Out on the streets for Respect

Today I was out in Kingston town centre again handing out the new newspaper-style election leaflets for the Respect Coalition. I had to wear a ‘jacket’ consisting of two of their “Bliar, Bliar, Iraq’s On Fire” posters tied back to back, which kept blowing over my head and I could feel the edge of the front poster rubbing against my neck, which is not altogether comforting. But I managed to get rid of a fair few papers although I got a rather dismissive reaction from some of the young “chavs” (apathetic, yobbish urban riff-raff), one group of whom threw my paper on the floor as soon as my back was turned.

One point that was raised was that people who vote for alternative candidates are helping to “let the Tories in”. This is an old accusation which was used even within the NUS when I was at their conference in 1996, in order to pressurise the NUS to get rid of its demands for restored student grants and accept pretty much whatever the Labour party wanted to throw at them. But in this case, you can’t help the Tories by not voting Labour, because there is a proportional representation system, which means that every vote counts – you are only helping the party you vote for by voting for them, not the enemy party! So don’t be afraid to vote for whoever you want to vote for.