You may dislike the current Labour incarnation and deplore its Brexit position. You may believe that one Tory MP makes little or no difference when facing a Labour landslide.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The huge prize at this election is the Tories coming THIRD.
So, hold your nose. Look past your frustration, distaste, anger, and apathy. And vote for whichever party can beat the Tories in your constituency.
That would change absolutely everything. It’s the difference between them biding their time until they can regroup and being finished forever as a political force.
Here’s what they would lose by finishing up behind the LibDems:
- – 6 questions at PMQs every week –
- Automatic media coverage –
- 17 Opposition Days when they get to set the agenda and hold votes
- First right to reply to key speeches like the King’s Speech and the Budget –
- A lot of their Short Money –
- The right to form a Shadow Cabinet (other parties can mirror government functions, but nobody cares) as a government in waiting –
- Chairs of several Select Committees –
- Privy Council membership for senior figures –
- Office of the Leader of the Opposition, with additional resources, funding and staff
As you can imagine, the path to rebuilding would be a vertical cliff without any good stuff to fall back on. That’s why it’s essential to vote tactically to get the Tories out, no matter what you feel about the current incarnation of Labour. (Here at the WW, we are furious about their views on Brexit and other issues.) The chance will never come again to wipe them out for good.
We will never see the perfect storm of factors converge again: –
Fourteen years of Conservative rule, marked by growing public discontent – A string of mismanagement issues, from the PPE scandal to Brexit complications – The rise of Reform UK, splitting the traditional Conservative vote and the perfect protest vote for people who would never vote Labour, LibDem or Green –
A resurgent Liberal Democrat party – An astonishingly poor Conservative election campaign And with the LibDems in Opposition, Brexit will finally get a proper and frequent airing. That will advance the cause of Rejoin more than any other action possibly could.
No, the prize is Jeremy Hunt retaining his seat and continuing to do a great job for Godalming and Ash. In all my 70+ years I have never known an MP so active locally as Jeremy! He deserves all our votes today!
I agree with Julian. It would be a tragedy if Jeremy Hunt loses to a Lib Dem.JH has been a brilliant local MP and achieved a lot. We would miss him. The Lib Dem decisions in Waverley under Paul Follows have been pretty disastrous eg sharing top management with Guildford, proposing to build houses on Godalming car park and not listening to people.
If Paul Follows and the Rainbow Coalition hadn;t listened to the public, then there would have been development on the Crown Court Cr Park, wouldn’t there? As for combining with Guildford. That is Tory Government policy – to share services.
The WW whoeheatedly agree that Jeremy Hunt has been a great constituency MP. However, it is time for a change. The Tories have held power at WBC, Guildford and Surrey County Council for far too long.
The LibDems AND Residents Groups across Surrey have indeed undergone a resurgence in Local Government. But looking at the National picture, with their leader Sir Ed Davey (think Royal Mail) performing circus stunts each day of the campaign, in a desperate bid to gain media coverage, are they a party of grown-ups that should be taken seriously?
As a long-term Conservative (parents etc..) I could not vote for them again – they have ruined this country they have given Hand-outs to the Big developers and I will never forgive them for trashing Our Village of Alfold – Not because it was good for the Locals whose Kids cannot afford most of the new Builds – but because they did nothing to improve the Infrastructure here.
They have done little to NOTHING about the environment – and let the sneaky developers offset our Biodiversity Net Gain to other parts of the Borough – which does nothing to help us.
Jeremy may be OK – But he has only noticed in the last few months where Alfold was..
To be quite honest I was tempted to put my cross next to one of the more obscure parties – But they didn’t even live in Surrey!
I have voted… Not saying for whom – But at least I made the effort. Hope others do too.