Tag Archives: independent voices

Lib Link: Stephen Tall: The ins and outs of tactical voting (nose pegs optional)

Our esteemed former co-editor Stephen Tall has a piece on the Independent Voices site looking into tactical voting. Why might you, he asks:

For all the complexity of political debates about the economy, public services, the environment and immigration, the choice each of us faces when handed our ballot paper is simple: which candidate should receive our solitary “X”?

Suppose you’re a Conservative supporter living in Nick Clegg’s seat of Sheffield Hallam; should you stick by your party, even if that means handing the seat to Labour? Or lend your vote to the Lib Dem leader this time?

Or perhaps you’re a Scot who wants to see the UK stick together – then the canny choice will be the candidate best-placed to thwart the SNP. Danny Alexander is pinning his hopes of survival in his Inverness seat on rallying anti-nationalist voters.

He adds that voting for the party that most reflects your values is not always the best way of getting something like your values enacted under the first past the post electoral system:

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  • Jason Connor
    Please clarify specifically how they miss the mark? Christine is a very popular and highly capable Lib Dem MP, if not one of the most popular. If she is ous...
  • David Blake
    If Alex Cole-Hamilton has anything to do with this he should resign....
  • Steve Trevethan
    Thank you for an interesting and relevant article. Might the rise of extreme right, populist parties be a/an (unsurprising) consequence of Neoliberalism, aka...
  • Alison Smith
    Christine Jardine is a highly respected MP of national stature so this concerns Lib Dems far outside the boundaries of Edinburgh West. Furthermore, if other Sco...
  • Chris Moore
    I was another member who wanted Christine to stand for leader in 2015 and 2018/9. Indeed, wrote to her to that effect. Her qualities are undeniable. The man...