UK General Elections 2015: Who you voting for?

[EmptyHead]

Hello British expats of Thailand,

So we can now vote online from overseas.

Who ya votin' for?

[evadgib]

Rangers or Celtic?

[Ricardo]

I'd vote for whoever promised to give me the same unfrozen pension as all the other pensioners, regardless of where they happen to reside ... and since this won't be happening, and I used to live in Thanet-South, then that nice Mr Farage will probably get my vote, and he doesn't even have to buy me a beer in-return !

We voted with our feet already, now it's time to get our own back, on the Establishment !

And don't get me started, on 'Mr Prudence' or the champagne-socialist Bliar !

[WhamBam]

Would this not be better as a poll? It would have been easier.

I can imagine all the bickering and bitchiness for those who mention the 3 main parties.

Personally, I am voting UKIP. This will only be the 2nd time I have voted against my favourite party in over 40 years of voting. Is it a wasted vote? That depends on how many stick by what they say about voting for UKIP. Enough votes and the main parties will get a shock and about time. Far too much complacency from the Cons / Lab / Lib Dems in my opinion.

[EmptyHead]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Rangers or Celtic?

Rangers who?

Would this not be better as a poll? It would have been easier.

I can imagine all the bickering and bitchiness for those who mention the 3 main parties.

Personally, I am voting UKIP. This will only be the 2nd time I have voted against my favourite party in over 40 years of voting. Is it a wasted vote? That depends on how many stick by what they say about voting for UKIP. Enough votes and the main parties will get a shock and about time. Far too much complacency from the Cons / Lab / Lib Dems in my opinion.

You're right. And i love polls too! Damn!

[tif]

I'm predicting the overwhelming majority of expats vote UKIP. Classy lot that they are.

[Jip99]

I may abstain

[gerry123]

UKIP

[steve187]

I'll vote for whoever gives me 500 baht

[zappadave]

Conversative

Just to keep the pound up against the baht.

If it wasn't for self interest in the exchange rate, I would vote for none of the above.

[bangkokjulia]

Barmy Army

[Jay Sata]

Miliband and Harman will wreck the UK just like Blair and Brown did before.

[naboo]

So the immigrants are voting for the party that hates immigrants. There's a surprise.

[dsfbrit]

I am not sure you can vote online. Before Xmas I registered online as an overseas voter with Chelmsford City council where I used to live before I came to live in Thailand 12 years ago.

They sent me a form to fill in to designate if I wanted to appoint a proxy voter (ie someone to vote for me in the UK), or I could vote myself and they would send me the voting form by post 11 days before polling day - I had to return the voting form before polling day.

Anyway, as a test, on February 2nd, I asked the person at CC council to send me the registration form by post, to see if a form could arrive here with enough time to be returned within 11 days.

It is now the 14th and the 'test' form has not even arrived yet!

So, as I suspected, if I want to vote then I will have to appoint a proxy.

When I vote, as I cannot vote 'none of the above', then I will vote UKIP. Mainly as a protest, but I chose them as they seem to have a lot of ideas (I have not seen their actual policies yet) that ring true with me.

I normally would vote Tory, but I am livid at them for several policies, in particular their Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). This is THEIR policy (not the Bank Of England) and for those of you who are not aware of this little bit of 'trickery', read about it and realise it is the real/ major reason that interest rates on (my) savings are so low!

Happy voting, whoever wins it I hope it is not another coalition!

[chris2004]

Miliband and Harman will wreck the UK just like Blair and Brown did before.

The problem is it will be Red Ed and Salmond running the country after May. Glad i left. Millions will vote UKIP but with FPTP it will no effect.

[nong38]

So the immigrants are voting for the party that hates immigrants. There's a surprise.

UKIP's main policy is to withdraw from the EU. As far as immigrants are concerned all the parties say they want to control immigration and all have failed to do so.

There was a hug surge in immigration under TB and GB, it changed the face of the country, the indegineous population did not like the influx, non of the political parties took much notice of the electorate, will UKIP fare better on this issue, they do recognize it as a problem that needs dealing with, too many too quickly. Immigrants that come into the UK and contribute to the country and fit into the British way of life have never been a problem, its the ones that dont want to contribute, the ones that dont want to fit into the British way, the ones that offended by british ways and values that are the problem, the problem the public see and the politicians dont because they are afraid of offending minorities and losing votes.

