There's only one party that counts: M-O-N-E-Y. The rest is window dressing.

Is that not immensely selfish?

Wait, no, I misunderstood. You meant it in the sense of 'aligns with my views' rather than (necessarily) 'makes things better for me'.

I don't think I voted for Blair, I think I've pretty much always voted Lib Dem. But if the choice were between warmongering Blair and backstabbing Clegg, I'd probably choose Blair. Not sure what that says about me -_-

I probably would've voted for Blair before the war stuff though. I don't believe he did much bad (compared to other PMs) besides the war (though that was of course a big deal) and think, that aside, he/the Labour govt. did a lot of good.

Everybody should vote for the party that they think will make things better for them. That way, the party that makes things better for the largest number of people will win.

Of course, I don't believe in altruism (either as a principle or a thing that actually exists).

Yeah, cos fuck minorities.

If you haven't yet, read The Price of Altruism.  It's a very good book about George Price, a theoretical biologist who demonstrated the functional role of altruism within evolutionary theory.  It's a remarkable, tragic story.

I'm increasingly cynical as I get older and as a result, tend to find voting for the biggies a waste of time and generally use my vote as a protest and vote for a minimal party like the Greens or something.

I suppose at the simplest level, I have vague memories of childhood under the conservatives and life being a struggle, then being under Labour and life being a bit easier (only for the economy to go tits up) and then this essentially Conservative government failing to fix it in any meaningful way, although I appreciate the quite hard-line they are taking on benefit cheats and so on.

Colour me undecided I guess, but I have no faith in Labour being able to 'fix' the economy since they're the pillocks who buggered it up in the first place (I know, I know, worldwide problem in all reality, but the Germans aren't doing so bad).

I guess (being a cynic), a lot of people will remember erroneously that life was pretty good under Labour (like using all your pension fund in the first two years to have a whale of a time, and fuck the consequences for the remaining 10+ years of your life), and is kinda crappy under Conservative rule and Labour will likely gain a lot of ground because of this.

I should answer your question really, instead of rambling this way and that...

I generally vote the same in local and general elections, and of late have voted for minority parties as a protest as I have no faith in the biggies. I always vote for the party as opposed to the individual.

Minorities are fucked, though, in a democracy. That's just the way it works. If there's a choice available that will be better for all the minorities, and all the minorities vote that way, then that choice will win. But you can't vote on behalf of other people, because you don't know what they want.

But you can surely vote based on what you feel will be better for the country overall? 

How am I supposed to know what will be best for the country overall? I don't even know what's best for the people next door.

Probably fewer nuns on your garden trampoline.

Probably. And why would I vote for that? It would be madness.

Would naked nuns get your vote?

They might get Big Guns.