I've been giving some thought to who I shall vote for in Thursday's election and my reasoning is as below. Feel free to disagree with me and vote for whoever most tickles your fancy but you should at least drag yourself down to the Kingsley Centre and make some sort of mark on a ballot paper.
I don't think we should be voting on a party political basis in this election. Political parties are all the same, they promote "politicians" and what we want is an individual capable of making up his/her own mind and getting on with the business of policing, not more bloody politics.
I don't know any of the candidates apart from Michael Mates who I've met and been unimpressed by so I'll start by dismissing him. He's also the Conservative candidate and well past his sell-by date so ruling him out is what most rational people will do anyway.
David Goodall's election statement begins by telling us how bad the Conservatives, Labour and UKIP are and concludes with a rather bland "I'm a project manager and a local councillor". Just another would be politician.
Don Jerrard and Stephen West look like minority sport weirdos to me so it's between Jacqui Rayment and Simon Hayes both of whom appear well qualified. Rayment's photo makes her look a bit weird and she's the Labour party candidate but on balance I think I'll vote for her.
Don't forget that this uses the hugely confusing and complicated Supplementary Vote System so I'm actually going to vote
First preference = Jacqui Rayment
Second preference = Simon Hayes
1) SVS is not complicated. It's just a damn silly compromise in an unsuccessful attempt to appease those of us disenfranchised by the choice of six rightwing nutjobs that we had at the last general election.
ReplyDelete2) This election we have one clear rightwing nutjob and five bland indistinguishable minor aspiring politicians whose policy statements are totally interchangeable.
3) The only reason for voting would be in the vain hope that the rightwing nutjob does not win. However, this being East Hampshire, the rightwing nutjob always wins. The electorate would vote for a syphilitic lizard if it wore a blue rosette.
4) I would vote for the candidate whose manifesto included the promise to give the other candidates community service for being so dull.