I intend to spoil my ballet paper in the forthcoming election.
I don’t like any of the parties. None of them fit my views (and I’m not a radical or extremist by any means).
I wouldn’t vote Labour because Tony mislead us over Iraq – sorry, but he did. I wouldn’t vote Tory as I don’t agree with anything they have to say.
I probably would vote Lib Dem, but I fear their intent to abolish council tax and replace with it with a “local income tax” will mean I would see a massive hike in my council tax (or local tax, or whatever it will be called). I also think it would lead to a massive disparity in income between councils, especially those that have mainly low/non earners within their population – such as Tower Hamlets where I live.
The core idea is that non-earners such as pensioners wouldn’t have to pay community charges at all- seeing as council tax is based on the value of your property, pensioners living in expensive properties have to find big tax bills from their pensions. Well, I simply don’t have any sympathy with old people in that situation. They always have the option of selling and moving to something smaller and cheaper.
Of course, if pensioners living in their big homes stop paying council tax, local authorities are just going to charge the rest of us more (via the local income tax). I already half of our £1,500 a year bill – and I don’t see a massive amount of value for money from it. I would assume and expect that under a Lib Dem government I would probably have to find another £500 – which I would resent as it would be me subsidising someone living in their nice expensive home who doesn’t work…
I won’t be voting for George Galloway/Respect for reasons outlined in my previous post.
So I say: Spoil your ballot paper. Or put your vote on eBay (sadly, this isn’t legal).