Somebody who has recently been living in N. Ireland told me that there is one mega difference between the average N. Ireland voter and those of us on the mainland.THE IRISH KNOW WHAT THEY ARE VOTING FOR! They recognise the importance of elections and will dig sufficiently deeply to uncover the issues. There may be reasons of history behind that but it does not remove the fact. Compare to the rest of the UK. Why do most people vote as they do? - Well, astonishingly high numbers vote for parties 'because their families always have' - it becomes a tradition. Even when their needs, hopes and beliefs are better represented elsewhere - they categorically refuse to shift position.
(In Sheffield - few working people have much in common with Labour and frequently are at odds with that party on most issues - yet STILL the votes are automatically awarded.)
Rural Conservatives may well be better served by that party - but are brains always engaged when their voting decisions are made?
How many vote Lib Dem without a clue as to what they represent? - I have heard countless individuals state 'we vote Lib Dem because they are in the middle between the Labour and the Tories.' !! ???
How many people who have been genuinely impressed with Lib Dems on the local level vote for them nationally without bothering to find out why their national vote has just been a vote for every type of political correctness?
Who are the real Lib Dems? - A small clique of 'ivory tower dwellers' - whose thinking would alienate a vast majority of people casting votes in their direction were this ever to be recognised.
How many people who vote Green are genuine believers? How many think that 'Greens are just nice, concerned individuals' - when the reality is that the party is a hotbed of naked marxism?
How many BNP voters recognise the socialist, centrist base of that party?
Which party, according to research, has got more individual policies which appeal to a greater proportion of voters than do those of any other party?
Tragically, we must return to the start of this piece for the answer. A huge majority have not bothered sufficiently to find out this fact. Additionally, there is then the vicious
circle for many of: 'I'd like to vote UKIP but as not enough other people are doing ......'