Views from the Reading Room

How many issues have the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the SNP and Plaid Cymru all in agreement?

If you're in the UK, pretty much whoever you voted for, you've probably noticed that our voting system is a big mess. The Electoral Reform Society and Unlock Democracy are running a joint campaign to do something about it, with a petition which is to be handed in on May 18th: Make Seats Match Votes.

If you're British or otherwise eligible, don't forget to vote tomorrow! You can help keep the fascists out by voting for anyone else (but preferably not UKIP).

We have more-or-less proportional representation in the Euro-election, so you can vote for someone you actually agree with - I know who I'm going to vote for.

In the county election, it's more difficult. Not only does each county have its own issues; the party leaflets concentrate on who can or can't take control, but what I really need to know is who stands a chance in my particular division (ward, constituency). I think my tactical vote will have to go to a party that told whopping great lies at a previous Euro-election and still uses the irrelevant statistics and the dodgy graphs, which is really annoying. This is another reason First Past The Post is bad for democracy: people say "£*@% them, I'm staying home". Don't stay home! (unless you had a postal vote or something). Vote! Some people would rather we didn't get the chance.

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In other news, I don't have anything original to say about this terrorist attack; here is vito_excalibur instead: requiescat.