Oh, that’s a lie. I do care. But I’m getting ahead of myself. It goes like this… Currently there’s a debate raging among Labour supporters: is a vote against them (in protest of Iraq) without danger of letting in Tories? Perfect.co.uk and Actually Existing think it’s safe. Others, such as Lloyd and of course Polly Toynbee, say doing anything else is dangerous, so it would be wrong to vote anything other than Labour. (Polly urges us to wear a clothes peg on our nose if we know we have to vote Labour against our gut instinct.)

I’m sorry to say I think there is a third way. Despite all the stats from Actually Existing we have to admit that a Conservative victory really is a real possibility. We can’t ignore what Lynton Crosby did for the right in Australia, nor what happened in the 1970 general election, in which Labour entered the campaign with a 12% lead (and the last week with a 10% lead), and lost it to the Conservatives’ majority of 30. Yet the polls predicted otherwise.

At the same time, there are some thing you just can’t forgive. I’m sure the Krays were lovely to their dear old mum, but they still deserved to be punished. I’m not sure that analogy goes very far, but it is intended to suggest why the minimum wage, tackling poverty and health service funding can be overlooked.

I can’t bring myself to vote for Labour, and I recognise it is a real risk. It may even make the LibDems more powerful. Which, in the long run, might actually be very good for British politics.

Tags: election, labour, voting