I consider myself a libertarian on social issues and a socialist in most other ways, which means I don’t have a party I can vote for which stands a chance of winning – indeed I don’t have a party I can vote for at all without violently disagreeing with some of what they stand for. I have always voted in the way that I thought would best avoid a Conservative getting in, over the past 5 elections. I still believe a Tory government should be stopped at all costs, on the simple grounds that their policies benefit only a minority of our citizens, i.e. those with plenty of money, and that they don’t care about those less able to amass money and property. I appreciate there are arguments that neither Labour nor the Lib Dems are a great deal better, but Labour has proved itself by stealthily redistributing wealth over the last 13 years from the rich to those lower down (10% tax rate abolition notwithstanding), and I don’t believe that the Lib Dems are funded exclusively by big business and tax exiles so I doubt they would see the need to pander to the rich either. I have long lived in constituencies where Labour could put up a three-legged donkey (no offence to any three-legged donkeys who might be reading this) and it would romp home. I was happy enough to vote Labour in 1997 and 2001. In 2005 I could not bring myself to do so, despite still having respect for many of the things they were doing, because of the illegal invasion of Iraq (although if I had thought that the Tories could have won last time round, I would probably have voted Labour anyway and stuck pins in my eyeballs afterwards). Now that Blair has gone and our troops are largely out of Iraq, I was going to hold my nose and vote Labour again, until I watched the first debate just over a week ago. I was not previously aware that the Lib Dems would scrap the Trident replacement, which is a no-brainer and would save a fortune. I had also forgotten how much their pro-European stance chimed with my own. And they would tax the rich more, and the not-at-all rich less. And they were against the Iraq war. And they didn’t hate immigrants. And they don’t do climate change denial. It all fell into place. I am in fact a bit of a Lib Dem after all! So I am going to put my cross by our Lib Dem candidate for the second election in a row, but this time because I actually want him to stand a chance. And for the record, I made over £90k last year so I would be paying a lot more tax if the Lib Dems get in – and so I should! I live in a country which has educated me at a fraction of the real cost of doing so, which has provided a decent enough environment for business like the one I work for to thrive, enabling me to earn what I regard as a fabulous salary. I don’t see why I should shirk my burden of tax when it comes to paying for schools (even though I don’t want children), hospitals (even though I’ve never spent a night in one in my 43 years), roads and other infrastructure, benefits for those who need them (and benefits should be much higher than they are, paid for by taxing people like me more heavily), and helping repair the damage done to the public finances by the banks over the last few years (and in return the banks can damn well pay us all back over the next ten years, with interest, and be broken up into smaller banks so we can let them go to the wall next time they gamble trillions that they don’t actually have). Sorry about the long post, but at least I didn’t mention the BNP! (but they really are racist scum, please don’t be fooled into voting for them).
