May madness

So it is decision time. Not for me, of course, mine has already gone in the post which means, as it does for Mr Vowl, that I can ignore all the wittering and squarking of the next two days in favour of (hopefully) more meaningful discourse.

But in case you are not so fortunate as to be able to tune out the demented rantings of ‘change… fairness… change…’ because you are in two minds about where to mark your ‘X’ – or even whether to bother marking the thing at all – here is the ten minutes hate round-up of where to turn in order to make sense of the madness.

First, the ever-excellent They Work For You has surveyed candidates on local and national issues. You can bung in your post code and check to see if you agree with candidates on the really important stuff like extra bus lanes and a pre-emptive bombing of Iran, rather than basing your vote on which leader had the least creepiest smile during the TV debates (answer: none of them!)

Next, head over to Democracy Club, where they have also surveyed candidates and are looking for volunteers to contact others who have still to reply. Democracy Club are pals with The Straight Choice, who have built up a database of election leaflets from all parties. They are now looking for volunteers to help them with their analysis of the dodgy pie charts and graphs, ludicrous claims and outright porkie-pies contained within.

If you live in a marginal and like the idea of a hung parliament, Hang ‘Em has the info on how your tactical vote could help to bring it about. And if you are hoping that whatever happens on Thursday we get real electoral reform, Power 2010 is the place for you.

As for my vote, never let it be said that I would violate the sanctity of the ballot paper, hard-fought-for by previous generations. Still, it is safe to say that the main concern about a hung parliament is:

will there be enough rope?