I think UKIP might just upset the main parties which will mean some strange bed fellows getting to Parliament, this might be a touchy time for the exchange rate until it sorts itself out.

I have always voted Conservative, but no this time, they had many chances to do soemthing for me and have not so this time I will give UKIP my vote. I am happy to come out of the EU, when I voted for Europe it was the EEC a very different animal, I dont like what its turned into and it costs us a lot of money and the benefits are what/ Busniness leaders spout on about the advantages, but they are their advaantages not mine or Joe publics. Its not as if we suddenly would stop trading with them is it, they need our trade as well as we need theirs. Renegotiation of our position with them of course, but we will be fine on our own.

Edited February 14, 2015 by nong38

[bartender100]

Having not lived in the UK for a few years now I wont be voting, but looking from the outside in it looks like the UK is booming to certain extent, both my brothers have small business's and they both say its never been better, UK is no longer the sick man of Europe. Labor made a total mess of the UK, why anyone would vote them back in is a mystery, we are still paying the price of their folly, IMHO

I can see UKIP doing well of coarse, but I think Cameron will just squeeze back in, and its who I would be voting for if I was in the UK

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/ka-ching-the-british-consumer-boom-continues/

[Eff1n2ret]

I am not sure you can vote online. Before Xmas I registered online as an overseas voter with Chelmsford City council where I used to live before I came to live in Thailand 12 years ago.

They sent me a form to fill in to designate if I wanted to appoint a proxy voter (ie someone to vote for me in the UK), or I could vote myself and they would send me the voting form by post 11 days before polling day - I had to return the voting form before polling day.

Anyway, as a test, on February 2nd, I asked the person at CC council to send me the registration form by post, to see if a form could arrive here with enough time to be returned within 11 days.

It is now the 14th and the 'test' form has not even arrived yet!

So, as I suspected, if I want to vote then I will have to appoint a proxy.

You're perfectly correct, the OP is totally misleading and there is no 'online voting'. I originally registered as an overseas voter before the referendum on the LibDems' cockeyed proposals for proportional representation. What I didn't realise at the time was that every year the council send out a form which you have to return to maintain your registration. I never received one, so my registration lapsed and I didn't find out until my proxy informed me that he hadn't received a voting form for the Euro-elections last year, thus I missed out on my right to vote then.

Subsequently I did the online registration which you have done, and experienced the same postal delays and council inefficiency that you are undergoing. I had to chase up the council by email and eventually corresponded with quite a helpful lady who emailed me the proxy form and accepted the completed form back by email.

From Thailand the only effective way you can vote is by proxy. Would that there were some form of online voting.

[brewsterbudgen]

I've always been Labour and don't see any reason to change, although I'm not a fan of Ed.

[dsfbrit]

Eff1n2Ret, it is a pity there isn't online voting, I am trying to think of someone that I could ask to be a proxy. When I first came out here I did not think it right that I vote as I was no longer in the country.

However, as it seems I am to be affected by UK government policy with regards to bank interest savings rates, taxation, impact on exchange rates, the state pension, NHS access etc .., then I really do still need to be involved.

You didn't say who you will be voting for.

Edited February 14, 2015 by dsfbrit

[chris2004]

Having not lived in the UK for a few years now I wont be voting, but looking from the outside in it looks like the UK is booming to certain extent, both my brothers have small business's and they both say its never been better, UK is no longer the sick man of Europe. Labor made a total mess of the UK, why anyone would vote them back in is a mystery, we are still paying the price of their folly, IMHO

I can see UKIP doing well of coarse, but I think Cameron will just squeeze back in, and its who I would be voting for if I was in the UK

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/ka-ching-the-british-consumer-boom-continues/

Britain "booming" is mainly just Tory media hype. The country's underlying financial position is very bad. 100 billion a year fiscal deficit not changed by caMORON in 5 years. Even under B'Liar it only averaged 40-50 billion. He's nearly doubled the National Debt to 1.4 trillion. In December we had our worse ever balance of trade deficit, every month it runs at a 10 billion loss. GDP per capita down since 2008. The only reason things "look" rosy is a low interest/high debt economy to keep people thinking they have money to spend. If rates ever went back up to normal the whole economy would crash.

