Vote for policies website updated for 2015

[free spirit]

The Vote For Policies websites was updated earlier this week with the 2015 election policies of the main parties in England, Scotland and Wales on it for key issues.

If anyone's not used it before, it shows the policies without telling you which party they're from, so you can vote for whichever policies you prefer and then find out at the end which of the parties policies it was you were agreeing with, and which parties policies you agree with the most.

Vote for policies - take the survey

Currently after 41,800 surveys the Greens policies are winning on 26% (+3.1% for scottish greens), Labour is on 23.6%, Lib Dems 20.8%, and the Tories are way behind on 10.8%, even behind UKIP on 12.2%.

Thought it deserved a thread on here anyway, it's a useful way of getting an overview of the main parties policies, and sussing out how people really feel about them.

Would be interesting to have TUSC up there too, maybe if enough people suggest it then they'll add them to it.

 

[xenon]

Hmm. Maybe later... Tomorrow...

 

[Fez909]

I got 80% Green, 20% Labour.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

98% Labour, 90% Green.

 

[J Ed]

Vote for lies, not liars!

 

[J Ed]

I can't be the only one who has noticed the fact that these people who obsessively (and they'll let you know that they do!) watch Newsnight, Question Time, the Daily Politics and the like and believe it to be their civic duty or whatever are actually less well informed than the average person who doesn't. This is who this is aimed at, the sort of person who thinks that all our political problems are caused by voters being uninformed rather than... you know... boring stuff like structural issues.

 

[DotCommunist]

I can't be the only one who has noticed the fact that these people who obsessively (and they'll let you know that they do!) watch Newsnight, Question Time, the Daily Politics and the like and believe it to be their civic duty or whatever are actually less well informed than the average person who doesn't. This is who this is aimed at, the sort of person who thinks that all our political problems are caused by voters being uninformed rather than... you know... boring stuff like structural issues.

I do occaisonally try to watch newnight, QT and the daily bolloticks, but how do people manage it without losing their rag

It just inflames my hatred

 

[danny la rouge]

OK, the headline is that I got 0% Tory, 0% Labour and 0% Lib Dem.

But it chose to tell me I was:

Scottish Green Party 66.7%

Scottish National Party 33.3%

However, I actually wouldn't really consider voting for them. Like J Ed says, these disembodied paragraphs aren't really what's going on. They aren't where the real issues are. To say that this is what politics consists of explains exactly why so many people correctly dismiss (party) politics.

 

[prunus]

60% green 40% labour.

I'm a liberal it seems.

 

[danny la rouge]

We're all woolly Green liberals. The shame.

To be fair, it didn't ask you to describe your own policies, just to pick which of those on offer you'd "consider voting for". In my case, I wouldn't really - I just wanted to see what the result would be. (It was much as I'd guessed).

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

I suspect this is a bit like where the political compass makes everyone out to be left libertarians, this makes everyone out to be liberal Left Green

I'm sure there is no agenda behind it though

 

[DotCommunist]

someone do it from the perspective of hitler and see what result you get

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

Done that got Green

 

[lazythursday]

It's interesting that it's fairly easy to spot some party's policies purely by the writing style - Labour's in particular. Labour's policies are always long winded, jargon filled politico speak. It makes me want to punch the screen.

 

[danny la rouge]

I suspect this is a bit like where the political compass makes everyone out to be left libertarians, this makes everyone out to be liberal Left Green

I'm sure there is no agenda behind it though

I think that's just because we're more likely to disapprove of austerity & Trident etc. I don't think there's any bias in the way the options are presented. (Other than the assumption that politics consists of what politicians say it consists of).

 

[articul8]

100% Green

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

100% Green

you realise that means you're Hitler right?

 

[free spirit]

I'd have been interested to check out plaid and snp policies as well, though can understand why not as it'd distort the national / local results.

 

[Celyn]

I'd have been interested to check out plaid and snp policies as well, though can understand why not as it'd distort the national / local results.

I think there's a bit where you give it a postcode, so you can tell it your postcode is, for instance, G2 1DU, which will make it think you are actually Glasgow City Council, and you can just Google up something similar for a Welsh place.

I thought an important thing was that parties tend to phrase their policies in the fluffiest possible way, so anything that was, say, going on about supporting our troops and ensuring "our young people" get work placements pretty much screamed Tory/UKIP, so I said no to it.

But you're expected to say you would "never" consider" or "might/would* (can't recall which phrase was used) consider is just odd, because "might" and "consider" are a bit too vague. I would *consider* jumping into a pool* of sharks but I don't think I'd consider it for very long, nor would I actually choose to do it.

* Oh, I sometimes love typos. That pool of sharks started of as a "poll of sharks". Hmm, there could be something in that.

 

[el-ahrairah]

you can't do it as hitler, it just says you have to choose one.

i think hitler might have written it, tbf.

 

[free spirit]

I think there's a bit where you give it a postcode, so you can tell it your postcode is, for instance, G2 1DU, which will make it think you are actually Glasgow City Council, and you can just Google up something similar for a Welsh place.

I know, but I'd have been interested to compare the 3 together. I suspect I'd be more Plaid than green, and more green than SNP, but would have liked the option to contrast them directly.

 

[Celyn]

I see what you mean. I suppose you'd have to do the thing twice and take loads of notes but I found it tedious to do it all, so you'd have to be hellishly interested or bored, to do that.