Morning all,

I've just been having a quick read through the list of blogs I link to.. yes, I do read them all, and jolly good they are as well. This is probably why I link to them.

I was over at Alan's* blog a few minutes ago, and found this.. which was found here.

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Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Conservative

Your actual outcome:

Labour -29
	Conservative 24
Liberal Democrat -5
	UK Independence Party 29
	Green 39

You should vote: Green

The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

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I'm fairly sure that those of you who read here often have a good idea of my politics, so it probably isn't that surprising that the chances of me voting for Labour are in the realms of pure fantasy, but I was surprised at the Greens coming out in first place.. hmm

Back in a minute. I'm just going to have a quick look at their pledges/manifesto. If it's been published yet of course. Grab a coffee, I won't be long.

...................

OK, I'm back. The overriding question to my mind, as was stated in an earlier post, was that of the view taken of further european integration. I did literally take only a few minutes to read the Green's position on Europe, but it looks vaguely in accordance with my views. Don't quote me, it was only a few minutes after all. It's a long document to digest in one go, so I'll read more fully later.

Second on the list were UKIP. I'm not sure. I certainly don't want us to have anything to do with Europe in a political sense, but if the agreement could be taken back to basics where there is a free market economy across Europe.. yes I know it'll not happen until France float out into the Atlantic.. then it might work.

In the past I've always seen them as the ideal protest vote, but again, reffering to my previous post, this is such a critical time for Britain's place in Europe, I have to be practical. The first step is to make sure that we don't slide further into Europe. At the end of the day, it will either be a victory for Labour or Conservative. The Liberal Democrats are third in the polls, and look attractive, with everything they are promising to do for you all.. and I'm sure that has as much to do with a general dissolusionment over the two main parties. They know however, that they can promise absolutely anything they want in the sure and certain knowledge that they won't have to deliver any of it.

My third choice (according to the quizlet above) is for a conservative government, and they are, surprisingly going to be the one I vote for. If you don't want to see this country being sucked further and further into the European Superstate, then is no other option.

On a related note, I found it incredible that, according to the news the other day that there was such a large scale problem with postal voting. This particular piece involves Labour, but even though I really have no time for them, I'm sure that it was a fairly isolated case. We have in this country a version of democracy, that although not perfect has been seen by most as an honest way to decide future governments.

You won't normally be threatened by the local militia into voting for X person, with the understanding that something awful is going to happen to yourself or your family if you do otherwise. I never knew though that political parties can and do collect ballot papers and forward them to the electoral registrar. I've never applied for a postal vote, so it didn't occur to me that it would go anywhere else other than directly to a presiding officer of some description. In my case, I am lucky to know, at least to some extent, every Councillor in Bracknell, and I would be happy to pass on my ballot paper through any of them regardless of political leaning, in the full knowledge that it would get to it's destination untampered, and I'm sure that that's the case for most areas of the country.

A quote from the linked news article states..

The [Electoral] commission says it wanted a requirement for applications to be returned directly, but the political parties wouldn't agree.

As I said earlier, the likelyhood of fraud is probably minimal over all, but if so, then why are the parties so against having an independant collection point for ballot papers? I think that perhaps if you feel so inclined, you could lobby your local MP with a view to getting this arrangement changed for future elections.

Oh well.. enough of this. There's a bunch of us going to Eastbourne for a long weekend today, and I have to pack.. okay, I'm packed. I also have to check my camera and have a cup of tea or three.

See you all Monday

Cheers

Liam


* I keep meaning to alter the css to save me having to manually insert the blue colour for text links.. maybe I'll do that next week. So much to do etc. I may even go a bit more radical with the template.. I'll see how I feel. :)