a little politics

why I cannot vote labour:
over-use of spin.
bullying political tactics.
the failure of blair's well-meaning policy of 'topdown':
look after the businesses and the money will flow downwards.
it worked to an extent in that, for a while, everyone was working though many on tiny wages which  were taxed disproportionately. fairness of a very strange kind.
an obsession with statistics and targetting - for purely political ends.
tax credits : a patronising, bureaucratic, highly confusing way of maintaining government control: encouraging poorer workers to doff cap in gratitude at hand-outs and therefore to vote labour again.
above all: labour's insatiable hunger for control at any price.
right-wing seepage, labour and conservative now sing from the same hymn-sheet particularly over benefits, justice, immigration and probably europe as well.
[jack straw played the innocent in questiontime this week over the question of immigration but labour have got steadily tougher to appease the right wing.
so labour aim to keep power by appeasing right wingers on the one hand and business on the other.
there is an urgent need for a viable alternative.

why I cannot vote conservative:
a year ago I was considering voting conservative just to oust brown but every time I hear the moderate conservatism of cameron I see his rightwingers lurking behind him to push an already extremely right wing country even further. he may prevent this from happening but the balance already needs redressing.

something has to be done to stop the erosion of parliamentary democracy and a hung parliament might actually help to do this.
a period of political volatility might help to focus us better towards a different kind of future, although, granted, there are risks.
both cameron and brown desire strong government but we've had two periods of overwhelmingly strong government under thatcher and blair. both did their utmost to limit the power of commons, lords and cabinet alike.
a hung parliament gives lib dems an opportunity to represent their voters in a way not possible for decades (ever?); an opportunity to upset the status quo and lead us potentially towards a new way of doing things.
three party politics might break a deadlock.
what do we have to lose?

I do agree with cameron that never again should an unelected prime minister be allowed to hold power for more than a few months.
I see no advantage in a democratic house of lords. the unelected lords are essential to counterbalance violent swings of public opinion. heaven help us if they ever become a way of rubber stamping shoddy and hurried government policy.
wasn't it the power of the lords which prevented both thatcher and blair from becoming irrepressible tyrants?