Who should you vote for?

[Michael Wallace]

So there are various websites out there that let you look at policies, and choose which parties policies you would vote for, without telling you which party it is whose policies they are. I thought it would be interesting to see how people's voting intentions compared with how one of these websites, votematch suggests you should vote. It only takes about 5 minutes, and whilst there are lots of obvious flaws (for instance, you might feel you can trust one party's promises more than another), I think it's kinda interesting.

The poll is just to see if people generally get the results they expect or not, I'm not really interested in which specific parties end up being suggested (and besides, secret ballot and all that), but if people want to mention parties, that's cool.

I ended up being told I should vote green, followed very closely by lib dem, which doesn't really surprise me.

For poll clarification, there are obviously quite a few possibilities, so I've been a bit vague, hopefully you're all smart enough to work it out.

[Jon O'Neill]

Labour Party: 66%
Conservative Party: 53%
Liberal Democrats: 39%
UK Independence Party: 38%
Green Party: 26%
British National Party: 25%

This and my love for Gordon Brown mean I probably will vote Labour.

[Paul Howe]

Says here I'm a libdem:

Liberal Democrats: 61% Green Party: 54% Labour Party: 45% Conservative Party: 40%

I can't vote for them though as my constituency is held by the speaker of the house, conservative John Bercow, and per tradition the other major parties have chosen not to contest it. It will still be an interesting race though as UKIP are running and apparently have a small hope of actually winning.

Unfortunately it means my choice is between the Conservatives and UKIP. I've never felt so enfranchised! Might vote for one of the tiny parties to give them some encouragement, as long as I can satisfy myself that they're not a bunch of massive racists.

[Charlie Reams]

Unfortunately it means my choice is between the Conservatives and UKIP. I've never felt so enfranchised! Might vote for one of the tiny parties to give them some encouragement, as long as I can satisfy myself that they're not a bunch of massive racists.

Also it might help them get their deposit back, which is probably healthy for democracy and all that.

[Michael Wallace]

I can't vote for them though as my constituency is held by the speaker of the house, conservative John Bercow, and per tradition the other major parties have chosen not to contest it. It will still be an interesting race though as UKIP are running and apparently have a small hope of actually winning.

Did you catch last week's Have I Got News For You? Nigel Farage was on and so this inevitably came up, was pretty lulz.

[Paul Howe]

I can't vote for them though as my constituency is held by the speaker of the house, conservative John Bercow, and per tradition the other major parties have chosen not to contest it. It will still be an interesting race though as UKIP are running and apparently have a small hope of actually winning.

Did you catch last week's Have I Got News For You? Nigel Farage was on and so this inevitably came up, was pretty lulz.

Didn't see it unfortunately. Btw I'm glad you included the "I like bananas" option or I'd have been stuck with another poll with no satisfactory voting options.

[Howard Somerset]

Strange results for me.

Without mentioning any parties by name (as Michael invited us to), my three preferred parties are, in priority order, A, B and then C.

C currently controls my constituency, but as B has far greater support in my constituency than my preferred choice, A, my intention is to vote for B in the election, as it has the greater chance of getting rid of C.

The survey suggested that my priorities should be B first, then C, and then A as a very low third.

Maybe I should have a re-think.

[Ben Hunter]

My vote match is the Green Party, but I've researched their policies in fair depth and disagreed with loads of stuff. Next is Lib Dem then Labour. I'm voting Labour at the election as a classic 'keep the bad guys out' strategy. Plus the Lib Dems are trying to close down a school for refugees in my area, and this doesn't sit well with me as a woolly liberal.

[Peter Mabey]

The Greens came out equal to my intended party: they aren't standing here, but even if they were I probably wouldn't go for them, as I'm not convinced they have policies workable internationally.

[JimBentley]

Liberal Democrats: 68%
Green Party: 53%
Labour Party: 42%
Conservative Party: 32%

Quite surprised how closely this matches my intentions, really, I'd expected it to be a load of shite (of course, maybe it still is). Jono's right mind, Gordon Brown is dreamy.



Phwoaar!! Eh girls? EH? EH?

[Ben Wilson]

I've voted Lib Dem ever since I first became eligible to vote at the 2001 general election. If I didn't vote LD, I voted Green.

Labour Party: 53%
British National Party: 52%
UK Independence Party: 46%
Conservative Party: 37%
Green Party: 32%
Liberal Democrats: 32%

Hmm!

[Gavin Chipper]

I got some pretty weird results. Green came out top for me, which is fine but most of them were close together, with Labour trailing the rest. It's probably because I voted open-minded for too many of them and I found a lot of the questions silly. Like House of Lords elections. I voted no, because I don't see why we should have a House of Lords, rather than because I think it's great as it is. And maybe I'm being dim, but if they're elected aren't they just like the House of Commons?

Edit - just did it again with a few less open-mindeds and Greens won by even more with Lib Dems moving up to second. Labour still bottom though. UKIP down from second to fourth behind the Tories.

