X marks the spot

I am a member of the biggest survey website in the UK, todays main questions were about voting intent. In America its very different, at present there aren't guaranteed competitors for either of the main parties, nor a leader of the opposition party. In the UK we know all the parties that will compete, we know the leaders of each and there are betting odds on who will win and by how much.

Although the parties differ on some policies and agree on others, the leader of the party is important. While the prime minister is in charge there in an opposition leader to question the policies and actions of the biggest party. At regular sittings in parliament members of all parties will get a chance to speak, during prime minister questions they can ask direct questions to the head of the government. Votes are taken on most proposed laws and law changes, while the leaders of each party can try and force their members to vote a certain way.

The lords is made up of senior politicians and people who inherited titles through family. They are there to either agree with parliament, to suggest amendments to proposals or to simply disagree. While the lords aren't voted for, the party in power usually adds people that are supporters or ex members of the party.

In America it seems there's a choice of the 2 big parties plus maybe 1 or 2 independents. Recently there was a election for an mp who represents a seaside town, there were I believe 16 choices on the ballot paper. Everyone had a number of votes, although the majority had a very small number. The runner up disguises himself as a bin, the less said about the winner the better.

In the last general election I had the choice from 5 possibilities. I hated all the main ones and at least 1 of the others represented a horrible party. The favourite has wrecked havoc in the area and was likely to carry on in the same vein. Unfortunately she won and has carried on presiding on chaos. The runner up was the MP before, fairly unpopular but had started a couple of positive things and a good few bad things.

Third was the horrible party that I cant bring myself to name. Followed by the party now in government and a party in a tailspin . Around 53,000 voted out of 78,000 voted, the winner getting nearly 21,000. As with most of the general election she appears to have won at least in part by not being the party that had been in power for the previous 14 years. The Tories had scandal after scandal and lost many MPs. So, labour won a big majority, by not being Tories. Even Trump used a similar technique, vote for me because I'm not the other lot.

Labours leader won his constituency, with less votes than the previous time. The country is getting fed up with politics and protest parties are in danger of getting in power. Despite them only having 1 policy and few experienced MPs to call on, they may end up having to learn very quickly how to run the country.

In order to fill the building above you need the 650 MPs with the most votes nationally. Among those MPs there are 15 different parties plus 11 registered as independent. You want to vote for the party that reflects you as a person and reflects your political views. While the winner in your area has power locally, the power in parliament lies with the party in power. So if your MP isn't in the labour party they are restricted with national policies.

So locally or nationally who do you vote for and why?

Do you vote for the party you like the most if they aren't likely to win nationally?

Do you vote for the party that is favourite to win , so they have a bigger mandate and may do things you care about?

Do you automatically dismiss certain parties , regardless of how they may act ?

Locally my dilemma is that the local MP is in a party that I think is one of the better ones. But I am desperate to do anything I can to get her out. Then the problem is that the horrible party that I wont name may get in. So in theory a local vote could be enough to sway power , depending on how close the numbers are. Local elections happen throughout the election cycle, they give an idea of what intentions the public have.

I don't know how many choices I will have next time there's a vote, I am guessing the same from last time plus one more. As they are a more extreme version of the horrible party I will have to hope they don't get too close. The decision needs to be made in just 7 months time, it may take me that long to decide. Hopefully the protest parties will fall apart and parties with experience in their ranks gets in. I want experienced MPs that know something of what they are doing. Protest parties tend to fill their numbers by letting pretty much anyone stand for them.

I was hoping at this stage to have reached a conclusion on what I might do, instead I am as confused as ever. I know who I wont vote for, I know who I don't want to win, I haven't a clue what that leaves. Hopefully by May next year I might have made my mind up.