Who ya gonna vote?

[klondike]

Pensioners abandon the Tories with just a quarter of over-65s planning to vote Conservative 

The Conservatives' core vote is leaking away in the run-up to the election with just a quarter of pensioners planning to back the party, a new poll suggests.

Just 26 per cent of over-65s say they plan to vote for the Tories at the next election, according to a super-poll of 5,000 people by Redfield & Wilton Strategies.

This is down from an estimated 60 per cent who backed the party under Boris Johnson at the 2019 election.

Some 32 per cent of pensioners now plan to vote Labour, giving Sir Keir a lead over Rishi Sunak in every age group of eligible voters.

But in a sign that is likely to cause more concern at CCHQ, there was a marked surge in support among pensioner for the Reform Party when he sacked Suella Braverman as Home Secretary last year.

It suggests that a sizeable chunk of right-leaning pensioners are drifting away from the Tories, with the small boats crisis and deportation flights to Rwanda the latest trigger. The party has not had the support of more than 50 per cent of pensioners since the resignation of Owen Paterson over lobbying in 2021.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13066175/Pensioners-abandon-Tories-just-quarter-65s-planning-vote-Conservative-Reform-Labour.html

[Raven]

Don't know, am hacked off to the back teeth with them all.  

[Scrumpy]

Nobody has asked me.. Who are these pensioners that are being asked.. ?
Different papers usually have different results when doing 'polls'..

 I certainly would not vote Labour.. But I am concerned that if I vote Reform I will be giving Labour a vote..

[klondike]

What constituency are you in? For the Tories to stand a chance whatever you do they are likely to need to have achieved a sizeable majority at the last outing. They are 20 points or more down in the polling. Of course Labour could conceivably drag defeat from the jaws of victory but there is still time for the Tories to lose themselves even more points in the polling too. Both are a pile of 💩

A single vote decides nothing and with the mess I see after 14 years of them being in power I simply cannot possibly give them a vote. If Reform were not standing I'd either spoil the ballot or not bother at all.

[JBR]

Nobody has asked me.. Who are these pensioners that are being asked.. ?
Different papers usually have different results when doing 'polls'..

 I certainly would not vote Labour.. But I am concerned that if I vote Reform I will be giving Labour a vote..

That is about as logical as saying that if you vote Conservative you will be giving Labour a vote!

Personally, I shall vote for Reform, and I am absolutely certain beyond any doubt whatsoever that that will result in my giving Reform a vote!  🤣🤣🤣

[GrannyMac]

It depends where you live to some extent.  Huge Labour majority here in the heartlands, so its Reform for me.  However, if I was in a two party marginal, I might vote Conservative rather than help Labour get in.

[Scrumpy]

If I vote Reform that is one less vote for Conservative.. Hence one less vote for Labour to worry about.. So... I will be ... in a roundabout way ... giving a vote to Labour...   Only a woman can come up with such a logical solution..

That is about as logical as saying that if you vote Conservative you will be giving Labour a vote!

Personally, I shall vote for Reform, and I am absolutely certain beyond any doubt whatsoever that that will result in my giving Reform a vote!  🤣🤣🤣

[klondike]

This coming election will be the second time in my life that I have not voted Conservative. The first was after Ted Heath's fiasco of a three day week and power cuts. To my eternal shame I voted Liberal then.

The only thing that would shame me this time around is putting my X against the name of somebody standing for the party that has gone a very long way towards destroying my country. I firmly expect that we will be getting a Labour government wearing red rosettes rather than a closet socialist high tax, big government, nanny state party who sport blue rosettes. The only saving grace being I didn't vote for either of them.

[JBR]

If I vote Reform that is one less vote for Conservative.. Hence one less vote for Labour to worry about.. So... I will be ... in a roundabout way ... giving a vote to Labour...  Only a woman can come up with such a logical solution..

You are, of course, free to vote for whom you think would serve us best.
But I think that in a majority left-wing area, whether you vote for Conservative or Labour is rather irrelevant, as the Conservatives wouldn't have succeeded there even if they had served the country very well these last several years.

[klondike]

In those seats any dissillusioned Labour supporters won't be voting Reform in case it lets the Tories in. Some of course probably more because they'd consider them worse than the Tories

Nobody has the courage to vote for what they want. Instead the vote against what they don't want. As I don't want either I'm free to vote for whoever I want. Sadly I have little to no chance of them succeeeding.

[JBR]

To be honest, I don't really care.

The country is going to hell in a handcart anyway, so I will vote for who I support.
If the majority of voters choose either Conservative or Labour, things will continue as they already are, or possibly even worse.

Eventually, when the penny finally drops, people may then decide that both of the so-called 'two main parties' are equally useless.  They will either decide that there is no point in voting at all or perhaps, possibly, they will be brave enough to try a different option!

[klondike]

No government is going to willingly alter the voting system that put them into power. Look at what the LibDems tried to change it to - a system that would have seen them forever in power as probably the junior partner in a coalition.

With the current voter mindset a Tory voter would put LibDem as second choice rather than Labour and obviously they'd be second choice of any Labour supporter. Fortunately it got voted down in the referendum but I sometimes wonder if it may not have been better than what we have now.

It may have seen some Reform MPs elected and that is unlikely with our first past the post system.

[Raven]

To be honest, I don't really care.

The country is going to hell in a handcart anyway, so I will vote for who I support.
If the majority of voters choose either Conservative or Labour, things will continue as they already are, or possibly even worse.

Eventually, when the penny finally drops, people may then decide that both of the so-called 'two main parties' are equally useless.  They will either decide that there is no point in voting at all or perhaps, possibly, they will be brave enough to try a different option!

That's what happened in Scotland and the SNP became THEE party to support. But this last wee while has caused many wounds and now I don't know what will happen here at the next election.

[JBR]

That's what happened in Scotland and the SNP became THEE party to support. But this last wee while has caused many wounds and now I don't know what will happen here at the next election.

True, but I sincerely hope that if Reform does get elected, they will perform rather better than the SNP.

[klondike]

Well whatever happens we can be sure that it won't benefit the Tories and there is a very good chance that it will benefit Labour.