Tactical voting is for idiots

 

As the Gordon and Denton by-election hots up I've noticed both Reform and the Greens encouraging people to vote tactically.  Please don't vote tactically.  Stop it.  It's silly.

If you vote just to keep someone out you're not voting for anything. Really you're basing your vote on your fears of how other people will vote. You're voting through fear. Your 1 vote is mathematically unlikely to keep anyone in or out anyway. So you might as well vote for who you want to. I used to live in an ultra marginal. The lowest margin was 70 not 1. Vote tactically and "it's only a two horse race here" etc are slogans used by the main parties to protect the status quo.  Asking you to vote tactically is the most cynical thing a political candidate can do.  It really says "I have no respect for you.". 

You should vote for who has the best candidate and policy.  When politicians tell you to vote tactically they're really being lazy.  Instead of finding policy reasons for you to vote for them which is what they should be doing, they're saying vote for us because we're most likely to beat the bad candidate you hate which is negative campaigning & circular logic.  Instead of trying to win your vote they are trying to emotionally blackmail it out of you.  Don't let them.