And I'll be voting for....

The general election gun will be fired by Gordon Brown on Tuesday (although as you've probably noticed everyone's already dashed off) and I've had a look at the themes of six of the major parties.

So, for those of you who don't already know, it's time to tell you who I'll be voting for on May 6th.

[very small drum roll]

And you'll just have to wait a bit longer, whilst I buzz on about an electoral bee that lives in my very fetching bonnet.

I've listed the parties in order of my preference as would be possible under the Alternative Vote system as opposed to the current First Past The Post. A form of this is already used in the European and London Maryoral Elections and Gordon Brown has promised a referendum on it if he wins this time round. It has two major positives:

Firstly it means that every MP would get a majority. If after all the first choices are added up the person with the smallest number of first choices gets eliminated and their second choice votes reallocated. This carries on until someone has 50%.

Secondly, you don't have to think about worrying about tactical voting (not that you should anyway) - if a currently smaller party is your first choice, put them first. You can then put your 'least worst' option of the big parties second and when the small party is eliminated your vote will count for the big party.

So Alternative Vote keeps the good bits of the First past the post but makes a fairer, healthier addition to democracy.

Anyway.  I'll be voting for...
[no drum roll this time]


1. Green Party (Feel the Love / Black Eyed Peas)
2. Conservatives (Eine Kleine Nacht Musik)
3. Lib Dems (Park Life / Blur)
4. Labour (Day in the life / Beatles)
UKIP
BNP


It was a real tussle about whether to put the Tories or Lib Dems second.  The Conservatives have more 'bad eggs' in their party than the Lib Dems which makes me  nervous. However, they are the only one of the main three parties over the last couple of years that have consistently talked about the importance of supporting family relationships and rebuilding our society not from the state down, but from the bottom up. So if I had to choose between the three I'd hesitantly give the Tories a chance.

Luckily I don't have to choose and now I'm officially off the fence in the blogosphere I'll spend some time explaining why I'm voting Green as well as reflecting on the campaign to come.