Make my mind up time

Well it’s got to that stage where I have to decide which party I’m going to vote for in this election. There never really was any chance that I would vote Conservative. I’m not a great fan of them at the best of times. And this is certainly not the best of times for that party. I don’t like Brexit.  I don't like Johnson.  And, remarkably, I am not even sure I trust him to behave in a constitutional way.   Could he declare a state of emergency and become an effective dictator?  I am not sure I would put it past him.


So that's the easy decision.  I think that although I like a lot of what the Labour Party is talking about I have some doubts about their programme.  The biggest thing is it is just too big.  I can't see them delivering more than a tiny portion of it.  I am also dubious about their Brexit position. I can sort of see how it works logically.  I just don't think that a compromise will satisfy anyone at this stage.  The argument is going to continue.  And with possibly as many 17 million different versions of Brexit being hoped for, I can't see how it is going to end until Brexit is decisively rejected and off the table.  Another narrow election result whichever way it goes isn't going to change anything that actually matters.

I quite like a lot of what the Liberal Democrats and the Greens are saying.  The Liberal Democrat candidate turned up in town last Saturday and had a large team with her.  It looked like at least 10.  This compared to less than half a dozen with the Conservative one.  They had a lot more energy about them too - offering me a leaflet and when I didn't appear hostile inviting me to meet the candidate.  I was busy with something else unfortunately so couldn't take them up on it.

So in a safe Tory seat should I vote Lib Dem?  They were third last time, but seem to have the momentum behind them.

In fact I probably would have done, but unfortunately my purdah slipped and I ended up seeing the opinion polls the Monday before election day.  They had been grim for Labour when I tuned out of the campaign, but they seem to have got worse rather than better.   I spent some time on Twitter and for what it's worth it seemed like the Anti-Semitism story was big on there.  If that is getting through to the general public maybe it is having an effect?   Who knows, certainly not someone who has stayed away from news broadcasts for a couple of weeks.

That swung what was a tricky decision.  It is important for our democracy that Labour remains intact and a threat to the government for the foreseeable future.  My doubts about their programme and their Brexit stance don't matter if they are going to lose badly.  But it is better for the country the less badly they lose.  So Labour it is. Given where I live my vote won't count for much but at least it will add to Labour's aggregate score during the post-mortem.