[bartender100]

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Having not lived in the UK for a few years now I wont be voting, but looking from the outside in it looks like the UK is booming to certain extent, both my brothers have small business's and they both say its never been better, UK is no longer the sick man of Europe. Labor made a total mess of the UK, why anyone would vote them back in is a mystery, we are still paying the price of their folly, IMHO

I can see UKIP doing well of coarse, but I think Cameron will just squeeze back in, and its who I would be voting for if I was in the UK

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/ka-ching-the-british-consumer-boom-continues/

Britain "booming" is mainly just Tory media hype. The country's underlying financial position is very bad. 100 billion a year fiscal deficit not changed by caMORON in 5 years. Even under B'Liar it only averaged 40-50 billion. He's nearly doubled the National Debt to 1.4 trillion. In December we had our worse ever balance of trade deficit, every month it runs at a 10 billion loss. GDP per capita down since 2008. The only reason things "look" rosy is a low interest/high debt economy to keep people thinking they have money to spend. If rates ever went back up to normal the whole economy would crash.

IMF don't seem to agree with you.

The head of the International Monetary Fund has handed David Cameron a helpful pre-election gift, hailing the British economic recovery as “exactly the sort of result” she would like to see.

The prime minister warmly welcomed the remarks by the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, who said that Britain’s economic performance was providing “eloquent and convincing” leadership for the rest of the EU.

Her remarks, which were made during a round-table discussion about the global economy at the IMF in Washington, will be particularly sweet for George Osborne, who the IMF strongly criticised in 2013 over his deficit reduction plan. Its chief economist Olivier Blanchard said Osborne was “playing with fire”.

Lagarde admitted last June that the IMF’s forecasts had been wrong, after the UK economy started to recover.

Lagarde warned at the round table on Thursday of the dangers of global economic stagnation and the poor levels of growth. But she said that two economies – the UK and the US – stood out.

In a discussion also attended by the prime minister and by Blanchard, Lagarde said: “The UK is leading in a very eloquent and convincing way in the European Union.

“A few countries, only a few, are driving growth: America and the UK. From a global perspective we see growth that’s too low, too fragile.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/16/imf-chief-hails-uk-economic-recovery

[tso310]

General Sir Nick Carter. Dear General Prayut has shown me the way.

[nong38]

You have to ignore the National Debt, everyone else does and everyone else has one as well ever since the Dutch discovered a wonderful way to have a huge navy which you did not have to pay for until sometime in the future, the future never came of course.

National Debts are never going to be repaid, they should all just write them off and start again.

The interest rate game is a dangerous one, everyone has borrowed the thriftyman or womans savings for next to nothing and the borrowers would be in deep trouble if the rates went up to the levels of 2007/8 so they are not going to be allowed to rise very much for a long long time, certainly you should not now rely on the interest to help you get through life, that era has gone.

Labour made a terrible mess of the economy from GB selling off the gold reserves on the cheap to squandering finances when times were good and even then they spent more than was coming in. I did not see where any of the money was going it sure did not benefit me. The last 5 years have been difficult no doubt about it and making popular savings is difficult. I am sad to see the forces and police, fire services depleted to save money and yet there does not seem to be much saved, it gone on other things which again does not seem to have benefited me, perhasp I should have a minority group and got some more attention!

Whatever happens at the next election and it looks like one that I have never seen before, there will be no clear winner so who will get into bed with who?

[dsfbrit]

nong38, I read your post with some interest. I wasn't going to reply as this thread is about who we are going to vote for. However, I keep seeing posted that savers like me are having a hard time and we should do 'something else with our money'. You conclude that the 'era for savings has gone'.

This is just wrong.

In February 2012, just before the Funding For Lending (FLS) scheme came along, I was able to get 4.5 per cent on my cash savings in a 5 year savings account with Lloyds TSB.

Rates have come down since mid 2012, due mainly to FLS, but just before Christmas I had some funds mature and invested them in a 3 year savings account with Nationwide at 2.25 percent.

As I have a reasonable pension pot, the income from these savings is more than enough for me to live on.

I don't have to do anything apart from fill in a form now and then to open a new account when one account matures. I don't pay any tax in the UK as I am non-resident.

This is so simple, why would I want to 'not rely on interest to get me through life'?

What is really nice, is that I don't have to deal with HMRC in the UK, nor deal with tenants had I decided to become a BTL landlord.

When you say '... certainly you should not now rely on the interest to help you get through life, that era has gone', it reminds me of the comments made by Gordon Brown that there would be 'No return to Boom and Bust'.

Totally wrong, as these things always have and always will go in cycles.

