I picked a leaflet up off the doormat from Brighton's Labour parliamentary candidate, Nancy Platts, attracted by the stern warning in capital letters on the back that read "Don't risk it". I could guess what it was going to say. Apparently "voting Green will mean a Conservative MP for Brighton". Nancy is no mathlete as that isn't what is borne out by the figures she quotes. The Greens were apparently only 867 votes behind the Conservatives in the 2005 General Election which by my reckoning actually means it is wide open for either party. Behind the fear-mongering statement is genuine worry; the Labour party is clearly terrified that a 'minority party' is actually in with a chance. Labour obviously feel they're unpopular and that a majority of a few thousand last time isn't enough to guarantee victory this time around. Big events have caused this unease, though if you read Nancy's leaflet you'd be forgiven for thinking she was running for the local council rather than national office. 

Let's remember that under Labour, a party in which Nancy plays an active part, this country committed the crime of aggression against another nation and remains embroiled in a nine year long fight involving some of the poorest people on the planet. I can't forget this when I vote and it makes me sick that Nancy is, in essence, asking me to tacitly approve of what Labour has done in government these past years. I suggest that you don't either. Nancy looks a decent enough person, she makes the right noises, appears to be acting on behalf of local interests, is a member of any number of laudable organisations. But then again she might be a career politician, arriving in Brighton as recently as 2007 to take over from David Lepper, to live here with the express goal of running for office.

When I vote I'll vote for the candidate I want to win or, in the absence of a meaningful way to express my dissatisfaction, 'spoil' my ballot, subject as we are to the vagaries of our first-past-the-post system. Nancy recognises this though; she supports voting reform, but only after Labour win the next election will they hold a "referendum on a fairer voting system". Jam tomorrow from the party that has held power for going on 13 years. Whatever happens, we the people get the government and the representatives we deserve, so vote with your conscience and don't be swung by an idiotic appeal to party rivalry that means nothing changes.