From: "matthew.wright7", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Steve wrote: I have to say a partly agree on the second point, >but as I
have
>been saying for umpteen years now and I am echoed by John >Swift in the
latest BASC magazine, don't vote by _party_, vote >by _candidate_. And
don't sit there hoping that one of them >will be okay, figure out who the
most likely person to win is
> and talk them around.
Theoretically this sounds fine and I generally agree where plenty of time
has been allocated to the task, but I think it doesn't quite work like that
in the current situation. Parties have particular cultures and attract
particular people, changing that involves a longer term commitment by people
becoming active long term members in the branches etc. Simply asking a PPC
his view on
something is limited because: a) most Labour and Lib Dem ppc's will be
against you (this is not a party political point merely a statement of
fact), b) most of those that only indicate mild sympathy or some degree of
support are lieing (I base this on hard experience over years), c) the only
ones to trust are the
ones that publicly and strongly speak out for you when they gain power (I
stress again only 6 Labour MP's have done so re shooting and 2 re hunting).
The Tories were stupid after Dunblane but Blair also deliberately
electioneered on the issue. The Tory leadership before the 97 election
bottled out on various issues and went too far in restricting pistol
shooting, but many Tory MP's strongly rebeled against this policy by defying
their whips. I know this sounds party political but many Tory MP's are
supportive of us and I feel that a vague idea that we try to identify what
all the party candidates really think so close to an election is
impractical. As I said before there is no quick fix if we have not engaged
fully in the party branches, an aim I've been pushing for years including on
this site. This is only more so when candidates toe party lines and labour
is instinctively very anti. I think Labours majority has to be severly
curtailed, this means voting for the main opposition to the Labour ppc
unless the said opposition candidate is a raving anti. The focus should be
on rural areas and common threads and links should be forged between groups
who want the Labour guy out. I stress I'm not saying this simply because I
don't like the Labour party or some of their ideals. I am saying this
because they are agin us and the utter arrogance and contempt they display
and the blase way they will make decent people into criminals, without a bye
or leave, cannot be rewarded.
Matthew
--
So what? You're saying we should all vote tory? Mellor and all?
The only way to do it that I've seen work is to grill each candidate,
then come up with a list of who to vote for. You don't need to rely
solely on what they've told you, you can look back at their voting
records in many instances as almost no candidates to be an MP who have
a realistic chance of winning are complete political novices.
Look, I appreciate what people have said in their emails, i.e.
odds are long, it's difficult etc. but what is the realistic
alternative? There isn't one as far as I can see, short of
emigrating. No one makes a greater mistake than he who does
nothing because he can only do a little, as Edmund Burke put it.
Steve.
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