Heard the Starting Gun?

Election time is upon us. I know because I was rung up today regarding my likely vote and opinion about our Member of Parliament Shona McIsaac. I said preferably I'd like to vote Liberal Democrat but in this constituency it is a Labour-Conservative marginal and thus a trap. It's why I support the Alternative Vote moves of the moment. Asked about our MP, I said she is hard working and good on the bread and butter issues (for example, she did a lot about anti-social behaviour which has been an issue in this part of the world). What I didn't say is that she is hopeless as a debater and comes across badly on TV in any discussion, and has never crossed the government on any principle (if she had one different from them - and she backed them all the way on Iraq): but she does actually represent constituents and follows the issues. As regards the Conservatives, I said that, for example, they've just come up with this bird-brain scheme to sell of bank shares cheap to the public, but that's not wanted because what government should do is wait until the shares go up in value, sell them off high and use the money for the State to shift the debt it's got into. He said Vince Cable (Lib-Dem) had suggested that originally. Yes. I also volunteered an opinion about Gordon Brown and bullying, that if it is at the tea-lady then it matters, but politics and government is such that if it is with a cabinet minister or, even, a senior civil servant then it doesn't really.

I wasn't canvassed previously, since 1997 anyway: and this change is because Labour is worried.

My view is that Cameron is a slight figure and Osborne (Shadow Chancellor) virtually pathetic. There's a great deal I dislike this government for, and can produce a list, but the Conservatives could be wreckless economically and I see nothing from them that is a positive. I also see Nick Clegg coming along slowly (he wasn't the flash media figure expected) and actually rather more solidly, and of course he is surrounded by some very competent people, whereas one wonders whether Cameron is any good or anyone around him.

He said I might have to hold my nose and vote for my own second choice. I might. On the other hand, if you don't vote for a third place party, they don't become second place and then capable of winning. After all, who'd have thought Liberal Democrats would have come through in places like Hull and Sheffield locally, where they replaced both a hollowed-out Blairite Labour Party nationally and a local Labour Party that had lost its direction.