Election selection

I'm really undecided about what to do this year. I always am. Have been known to vote for local independents, but not all lone soldiers have the same kudos as your Martin Bells and Dr. Richard Taylors, so it's best I do some sniffing around before I put my cross against them.

I just have no enthusiasm for party politics anymore. My membership of the Liberal Democrats fizzled out, on my instruction, 6 years ago, and certainly no one party represents my views. This is probably because there are few issues where I have a firm view. Seeing merits in both sides of pretty much every argument (with exceptions - see below) doesn't help these things - where's my blind dogmatism?

I do love the democratic process though. It's a large part of the reason I did my Masters dissertation on Parliamentary libraries - an excuse to sneak a look inside the corridors of power. See how it comes together.

I have also volunteered to count votes. It's a dirty job etc. etc. Thing is, I just love to be involved in spite of the parties turning me off. I also like to think I can bring a non-partisan ethic to it which can't hurt.

Also as part of my work, I'm going to be putting some election stuff together for our library, and so any useful little websites I find, I'm going to bang on here.

Here's two to start.

Don't wish to vote as a democratic choice rather than a show of apathy? Here are some testimonials for those who feel the same. www.notapathetic.com

The BBC have a quality map graphic that enables you to see who is standing in your constituency - and will be updated until nominations close.

I notice from this facility that in my home ward of Havant (although now I'm registered in Liverpool), that alongside incumbent Conservative David 'Two Brains' Willetts, we have UKIP, Veritas and the BNP standing. Much better (it is, my fellow left-leaners) to keep an intelligent fairly moderate Conservative than get any of these reactionaries anywhere close to power.

Indeed, in the case of the BNP, don't even give them the satisfaction of keeping their deposit. They, certainly, must be defeated!

I find it weird that Havant gets all 3 of these parties represented as there's not much multi-culturalism in our part of the world. No real problem with economic migrants or asylum seekers either.

With that in mind, and the potential of split in the vote, means that I probably have nothing to worry about, but I encourage my former neighbours to be vigilant!