07/11/2019
Many, many people vote based upon long entrenched allegiances, with little or no exploration of the manifestos of the political parties seeking their vote.
I know people who are 'dyed in the wool' Labour voters, who exclaim that their "granny would turn in her grave" if they were to vote Conservative, and Tory voters who have an intense mistrust of Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
This is why we have so many, so called, 'safe seats' in UK politics.
It doesn't matter what their local MP is like, or what the party is actually doing, they will carry on voting as they have always done.
This isn't, obviously, everybody. But it's such a significant proportion of the electorate that overturning longstanding big margin seats is considered virtually impossible.
Take my own constituency as an example.
North West Hampshire is a 'safe' Conservative seat. It was long served by Sir George Young, who was active in the local community and responded positively and personally to enquiries from his constituents. However, he retired in 2015 and the constituency has since been served by Kit Malthouse. Mr Malthouse won 62.1% of the votes cast in 2017.
It is not yet absolutely clear what prospective parliamentary candidates will contest the seat on 12th December 2019, with different websites showing different information. The site whocanivotefor.co.uk lists just three candidates; Kit Malthouse (Conservative), Lance Mitchell (Green Party) and Teresa Fahy (Brexit Party). The Basingstoke Gazette did not list the Green Party candidate, but did list Luigi Gregori (and Andover resident) as the Liberal Democrat candidate. Neither of these sources listed a Labour candidate.
Many people are of the opinion that North West Hampshire will never elect a non-Tory candidate. That may well be true; certainly the Conservative majority is significant and a huge hurdle for any other party to overturn.
However, we should not just give up. We should try and ensure that people vote for the candidate that best suits their wishes and, hopefully, that will mean a swing sharply away from the Conservatives and maybe even see the Liberal Democrats take the seat.
Regardless of how you have voted historically, or how you currently plan to vote in the upcoming general election, I would recommend that you actually take the test and see how the parties match up to your priorities.
The quiz is independent and the results might surprise you. Mine certainly surprised me.
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