Phil Taylor

I went to vote at about 4.30pm this afternoon in Ealing, West London. Here we are only voting in the Euro elections as London local elections are not until next May.

It was very quiet. I asked the staff a few questions. Up until 4pm only 293 had turned up to vote.

I have heard reports that some people are worried that the ballot boxes won’t be big enough for the very long ballot papers being used for this election. Apparently they have been tested here in Ealing and can accommodate 700 papers. That said the nice lady was having to use a long plastic ballot squasher to push the papers further down into the box even though they were barely over the 300 mark.

http://www.conservatives.com/%7E/media/Flash/Flash%20Applications/videoPlayer_large.ashx

The point about this video from the Tories is that the latest possible date for the next general election is June 3rd next year – one year from today. We all know that Gordon Brown would only call a general election if he thought he could win it. It has not looked like he could since he became unelected Labour leader and unelected Prime Minister. Unless Brown is chucked out by his own party because they calculate that he will destroy them, or in the unlikely event that he decides to go for the good of the country, we will have to put up with Brown for another terrible year.

If you want a general election and a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty then go and vote tomorrow. Forget protest votes and vote Tory.

On Monday I noted that the Sun has come out for the Tories at the European elections on Thursday. Today the Times too endorses the Tories. They say:

So, by a process of elimination, that leaves the Conservative Party. The future of a viable EU surely lies in concentrating on those issues, such as the response to climate change and the need to secure energy supplies, on which co-ordinated work between governments is vital. That means it needs to spend a lot less time on pointless internal deliberation designed to cement power centrally, of which the Lisbon Treaty is an example.

The Conservative Party has the only manifesto which contains both these defining ideas. On that basis it merits support in tomorrow’s election. But the bigger issue is, in fact, whether an increased Conservative presence in Strasbourg can make any difference in finding a purpose for the European Parliament which, just at the moment, it palpably lacks.

As Labour implodes the best way to ensure that we get a referendum on the Lisbon treaty (constitution) and that we get a strong, new government is to vote Conservative.

I just heard on the 11am news bulletin that Cabinet Minister Beverley Hughes will not be standing again as MP for Stretford and Urmston. Check her out at TheyWorkForYou.com here. According to them she has been really going for it with the infamous Additional Costs Allowance. Joint first 2007/8, 2006/7, 2004/5 and 2002/3

The Telegraph seems to be going over the Labour cabinet this week. Yesterday it was Darling. Today it was Hoon. Could it be that Hughes was due to be done tomorrow and has jumped before she hit the headlines?

Nick Melhuish, one of our Conservative Future members, was telling me on Saturday what a warm reception they had had when they were out canvassing on Saturday afternoon at Ealing Broadway station in the run up to the European Parliament elections on Thursday. He did have trouble though getting his head around the issues. Nick worked hard on the London Mayoral campaign this time last year and then he had all of the issues at his finger tips and knew all the arguments and counter-arguments. The same clarity evaded him this year.

Today the Sun nails the only issue and advises its readers to vote Tory on Thursday. All three major parties offered the British people a referendum on the European Constitution. Now only the Tories still promise a referendum. The EU finessed no votes in France (May 2005) and the Netherlands (June 2005) by coming up with the Lisbon Treaty (December 2007) that was indistinguishable from the constitution in every area that was substantial – only frippery such as flags and anthems were dropped. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have used the Lisbon Treaty as an excuse to renege on their 2005 election promises. Even after the Irish voted against the treaty in June 2008 the unaccountable EU machine would not let the constitution (by another name) die.

This is what the Sun says:

David Cameron promises a Tory government will hold a referendum on the Constitution if it hasn’t been enacted by the next election.

We want a referendum whatever stage this wretched treaty has reached. But realistically, the Tories are the only game in town.

The sooner that election is called, the better. Thursday offers us a real chance to make sure we get one.

Our advice to Sun readers? If you want your vote to count in Europe, vote Tory.

On Thursday, however fed up you are with MPs – and we know that MEPs are probably much worse, get out and vote and vote for the Tories. A good result for the Tories and a bad result for Labour may precipitate a general election and that would give us a referendum.

Today we hear that Joanna Lumley has come out in support of the Green Party. It all sounds lovely but it means that whilst appearing to be an apolitical campaigner for good causes Lumley is in fact probably quite leftish and she will be a happy bedfellow with the extremely left-wing Green Party.

I know it is unfashionable to use terms such as leftwing and rightwing nowadays but the move of Labour towards the contested middle ground has left the old left looking for a new home. Some have found it in Respect and for the forthcoming Euro elections the No2EU campaign. Others are hiding in the Green Party. I say hiding because they do not push leaflets through your door with the word socialist highlighted but it does not take too much research to work out that the Green Party is essentially a socialist party in all but name.

Alan Johnson is viewed by some people as having the potential to be the next leader of the Labour party. It is clear from his pronouncements on proportional representation today in the Times that he is only interested in the narrow interests of the Labour party and has no interest in what is good for our country. He wants to confuse people by mixing the issue of reforming the behaviour of MPs with the issue of reforming the electoral system. In doing so Johnson is showing his true colours. In the Times he proposes that we have a referendum on the Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) system of proportional representation proposed by Roy Jenkins.

In 1997 the Labour manifesto promised:

We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system.

Whatever happened to that idea? In 1998 Roy Jenkins produced the Jenkins report which proposed the AV+ system of PR for the House of Commons. It did not suit Labour (because it would have reduced their majority) and the whole idea was dropped. Twelve years later Johnson raises it again because he thinks it has the power to clip the wings of the next Conservative government. Does Johnson think we have no memory?

The AV+ system of proportional representation is not that different from the little understood AMS system used by the London Assembly in 2000 and then again in 2004 and 2008. That system has given us a BNP member and a number of Green and UKIP members and a toothless scrutiny body. Great. Nice one Alan.

The biggest challenge for our next government will be tackling our country’s out of control debt. There is no way that we need a watered-down, PR type Parliament to tackle this challenge. In 2005 the largest home nation, England, voted for a Tory government but had to submit to a Labour government willed by the smaller home nations. We need a large Conservative majority at the next general election to allow our next government to do its job. Johnson is not part of the solution.