As opposed to my "Election 101" article, I won't make any attempt here to be non-political or even non-Political. Anyone who knows me will most likely know how I plan to vote in both upcoming elections, but may be confused by my choices...

It's also surprised me that I've been asked on more than one occasion how people should decide who to vote for...I'm no political expert, and certainly find Politics generally off-putting, but I do have my own views on the election process and am happy to share them here if it helps anyone...

First off, I need to state from the outset that I think the current electoral process is pretty much broken and ineffectual. The "party" approach creates huge conflicts and distorts the voting process beyond all recognition.

For example, if your "conviction" is to vote Green, it's pretty reasonable to assume from the polls and electoral history that your vote will be pretty much wasted in all but a handful of seats. In fact voting Green in some parliamentary seats might enable your least favourite candidate to be elected if the poll is close between a couple of candidates - this is why the term "tactical" voting was coined, to encapsulate voting choices for people who aren't voting with their convictions, but in order to achieve a specific electoral result. Let me explain...lets say there are 3 candidates, imaginatively called Red, Blue & Green...and an electoral population of 100. If the electors voted as per their convictions, the result might be:

• Red 44
• Blue 42
• Green 14

Since it was well known that Green had never won before and was very unlikely to ever overtake Red or Blue, if just three of Green's electors chose to vote Blue, the result would be very different:

• Red 44
• Blue 45
• Green 11

So the current electoral process really encourages (forces?) tactical voting and actively marginalises minority parties. I feel VERY strongly that this is wrong, wrong and wrong. But as one of the two major parties why would you ever change an electoral process that makes your position stronger?

Worse than the major parties being strengthened, by voting tactically, it's possible that you're shooting yourself in the foot...the local candidates in any election have a good measure of influence in the local area...their decisions, actions, priorities and beliefs can have a very real impact on your daily life. And the best candidate locally, may not be the right tactical vote nationally.

Quite a dilemma isn't it? And very unfair that we innocent voters should have to pay the cost of this dilemma...in fact, I strongly suspect that this "complexity" is a core reason why people have so turned off from politics over the last 20 years. Of course, fat cats, expenses, lying (sorry "spin"), political correctness, immigration, law & order have also been key issues that have turned voters off. What impact can one vote really make? So let's not bother to vote then.

But I'm afraid that I can't subscribe to that school of thought either. For me, the national picture is too complex, too foggy, too mis-leading...I've no idea whether anyone really means what they say, or whether manifesto promises will ever really be implemented...so I've decided that it's the local picture that I must understand and where my voting decision lies.

So my advice, for both the Parliamentary and District Council elections is to find out about the candidates, find out what they've done in your area in the last few years...what difference have they made? What kind of people are they? Have they lived up to their word? How have they voted on key issues? To a large extent ignore any party affiliations, unless it's a really key value to you...nationally, party politics will just have to take care of itself, and hopefully before I die, there'll be true root and branch reform of politics, not the rubbish we've been sold over the last few years by people whose motivation is severely suspect!!

On 6 May, vote for the person you believe will do the best job in this area, that's what I'll be doing.

By the way, as part of my efforts on behalf of OP residents, I'm trying to issue an open invitation for all the candidates for both the elections to write a statement to OP residents that I will post verbatim (libel laws permitting!!) here on the web site. Let's see who's interested!!