For me, I've always found principled voting very easy, because although I do prefer Labour to the Tories, that preference isn't actually strong enough for me to be prepared to support Labour just in order to keep the Tories out. I've always preferred to just vote for the party I'd really like to see in power, which is the LibDems, and am happy enough if the practical result of that is simply that their share of the vote in the constituency where I'm living goes up, giving them a greater chance of winning next time. That's what happened in 1997 when I lived in Bristol. Since then, in Oxford and now also here in Leeds, I've also had the added bonus of living in constituencies which already have a sitting LibDem MP - so I've had the luxury of my principles actually aligning with my preferred tactics anyway. And now I am suddenly in a position where I can realistically apply the same sort of principles I've always exercised and expect them to have some national impact, which is absolutely awesome! I'd strongly prefer the LibDems to win outright, but seeing their share of power increase significantly would be a reasonable second-choice outcome for me.
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