Voting 2014

I seriously have no idea for whom to vote today.  I can vote in the European Elections, but there's no other ballots in my local area.

Too Long; Didn't Read version:

I think I'm going to vote Labour tactically, as I do not believe in their party at all, but it'll help keep out the nasty and racist parties (you know who I mean).  Perhaps if you don't know how to vote either read this for inspiration, but free kisses available from me to anyone that bothers to vote today.

I'm Bored, I Want Your Poorly Qualified Opinion version:

A short hop around my voting history sees me voting for the first time in the 2001 UK General Election as I grew up attracted to the values of the Labour party, but my vote for them left me feeling a small part of the blame for military involvement in Iraq amongst other things.   I vowed never to vote Labour again, even though later I quite liked Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.  

In 2005 I voted Liberal Democrat, as I did in 2010.  This had the unintended consequence of feeling that my vote supported a Conservative government through the Coalition Government.  I never imagined that Liberal Democrats would form a coalition with the Conservatives.  One saving grace is that my constituency of Ribble Valley returned a Conservative MP with 50% of the vote so my vote didn't count anyway.  I'm therefore not looking forward to voting in the 2015 election as it's a lost cause, but with our MP being Nigel Evans, this might rock the Conservative vote a bit.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribble_Valley_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s

Back to today.  Here's my choice of candidates:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27126227

We can quickly discount a couple from the ballot paper.  I'm pro-Europe, so I'd never vote for the parties centred around even slight anti-Europe sentiment.  Furthermore, I'd remove any restrictions on immigration if I had my way, as I only vaguely acknowledge the concept of arbitrary lines on a map designating national boundaries, so the parties who campaign for tighter immigration laws as their raison d'être are out.

The younger me might be tempted by either the Socialist Equality Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Equality_Party_(UK)) or even Pirate Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party_UK) but that would be a mostly wasted or, at best, a protest vote.

So sensibly, I'm left with Labour, Liberal Democrats or Greens.

I am turned off by past experience of voting both Liberal Democrats and Labour, so I resign myself to considering the Green Party.  However, while I agree with most of what they say - as much as you can take to heart what political parties say - I disagree with one major bullet point in their manifesto (http://issuu.com/lifework/docs/minimaniissuu?e=7496317/7612527).  In it, they talk of ending building Nuclear Power Stations.  I can't abide this stand point and so I cannot vote for them especially as their share of the result will be too small; I can go into why but that's not the point of this post.

I really want to use my vote, but that would mean choosing between sensible and 'wasted' votes.  So after paring it down, my vote would be best served voting Labour.  Not for one moment because I support them, but because I want the nasty parties to stay out.

You see, I don't want my constituency represented by the flag waving thugs and morons who hide behind a veneer of political respectability in order to appear in the media alongside other parties; or the 'entertaining' lunatics who are unfathomably averse to simple things like change and social cohesion thus appear on television and radio so often I'm frightened my sanity can't take more of their incomprehensible pseudo-naïve bigotry.  You know who I mean.

So, Labour it is for me as the Liberal Democrats are a weaker choice if you're trying to keep minor parties out.  I wish there was another option, but I can't waste my vote on a protest, or vote on a genuine match for my views when both of these would essentially be a vote for the people I'd hate to see in any government.

No matter how little your vote goes towards the end result, no matter how little you care about politics, I implore you to vote today if you can.