The old voting conundrum

Although I'm already a little bored of the upcoming UK general election I have been giving quite a lot of thought to who I should vote for.

I've been eligible to vote for 15 years, and have always voted the same way. However I've recently been interested by policies being toted by other parties. So I visited a few websites that claim to help offer a solution to the confused voter.

There's no shortage of these simple questionnaires that distill policies into simple statements that you either agree or disagree with. These things always have to be taken with a generous pinch of salt, not least because it's easy to make some simple mistake with the methodology that introduces the bias of whoever created the questionnaire/website/etc.

However what's interesting for me is that I've now completed four of these things and they've all pointed the same way. It isn't entirely the opposite of my usual political leanings, but I have found the party I have always voted for comes a distant third in the results.

A few years ago, possibly at the last general election, I heard a talk from someone involved in political research. Something he said that stuck with me was along the lines of, anyone who isn't a member of a political party shouldn't be partisan. In other words, just because you've always voted a certain way, doesn't mean you always should.

It's incumbent on us, the electorate, to engage with politics; to seek to understand the policies of each party and then vote with our eyes open, knowing exactly what the party stands for.

Of course things are not so simple in practice. I live in a safe seat. To be honest it doesn't really matter how I vote, we'll end up with the same MP.

Without wishing to give too much away, the party second on my list of political leanings is not going to get into power. Some would say this means they can put together a list of very attractive sounding policies; they'll never have to deliver them.

All of this gives me a lot to think about. Should I vote for the policies? I don't believe we should allow ourselves to be taken in by personalities, but they do play a part. After all do we want Brown/Clegg/Cameron (delete as appropriate) as our next Prime Minster?

I said at the start of this that I was already fed up with the election. But as this plays out a bit further I wonder how many other people, like me, might find the party they've always voted for isn't delivering the policies they most want to support.