So, I can't vote in this. As a union member I contribute to the General Political Fund, not the Affiliated Political Fund, am actively not in Labour or any of the subgroups which would give me a vote (or THREE as one person seems to have). Yes, the Labour Leadership. On the one hand I should probably keep out, but Labour should be a party I can support so my active dislike of them is sad. I have views about what would be needed before I even think of voting for them.

I live in the Warrington North constituency (since the boundary changes). A quick look at YourNextMP shows I have 4 candidates to choose from (this will be confirmed once nominations have closed):

• Derek Clark - UKIP (until very recentl YNMP was suggesting Jack Kirkham) [UPDATE: No UKIP Candidate listed on the formal Warrington North List]
• Paul Campbell - Conservatives

So, with the elections coming up, it's time to start thinking about who I want to vote for. And therein lies a problem. I'm embarassed by all the parties (that is a polite understatement of my true feelings) and live in an ultra-safe constituency. On the one hand, there is Labour who have produced a more and more authoratarian, Orwellian state and who appear to equate liberation with equality with quotas, who abuse parliament and hold the public in utter contempt. On the other are the Conservatives.

Warrington, where I live, is split into two parliamentary constituencies the boundary being, pretty much, the Mersey. They are represented by "the Helens" - Jones for the North and Southworth for the South. Apparently there's going to be some major work on redirecting the Mersey as we will be switching Helens at the next election. Both Helens are in fairly safe seats - I normally get no election publicity except from the very fringe parties.

To all those Labour MP who are currently dithering over the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax. What the fuck happened?!?!? You've known about this since you cheered Gordon Brown's announcement in the April 2007 budget. You knew about this when you later elected him leader of the party. Now it's actually come in, is it really a surprise?