Does anyone recall Treehouse of Horrors VII? The episode of The Simpsons where Kang and Kodos abduct Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, and run for President? I forget the exact quote, but it goes something like this:
What are you going to do? You have to vote for one of us. It's a two party system.
He's right! It's a two party system!
Well, I think I'm going to vote for a third party candidate!
Go ahead. Waste your vote. Mwahahahaha.
That's how I feel about the upcoming British general election. On the one hand, I'd rather have a betentacled green riegelian alien in charge than Michael Howard. But on the other hand, the propsect of waking up on May 6 to the news of another four or five years of Tony "smarmy disingenuous git" Blair fills me with a special and unique form of dread.
Despite the fact that the constituency of Lancaster and Wyre is decidedly marginal, with less than a 1% difference between Labour and the tories last time around (with the LibDems in third being miles behind) I am going to be voting for neither of the two main parties. I've not entirely decided which third party to vote for, or whether to spoil my ballot paper, but there is no way I could bring myself to endorse either of those two.
On a local level, there's pretty much no chance of Dundee West going Con, but a vote against Labour is probably a vote for the SNP, who are likely as bad plus there's the whole hating English people thing. I almost wish the election were a couple of months later so I could vote in Cambridge where the Lib Dems have a chance.
I didn't even know my brother was running... ;-)
Best we can hope for is a much smaller majority. Or failing that, maybe such a poor turnout that no-one can really claim the poll victory as truly representitive.
Credit George Bush & John Kerry for at least creating a climate in the US where people *wanted* to vote & felt their vote counted for something.
In the UK, it seems Howard & Blair have managed to destroy a lot of people's will to vote..
Sad, isn't it?
I think he's been saying that he'll hand over to Brown after a while, but promises from Blair aren't worth the paper they're written on, especially verbal ones.
I should possibly put the printed & published thing here, but that's probably excessive for a comment.
Go ahead. Waste your vote. Mwahahahaha.
LOL. I so voted Badnarik/Campagna in November...
I get to talk about the upcoming Parliamentary election for an extra credit assignment in Western Civs... would it be ok for me to pick your brain some?