... but I am 100% news!

That's why you can't beat a good old-fashioned, honest to goodness general election. I love it.

Of course everyone says this will be another easy win for Labour but with a reduced majority. I for one won't vote for them this time - I promised myself on the last Stop the War march that I couldn't vote for them if they went through with that crazy war. They probably will get back in but I think it will be close: I hate to say it but the Tories are running a good campaign. They have been setting the agenda for the last couple of weeks and I think their slogan is genius: "Are you thinking what we're thinking". Of course I think what they are really saying is "Are your reactionary, knee-jerk assumptions the moment anyone mentions gypsies, immigrants or the euro the same as ours - well hop on board" but I have a horrible feeling a lot of people will go for it. It's certainly better than Labour's Simpson's derived "Forward not back" - how moronic do they think we are? I haven't yet worked out what the Lib Dem slogan is. As far as I can tell it's "Well _we_ didn't support the war on Iraq so nah!" which isn't catchy, but I like it...

I'm still persisting under the opinion that a guy I was at school with is going to stand as an independent in Ealing, Acton and Shepherds Bush. This comes from catching the last 30 seconds of an interview on Simon Mayo's Radio 5 show about 5 months ago and I haven't been able to find out more since. That would be great - anyone know how to find out the full list of runners and riders in your constituency?

Anyway - this little baby from Channel 4 news is sure to be most illuminating in the next 29 days. Fact check - holding politicians to account!

I'm sure Labour will play the fear card soon. Not fear of terrorism (erm... actually they probably _will_ play that one as well) but the fear of "Michael Howard PM" card. I just get the shudders thinking about it. But I wont bite. I've been thinking about how I would feel if I was part of the disafected rump of Labour voters voting Green or Lib Dem or Independent-bloke-I-went-to-school-with-party that allowed the Tories to sneek back in. And I think we (and Labour) would have got what we deserve. I can't abrogate my democratic duty to vote against what appals me. I don't think Blair did lie about WMD. The best evidence (which admittedly turned out to be rubbish) indicates that everyone thought Iraq had them. What was untrue was WMD being an issue in the first place. There may have been a case for overthrowing Saddam. It may not have been legal but it was certainly never put to us. So we were sold this spurious angle in a desperate attempt to justify American foreign policy. I can't vote for the people who dragged us that low.