party. Parties cannot stand for election. They can choose a party and vote for the candidate which that party supports; they cannot vote directly for a party. You're actually admitting that when you say "they would put their cross at the side of Arthur's [name]" ... so your sentence is self-contradictory. Yeah....whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icanc4miles Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 They vote for the MP, if they choose to do that along party lines because of party manifesto that's up to them, but they are still choosing to vote for an MP. No. It is not physically possible, in this country, to vote for a party*. Your only options are to vote for a specific candidate, or not vote at all. People may well choose a party, but their vote is for a specific candidate who is supported by that party - not for the party itself. *European elections not included, since those are conducted on a PR system. I would say most people that vote are voting for a party regardless of who the candidate on the ballot paper is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 I would say most people that vote are voting for a party regardless of who the candidate on the ballot paper is. You would be wrong. It's not possible to vote for a party. Only candidates can stand for election, and the electorate chooses from those candidates. It is possible - and is widely done, as we've been pointing out for what seems like weeks now! - to choose your candidate based on nothing more than which party is supporting him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Soft Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 I would say most people that vote are voting for a party regardless of who the candidate on the ballot paper is. Try telling that to the bigots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icanc4miles Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 You would be wrong. It's not possible to vote for a party. Right OK I'm going to stop talking to you now. () Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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