steverogerson

I don't think I've ever had such a difficult decision to make for an election. My general tendency is to vote left, but I also do not see the point in voting for anti-EU candidates in the EU election, and the main left candidate from the Socialist Labour Party is anti-EU. Even if I was anti-EU, I think it would be pointless to vote for an anti-EU candidate. The EU does not decide whether Britain is a member of the EU, the British parliament does that. As Britain is in the EU, you need MEPs that can represent their constituencies enthusiastically and the anti-EU brigade can't do that.

I also don't want to vote for any of the three main parties as they deserve a bloody nose after the expenses scandal.

That really leaves the Green Party as a leftish party that is pro-EU, but I also disagree with the whole idea than humans cause global warming as a fact. It is a theory and one of many theories.

So, a dilemma. I think the Green Party just edges it, but I'll make a final decision after sleeping on it.

I just nipped down to the local library to see the full list of candidates, and it would appear that four parties haven't leafleted me yet - English Democrats, Libertas, Socialist Labour Party and the curiously named Jury Team.

Current Music: Quiet Nights - Diana Krall

Nearly a week had passed since I last got an election leaflet through my door until this morning; it seems hopefully that as election day nears the parties are running out of steam.

Today's flyer comes from No2EU-Yes to Democracy and would win if the competition was to have the most non-catchy name of any political party. In reality, they will probably get few votes as they are yet another anti-EU group with the exception that this lot seem to be approaching it from the left rather than the right. They need to do something about their timing as the leaflet advertised a public meeting last week in Leicester and one tonight in London.

Their appeal is obviously left wingers who are anti-EU and wouldn't touch the racist UKIP and BNP with a barge pole, and it would be good if they could draw the anti-EU voters away from them. But a two-sided black-and-white A5 flyer advertising meetings that have already happened is not really going to have a big impact on the electorate.

Current Music: Quiet Nights - Diana Krall

Four election leaflets came with today's post, and I wasn't very impressed with any of them:

1. United Kingdon First Party. I've obviously not been paying attention because I'd never even heard of this lot. Looking at the leaflet, they seem to be a UKIP lookalike with wanting to pull out of the EU and restricting immigration. They are also calling for an end to political correctness, which I presume means allowing people to be racist and sexist etc. The one-sided A4 leaflet contained grammatical and punctuation errors, which was amusing given one of their calls was "English language for all".

2. Conservatives. An odd-sized gatefold flyer with David Cameron's picture on the front with the pictures of the candidates relegated to inside. Wanting to keep the opt-out to the EU's working time directive would be a vote loser for me to start with, though in fairness I can't imagine any set of circumstances that would lead to me voting Tory. The leaflet is quite professionally produced and contains a balanced mix of local and national issues. I couldn't be bothered to count the number of times it used the words "British" or "Britain", but it was a lot.

3. Liberal Democrats (or Lib Dems as they appear to be calling themselves now). These are the Tories in disguise, and while this flyer doesn't mention Britain quite as often as the Tory leaflet, it does have a prominent Union flag. This is a more traditional A4 gatefold leaflet, done landscape. The paper is poorer quality than the Tory leaflet (actually even poorer than the UKFP flyer). Again, it has gone for a nice mix of local and national issues. It suffered from a bit of a printing problem in that some of the apostrophes haven't appeared (there is a space instead, which is why I think a printing problem rather than apostrophe ignorance).

4.Green Party. An odd, little two-sided square flyer. One side is dominated by a picture of four children on a beach holding a banner saying "Vote for us" with the name of the candidate in the top corner. The other side has a couple of headlines about voting for the country's future and contact details. There is not a single policy to be found. I presume a follow-up flyer is on its way.

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