So it is just a case of 'when' not 'if' savings rates will go up.

In the meantime 2 percent is fine.

For anyone reading this who is not financially secure then believe me, I have every sympathy and am certainly not trying to 'big up' how great my life is or how lucky I am to have savings etc... I have known what it is like to be skint and it isn't nice at all.

It is simply that I get a bit fed up with so many people telling me I should be doing something else with my money - quite often it is written in such a way as to suggest I am a bit 'simple' when it comes to investing money. Perhaps it is simply that I am not greedy and I feel I have more than enough already.

Edited February 15, 2015 by dsfbrit

[Porkster]

If the bastards hadn't of taken away my voting rights last year I'd be voting for UKIP !

[Porkster]

So the immigrants are voting for the party that hates immigrants. There's a surprise.

LoL

Fools that don't understand what NON-Immigrant means when it's printed across the visa...

You call people racist when they're having a go at the muslims don't you?

[emoji23]

[naboo]

So the immigrants are voting for the party that hates immigrants. There's a surprise.

LoL

Fools that don't understand what NON-Immigrant means when it's printed across the visa...

Uk net immigration per year is currently 260,000.

Students, included in immigration figures, account for 220,000 of those.

Now read that article and tell me they're "immigrants" as opposed to "non-immigrants" like us.

Half of people coming to work in the UK plan to stay for less than 2 years. Are these permanent immigrants? Or would you consider them non-immigrants like us?

[WhamBam]

No party is a good party to vote for, really. They all spew lies. They do not do what they say they will do. Tories, Labour, Lib Dems. They are ALL as bad as each other. They do not give a sh*t about the people.

All this topic is liable to do is stir animosity between the Toriy and Labour voters. The Liberal mob do not really count TBH, especially as UKIP seem to be the third party now.

No-one has control over immigration. Some will blame Labour while others will say the Tories have done no better in the last 5 years.

If someone promised sincerely to give me the 'Norwegian Way' for running our country I'd vote for them at the drop of a hat. As it is, I see no other option than UKIP to stir that shambles of a parliament up.

p.s. If Guy Fawkes was standing........

[chris2004]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Having not lived in the UK for a few years now I wont be voting, but looking from the outside in it looks like the UK is booming to certain extent, both my brothers have small business's and they both say its never been better, UK is no longer the sick man of Europe. Labor made a total mess of the UK, why anyone would vote them back in is a mystery, we are still paying the price of their folly, IMHO

I can see UKIP doing well of coarse, but I think Cameron will just squeeze back in, and its who I would be voting for if I was in the UK

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/ka-ching-the-british-consumer-boom-continues/

Britain "booming" is mainly just Tory media hype. The country's underlying financial position is very bad. 100 billion a year fiscal deficit not changed by caMORON in 5 years. Even under B'Liar it only averaged 40-50 billion. He's nearly doubled the National Debt to 1.4 trillion. In December we had our worse ever balance of trade deficit, every month it runs at a 10 billion loss. GDP per capita down since 2008. The only reason things "look" rosy is a low interest/high debt economy to keep people thinking they have money to spend. If rates ever went back up to normal the whole economy would crash.

IMF don't seem to agree with you.

The head of the International Monetary Fund has handed David Cameron a helpful pre-election gift, hailing the British economic recovery as “exactly the sort of result” she would like to see.

The prime minister warmly welcomed the remarks by the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, who said that Britain’s economic performance was providing “eloquent and convincing” leadership for the rest of the EU.

Her remarks, which were made during a round-table discussion about the global economy at the IMF in Washington, will be particularly sweet for George Osborne, who the IMF strongly criticised in 2013 over his deficit reduction plan. Its chief economist Olivier Blanchard said Osborne was “playing with fire”.

Lagarde admitted last June that the IMF’s forecasts had been wrong, after the UK economy started to recover.

Lagarde warned at the round table on Thursday of the dangers of global economic stagnation and the poor levels of growth. But she said that two economies – the UK and the US – stood out.

In a discussion also attended by the prime minister and by Blanchard, Lagarde said: “The UK is leading in a very eloquent and convincing way in the European Union.

“A few countries, only a few, are driving growth: America and the UK. From a global perspective we see growth that’s too low, too fragile.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/16/imf-chief-hails-uk-economic-recovery

Ah yes praise from a French ex Finance Minister. Remind me again of France's financial position.