Green fever

As the general election looms - in addition to the local council elections for all my fellow Londoners and I, plus plenty more people around the country - my mind has finally shaken off all the usual ephemera it concerns itself with (Do we need milk? Will I have time to go the gym tonight? Why do Spurs break my little heart time and time again?) and come round to pondering the most pertinent topic: namely, who will I vote for?

The date of said election was only announced a matter of days ago but given that it was possibly the worst kept secret in living memory, the parties were only too ready to spew forth a raft of stage-managed public appearances and election promises.

Such is relatively short period of time between now and polling day, I (like a few other million people, I wouldn't mind betting) am already feeling a touch overwhelmed about what specific policies each party plans to put into action during the next 4 or 5 years.

Thanks be, then, for a new website called 'Vote for Policies'. It lays out, point-by-point, what each of the the main six parties (Lab, Con, Lib Dem, Green, UKIP, and Naz...er, sorry, BNP) plan for all the major policy areas, such as democracy, immigration, welfare, the economy, health and education.

Earlier, I took the test and I was slightly surpised, if not exactly bowled over, by the results.

In truth, I'd thought I'd already made up my mind. I can't stomach any more Labour mismanagement, thanks very much, and I'm deeply opposed to the neo-Thatcherite lunacy of 'Call Me' Dave Cameron. Despite the fact that my incumbent Tory MP, Iain Duncan Smith, is sitting on rather a nice majority and will almost certainly keep his seat and become a cabinet minister in the next parliament, I felt my best bet was to vote Lib Dem.

I've met the candidate, briefly, and he seems like a stand-up guy but I'm far more concerned with the policies at a national level than any personality traits I might like in my MP. I'll be using my vote at the local elections to decide on specifically local issues (althought this will more than likely see me voting Lib Dem as well, but there we are).

But the fact that, according to my relatively serious policy decisions on the online test, I'm 55% Green, I might be forced to reconsider.

It's hardly surprising that my views should run roughly along the line of the Green party, as I've become more and more engaged in the battle against climate change in the last couple of years (I've become a bit of a 'Standby Nazi' and continue to infuriate my mother by turning the kitchen telly off at the socket on a daily basis).

Plus, the Lib Dems have always been too pro-Europe for my liking, but I was prepared to take a hit on that single policy area in return for competence with the economy (thank you, Mr Cable) and a bit of detachment from the two parties that have been making a general of a hash of things since I was in short trousers.

So, rather than clarifying exactly who I should vote for on May 6, this clever and informative website has seen me go from being fairly certain to fairly confused.

Such is politics, I suppose.