The Ditch Blair Project

The Guardian is reporting that tomorrow morning Tony Blair will formally ask the Queen to call a general election on May 5. This comes after a Guardian/ICM poll showed Blair's government holding only a slim three-point lead over the Conservatives. This puts me in an incredible bind.

In the U.S., I would have deeply opposed George W. Bush even if he hadn't led us into Iraq, because his social and economic policies are, in my opinion, designed to make the lives of working people in America worse and worse. If I could vote in the U.S., I would be a Democrat, for all their faults.

In Britain, however, I vote Labour, because that party has traditionally been the one whose economic and social policies have been the best for the working class, from which I proudly hail. (You can't imagine the party I'll hold when Margaret Thatcher finally croaks.)

Despite all this, the prospect of re-electing Blair is a difficult one. I cannot understand his stance on Iraq and feel deeply betrayed by his government. It is disproportionately the children of the poor who end up fighting wars and, although they are sometimes necessary, for a Labour government to send our soldiers off to fight on such flimsy evidence is hard to forgive.

I can't imagine ever voting Conservative (unless their primary policies become those of the Labour party), but it is hard to imagine rewarding Blair for his dreadful lack of judgment (and I'm being kind here). I really don't know what I'll do. I might consider voting for a third party, but I don't want to look back and be the British equivalent of a repentant Nader voter.

Doubtless I'll mull this over further in this space as the date nears.