Will the tactical voting plea work?

tb

Maybe they should come out and say what they think is a 'No Hope' seat. One with a 10% majority? Higher?

Bill Rees

I'm not sure this will work for three reasons.
First, it admits defeat, which is never a great recruitment tool.
Second, it appears to reveal that some politicians are more motivated by being anti the Tories, rather than pro their own platform.
Third, it appears opportunistic and unprincipled.
Surely everyone can see through it.

AKA Jorge

My sepeculation is that it will backfire as voters will see both parties as equally and mutually tainted by the same agenda: uncontrolled spending, unlimited immigration, and commitment to European immigration.

Working class voters may see the Conservatives as the best option, as they did in 1989 when unionism rather than a migrant workforce was a threat to their jobs.

Tom Pride

Tactical voting works to get an unpopular government “out” but to keep an opposition out in a three horse race it becomes arbitrary and improbable. A sign of pure desperation.

Billy Blofeld

People voting Liberal are voting "For Change".

Labour remaining in government in any shape or form does not constitute change.

Percy

@tb
Agreed perhaps they should just publish a list of seats that they have given up on.

RJ

When I saw Ed Balls call one if his constituents a liar on her doorstep I went and put 10 quid on a Tory gain.

Mark Cannon

It won't work.

The LibDems always claim that they are the party to unseat the sitting candidate.

So voters have to decide between (i) the leaflet they get through their door from the LibDems suggesting that they are beating Labour (so that, if you vote for Labour you might let the Tories in) and (ii) Labour's appeal for tactical votes at the national level.

You can vote tactically to get out a candidate if it is clear that only one opposition party has a chance to unseat the incumbent. It is much harder when it is - or is claimed to be - a three horse race.

Vulture

Balls better hope that people don't take his advice in his own constituency and tactically vote Lib Dem to keep out the Tory. He might find himself with no votes at all.

Tactical voting is a two-edged sword likely to hurt whoever grasps it. Especially as in this case when the grasping is done by a drowning man.

Prodicus

You make the common mistake of thinking the LibDems are principled when it comes to electioneering. A vote is a vote and they'll stop at nothing to get it. Their shabby history of dishonest electioneering is the evidence. They steal people's policies and , presentation and will change everything in their portfolio (except PR - their only hope) for the sake of a few votes. God alone knows what they believe as a group and what they would do if we were mad enough to put them in office. No-one else knows does - not even their leaders, given their constitution. Clegg is the polish on a very old, confused and ugly turd.

WASHBROOK

''BROWN WOST MP EVER'' says Labour M.P.
http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/

Tom Pride

Brillo has just given Wee Dougie Alexander a dam good kicking over this and the
Treasury pay rates for its cleaners. Who was in charge of the Treasury?

Contract cleaners says Dougie – nowt to do with us. Brillo bites. Dougie enters state of shock.

Thirteen years for the BBC to pin some responsibility on New Labour and its sanctimonious moral superiority.

As the power drips away they are revealed. A bunch of drowned rats. Pathetic. Down and almost out.

Gil

This is a sign of utter desperation. Didn't Balls and Hain realise that whatever they said, the media would spin it so that 'Labour have given up'? Andrew Neil has just slaughtered Douglas Alexander on BBC2 on this actual point.

However, the main concern is the attitude of the markets. Judging from the FTSE it still thinks that there will be a hung parliament.

Stevie

It's just as Cameron just said, vote Clegg get Brown. This sort of tosh will just reinforce that in peoples minds, a vote for anyone other than the Tories will result in 5 more years of Fat Jimmy.

paulg

Slightly off topic has anyone seen the interview with the labour councillor maish Sood: the man is a rabid conservative.

If his views represent anything like a substantial percentage of the labour vote: the conservatives are in for a landslide.

I have always thought a lot of Labour people hold deeply conservative views and do not like the liberal internationalist agenda followed by new Labour.

Cameron needs to exploit this explicity by addressing Mr Soods concerns and the we mo will finally turn into a mighty mo.

oldtimer

Will the tactical voting plea work? you ask. It probably will help the Tories more than Labour who, once again, will be able to say `vote yellow and get Brown`. It doesn`t look like a smart move to me.

Dorothy Wilson

Will it work in Labour's favour! No!

Maggie

Nick Clegg has gone from "new, fresh and different" to a "TV game show host" to a prop to keep Labour in power, in the space of a mere 48 hours.

Minnie

According to a non-stop stream of callers to BBC5, ALL voters are going to vote for either Labour or LibDem in order to keep the Tories out. Ed Balls and Peter Hain have been given the freedom of the airwaves for the past 24 hours to issue their diktat, and EVERYONE has obeyed it. The power of the BBC to influence a general election really is awesome.

denis cooper

It will work to some extent, the question being whether it will have a significant impact on the outcome.

