Back in March, I blogged about the fact that my MP, Dave Lepper, whom I voted for, had chosen to step down at the next election and about the process of determining who to vote for instead. Part of this process was the realisation that making my decision based on a national viewpoint was pointless, since only Labour and the Conservatives have a realistic chance of being elected – one party will tell you what they are going to do and ram it through the houses whether the electorate agrees or not, the other party currently has a policy of having no policies – but can’t be trusted to tell the truth about them once they exist. Still with me? So according to Wikipedia – and if it’s in Wikipedia then it must be true – there are only three confirmed candidates, for the constituency of Brighton Pavilion, at the next UK general election:
The Conservative candidate for Brighton Pavilion is Dr David Bull and since the last time I checked up on him he has achieved, well… er… nothing, or at least nothing that he deems worthy of adding to his website (nothing in the news section since November 2007) or blog (nothing here since October 2007).
The Labour candidate is Nancy Platts - I finally found her website! Unfortunately, she to seems to have not been up to anything worthy of mentioning either (last news dated April), but this is a moot point really, since I have already decided not to vote for Labour. Why? Human-animal-hybrids, the European Constitution/treaty, 28 days (nothing to do with the film – doofus!), 42 days and the fact that the Labour whips look unlikely to ever allow Labour MPs a free vote again.
The Liberal Democrat candidate has not been confirmed yet, I didn’t think this could be true, so I checked their website and it would seem to be so. Is this a step beyond Cameron’s no policies policy, a no candidate policy?
So the final candidate is Caroline Lucas, the current MEP for the South East and a member of the Green Party. Actually, she is the reason for this post, since a leaflet promoting her campaign was deposited through my door. It contained lots of information about the different issues that she is focusing on, some were national, some were local, all I agreed with. A quick check of her website and blog showed that she last did something worth telling people about… yesterday. At last, someone who updates their blog!!! Now my major sticking point with the Greens is what they would do with Britain’s armed forces (although I agree with their stance on the renewal of Britain’s nuclear deterrent). More accurately, my fear is what they wouldn’t do. Regardless of why we are in Iraq/Afghanistan (and whether you agree), there can be no argument that justifies a cut and run solution (IMO). All of this has to be weighed up against the fact that, although Labour recently signed the cluster bomb treaty, they are in favour of a replacement for Trident (is it wrong that I always think of toothpaste instead of a nuclear weapon?) and recently introduced some nice new thermobaric weapons that suck out the air from the victim and then crushes their body. Nice!
But here’s the kicker – and it’s something I hadn’t really considered before. As strong as my feelings on “military issues” are, they are ten orders of magnitude less in strength than my concerns over animal rights/welfare. So any ground Caroline Lucas loses to the other candidates is more than compensated for by her love of creatures. None of the “major” parties can claim this accolade, the number of animal experiments performed has increased under Labour, David Cameron would likely make his first speech as PM a top a horse and with a pack of hounds around him (the cabinet?) and there is no Lib Dem candidate.
So for the moment at least Miss Lucas, you have my vote!