[Charlie Reams]

And maybe I'm being dim, but if they're elected aren't they just like the House of Commons?

I don't know what the different parties plan to do about it, but it could be different from the Commons in that a) they might keep some number of appointed peers as well as the elected ones, or b) it could be that election to the Lords is for life (like tenureship) which reduces the impact of popularism.

[Dan Vanniasingham]

UK Independence Party:62%
British National Party:46%
Liberal Democrats:44%
Labour Party:44%
Conservative Party:34%
Green Party:32%

I kept UKIP and BNP (and Green - can't envisage ever voting for them either) amongst the results out of curiousity - and am now scared. The other results generally tally with my perception though.

[Charlie Reams]

UK Independence Party:62%
British National Party:46%
Liberal Democrats:44%
Labour Party:44%
Conservative Party:34%
Green Party:32%

I kept UKIP and BNP (and Green - can't envisage ever voting for them either) amongst the results out of curiousity - and am now scared. The other results generally tally with my perception though.

One of my office mates, who is a first-generation Serbian immigrant and can't vote in Britain, also took the test. It gave him BNP as the top choice, closely followed by UKIP. Presumably they don't have "would you like to be deported?" as one of the important issues. His preferred party is Labour, which it placed bottom. I'm not sure what to conclude from this.

[Jon O'Neill]

My Gordon Brown-loving colleague came out with BNP and Conservative joint top on 54%, my interpretation of which is that they must have identical positions on all matters, which is more reason not to vote for them.

[Jon Corby]

Judging by the poll results, a party with some kind of banana-centric manifesto would be onto a winner.

[Charlie Reams]

Bananaman 2010

[Dinos Sfyris]

lmao I was just peeling my lunchtime banana as I clicked on this thread!

[Michael Wallace]

lmao I was just peeling my lunchtime banana as I clicked on this thread!

Dude, do you really think we wanted to know that?

[Howard Somerset]

lmao I was just peeling my lunchtime banana as I clicked on this thread!

Dude, do you really think we wanted to know that?

At least he was peeling his own.

[Michael Wallace]

At least he was peeling his own.

Do you have a problem with people peeling other people's bananas?

[Ian Volante]

Liberal Democrats:57%
Scottish Green Party:55%
Scottish National Party:53%
Labour Party:51%
Conservative Party:30%
UK Independence Party:27%
British National Party:21%

This seems reasonable for my views, even though I had a few open-minded responses simply because the questions are too complex for yes/no. Bugger all chance of me voting for the SNP though, or getting Labour out for that matter - my MP is the Chancellor.

[Dinos Sfyris]

For anybody who hasn't already seen this Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vandalise ... =ts&v=wall

Some funny ones definitely worth a look

[Martin Smith]

The BNP came higher than I expected, which is where the insistance on yes/no questions drags things down - and where was the direct question on whether immigrants should be encouraged to leave regardless of employment status/loyalty/criminal record/religion etc? There was no direct question on Trident, or the abolition of short prison sentences, or an amnesty for illegal immigrants - three Lib Dem policies I suspect would not be widely popular.

[Peter Mabey]

Have a look at this:http://votefordemocracy.org.uk/

[Martin Smith]

They have a different understanding of 'freedom' to me. The Human Rights Act has meant less freedom for the law-abiding and more for the criminal and the deviant. The UK has managed without a written constitution in the past - the royal family, for all their faults, are the ideal safeguard against the likes of Hitler or Stalin taking over here.

[Ian Volante]

They have a different understanding of 'freedom' to me. The BNP are actually the only party seeking to preserve the freedoms of 90% of the population - freedom not to feel like second-class citizens in our own country, freedom not to be the most densely populated country in the world, freedom not to have the rights of criminals (including those here illegally) ahead of the rights of the law-abiding, freedom from obsessive political correctness....

Good one!

[Charlie Reams]

They have a different understanding of 'freedom' to me. The BNP are actually the only party seeking to preserve the freedoms of 90% of the population - freedom not to feel like second-class citizens in our own country, freedom not to be the most densely populated country in the world, freedom not to have the rights of criminals (including those here illegally) ahead of the rights of the law-abiding, freedom from obsessive political correctness....

Utter lol.

[Oliver Garner]

Anyone wanting to vote BNP should listen to this (1:39.00-1:52.30).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_04_2010/

[Michael Wallace]

Anyone wanting to vote BNP should listen to this (1:39.00-1:52.30).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_04_2010/

Hahaha thanks for that, this is amazing.

Edit: ahahahaha "what was Freudian about it?"

[Ben Hunter]

Anyone wanting to vote BNP should listen to this (1:39.00-1:52.30).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_04_2010/

hyperlol

[Charlie Reams]

Anyone wanting to vote BNP should listen to this (1:39.00-1:52.30).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 3_04_2010/

Amazing. Someone should extract this and stick it on YouTube.

(PS Listen all the way to the end, it gets funnier and funnier.)

[Marc Meakin]

Here's one way to get a few votes http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8639348.stm