Why Should I vote Lib Dem? Part 2: I Live in Islington South and Finsbury

Are you kidding? You even have to ask?

The current MP in the seat is Emily Thornberry. What you need to know about her performance can be found on her wikipedia page. She won the seat by less than 500 votes in 2005, and second in the running was the awesome Bridget Fox. The tories were over 6,000 votes behind Bridget, and nobody else was even near to them. So it's a two horse race: Bridget, or the sitting MP.

Now, my question here is a simple one: if you live in Islington South and Finsbury, how could you consider NOT voting Lib Dem? Climate change deniers and authoritarians aside (look at that voting record) I can't see anyone who would actively choose Emily over Bridget. Bridget, the champion of internet freedom. Bridget, who is so committed to the people of the constituency that she's even putting off her wedding plans.

I've been trying to write this post for ages, but the truth is, the reason I have found it so hard to write is that I just don't see where the question is. Chuck out a new Labourite in favour of someone with the drive, passion, and intellect of Bridget Fox? It's a no brainer. There were less than 500 votes between them last time. People of Islington South and Finsbury? You have nothing to lose but your crap current MP, and everything to gain. Vote Bridget.

Why Should I Vote Lib Dem Part 3: the Safe Tory Seat

My third querent is staceyuk, who lives in North East Cambrigeshire. On the face of it, with the majority that Malcolm Moss got last time, it's a very safe Tory seat, especially given the ascendency of the Tories at the moment.

HOWEVER! Never underestimate the power of the personal vote. If you look at the last election results for my home seat, you'd reckon it for a Tory/Labour marginal. If Labour come higher than third this time in Calder Valley, I'll eat my dad's leather stetson. It's entirely possible that Malcolm Moss was a popular man. The new guy who is replacing him won't have the advantage of being a known quantity. People will be more likely to look at other candidates, rather than saying the guy we have at the moment is OK, I'll vote for him. Things are a lot more open.

Stacey says her three areas of priority are the digital economy bill, education, and civil liberties. The first and third of those are easy: there's been a commitment to add repeal of the contentious sections of the DE Bill (or rather, I should say Act, now) to our Freedom Bill. If we get elected, the Freedom Bill is one of the first things we'd enact. It's sitting there, drafted and ready, waiting for enough people to vote for us.

Education... well, it's not really my field. I will say this, though: one of the four main planks of our manifesto will be education policy. It's out tomorrow. Read it. We're promising all sorts of good stuff that I'm not allowed to talk about till the manifesto is properly launched LOL.

Finally, there is ONE more reason to vote Lib Dem in your particular constituency, Stacey. It used to be Clement Freud's seat. Do it for Just a Minute. Do it for beardy men everywhere. Call it the Clement Freud Memorial Vote.

Why Should I Vote Lib Dem Part 4: The New Seat

My fourth querent is Captain Meg, aka Sideshow Meg. She lives in the newly created seat of Meon Valley, which is projected to be a Lib Dem/Tory marginal.

I would say that anybody who doesn't want to vote Tory should vote Lib Dem in Meon Valley. If you DO want to vote Tory, then fill your boots, but if you lean Green or Labour, and don't like the blues, tactically we are your best bet.

Meg's number one priority is healthcare, and you'll find a lot about that on the Meon Valley Lib Dems website, so I don't propose to rehash it here. It's clearly a big topic in the seat in general. The environment is her number two, and it, like her number three, education, is one of the four major areas we will be covering in our manifesto.

I should have done this tomorrow, shouldn't I? LOL

Off the top of my head, the environment stuff you will like will be the Polluter Pays taxation pledge - where we promise to make sure that greener is cheaper - and the transport policies. Education will mostly focus on early years, but we do, of course, have the pledge to scrap tuition fees for all university students as soon as is practicable.

But really, the reason to vote Lib Dem in Meon Valley is a simple one: stop David Cameron getting a huge majority and railroading lots of stupid policies through by preventing him having an MP from Meon Valley.