Civic Duty

The local elections yesterday, and I did my bit. In the local elections, I ignored the futile national level posturing of the parties - voting LibDem for the council won't get you any closer to having a local income tax, for example - and voted for the known incumbent as a safe pair of hands and someone known to me.

In the European elections, I went into the booth as a "Don't Know" - while usually voting LibDem myself for Westminster, I took Charles Kennedy at his word about making a vote for them into a referendum on an issue that the European Parliament has no influence over, so couldn't vote for them; and while the overt Tory policy on Europe is about where I stand these days, I won't vote for them because of all the other baggage associated. For the first time I had the chance not to vote for the BNP, as well as a lot of single issue parties that I won't vote for on principle just because they are single issue. This was why I wasn't particularly worried when I missed the previous set being in France at the time.

Fortunately there was one candidate I could vote for without holding my nose, so it wasn't necessary, after all, to spoil the paper with a "None of the Above".

[Later - of my picks, Liz Heazell (LD) held the local seat with a convincing majority. Martin Bell (Ind.) came top of the list of those not over the minimum vote to get elected, beaten by the big 3 and UKIP.]