Now, I’m not going to get on my high horse about this; I have failed to vote more times than I care to remember, but my enthusiasm for a particular candidate and the low turnout got me thinking. The first thing to say is the best defence for not voting is laziness, this I respect, it has an honesty that can’t be argued with. Where I now part company with people is when the argument of “not voting because they’re all crooks” is deployed. This does not work. You may pretend that not voting is a protest but nobody cares if you don’t vote, certainly not politicians. Watching Newsnight last night reminded me of the barefaced cheek of politicians. They operate on the twin principles of the conceit that the occasional election is the consent of the people and divide and conquer. Oh, sorry, lets not forget the third principle; lie, lie and lie again.

Oh well, our boy Andy Dumas came a distant second; 625 to Godfrey Daniels 1522 votes. It says a lot about the quality of his campaign that he beat the Conservative and Liberals. It will be interesting to see what he does now, I’ve already volunteered to help with the web side if he decides to stand again. Mind you I’m not sure if he takes me seriously or thinks I’m some sort of strange stalker!

I will, at great personal sacrifice, go down Poor Boys to see how he’s taking it.

Went to vote early, a groggy hangover head made the European voting slip a bit of an effort, I swear it was twenty miles long. Evan at this time of the morning, 7.15, a passer by walking his dog shouted in to the lonely Labour man sitting at the entrance “I’m not voting today, they’re all crooks”. It’s going to be a long day at the polling stations.

The good news is that early poll research, me and Keith down the Sea Angling Club, indicate a landslide for our boy Andy Dumas. So tomorrow morning I expect to awake in a world were the sun shines all the time, we are all nice to each other and digital cameras are free.