I remember what Diane Abbott said on "This Week" some years ago - that after she joined the Labour party the first lesson which was drummed into her was this: above else, the most important aim is always to keep the Tory out.

So some people who would normally vote Labour will instead vote to keep the Tory out, and similarly some people who would normally vote Liberal Democrat will instead vote to keep the Tory out.

I expect that by Friday morning we'll have some idea about the numbers who've done that.

echo34

No. The lib dems have a historic opportunity to usurp labour as the official opposition.

Better in the polls than they've ever been, are they going to throw that in for labour and gordon? no chance.

If anything, this will make more people vote libdem in labour constituencies.

Labour insults the electorate with this.

Chris

I saw it as some pre-disaster face-saving. If votes swing to LibDem from Labour to prevent Tories winning it will be down to "tactical voting" and not down to the public abandoning Labour.

alexsandr

I think with volatile polls and uncertail local swings it is a very dangerous tactic.

Besides Balls, anyone any idea of other labour ministers whos re-election is not certain any more?

Rod Jones

No, it won't. It will help to focus the minds of those who recognise that the removal of Gordon Brown and New Labour is the absolute first priority in the face of the coming financial and economic storm. The Conservative Party is the only clear and unequivocal way to guarantee that removal. I would class myself as socially liberal and financially conservative: when the finances are sound, we can start spending (cautiously) once again. My doubts about the Conservative Party is whether they will eliminate the deficit quickly enough, and start paying off the national debt.

Naomi Muse

Sickening politicians.

Sickening Brown and his cohorts.
Yah Boo politics.

No care of voters and what they want.

Brown deserves to be left out to dry.

Osred

The Tories need to remind folk that what Clegg is after is not 'new politics' but old stuff in a new hat. The old 2 party 'stitch up' with a new 2 party 'stitch up' of Lib/Labs. For all the hoo-hah of Cleggmania they just havent gone broken out of their traditional protest vote function and a home for any fashionable anti-Forces Eco-Loon detritus.

DZ

People posting here seem to be of the 'honest British' type, and very trusting. So I really hope that we won't be too upset by the amount of the postal voting in the GE by non-existent people.

Somebody reminded me that during WW2, most German nationals were interned on the Isle of Man. In 2010, with war going on in two areas, people from those areas are not only here but voting.

I hope it does not end in tears.

denis cooper

To clarify, does the present condemnation of "tactical voting" cancel the previous injunction to UKIP voters that they should switch to the Tories?

RJ

"The Welsh secretary Peter Hain said opponents of Tories should vote "intelligently" in constituencies where Labour cannot win.

But he insisted that did not amount to urging Labour backers to vote tactically against the Conservatives."

Is he for real? Could he insult our intelligence any more? Does he want to tell us that telling us the sky is blue does not amount to the sky being blue?

David Bouvier

So it will be inappropriate for Nick Clegg to interpret his % vote as a source of legitimacy - full as it may be with tactical voters.

Sacre Bleu

Does anybody know if there will be UN Observers present to ensure free and fair election? We know of previous postal voting 'difficulties' in the past and there is likely to to be the same problem this time. Just because we claim that we are a "Democracy" does not mean we are squeaky clean with our politics.

malone

I agree with Chris.

If Labour poll come in 3rd in votes they will spuriously claim it is due to many of their voters tactically switching to the LIberals.

Libdems beware! If you truly want to become the second party you hvae to tell Labour where to go.

David Lindsay

Do Ed Balls, Peter Hain and Tessa Jowell want Lib Dems in the North to vote Tory? Northern Lib Dems are as viscerally anti-Labour as Southern Lib Dems are anti-Tory.

I have a tactic: vote for what you believe in. If that is not on the ballot paper, then why aren't you?

Captain Christy

It is impossible to predict what Labour voters will do - many of them have not been educated to think for themselves - many Rochdale voters actually feel sorry for Brown. And LibDems, well they are the new Loony party - THEY know what makes sense !

Joanne Morley

Do we think there is any possibility of Lib Dem supporters in Morley and Outwood indulging in some tactical voting in that seat to keep Balls out?

Ian McNamara

Have all Tories forgotten how they all voted Labour with Blair not long ago? Cameron wants to redesign the boundaries to fix future elections. He also wants a 19% VAT. JOBS WILL BE LOST UNDER THE TORIES MORE THAN NOW. Does anyone think Cameron & his crew care? They will be fat & happy at our expenses.