I personally am in favour of pluralist democracy and not being tied to any one political party.
I agree with your friend that the Liberal Democrats are to the left of Labour. More important than making voting gestures which feel morally good is using votes to change things. IMO the most important reason for supporting the LibDems is their commitment to proportional representation constitutionally and politically, their commitment to European integration.
But tactical voting is on the rise despite the continuation of Britain's first-past-the-post system for our main elections, since 1992. There is a strong desire to vote against the Conservatives even now.
gives information about the best chances of beating the Conservative candidate. For people who do not want to vote against their party they can be paired with someone who will vote for their party where it has a the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate.
Perhaps people could pass this on to other potential British voters.
Chris Burford
London
-Hmmmm.....seems to be very similar to the dilemma faced by the US left. -Support the lesser evil (Democrats) or engaging in third parties building -while risking to help the right to win the elections. However, from what -I know from relatively limited sources, the New Labour and the Democratic -party in the USA are not too different from their right wing counterparts, -so, in the case of UK, where the risk of a conservative victory is too -small, it would be better to fight for left wing alternatives to Labour, -instead of tactical votes. Do you think a left wing party (like the -Alliance in New Zealand for instance) could achieve 10-15% of the national -votes?
Alexandre