Be nice to someone day

I suspect the next few months may see me writing quite a few more critical pieces on other parties, their policies, their presentation and, hopefully to a lesser extent, their personnel. As the tiniest attempt to redress the balance I thought I'd set myself the challenge of saying something nice about each of the three main parties.

Labour;

In some ways I still see myself as a natural Labour supporter. It's been quite some time since I voted for them but it was my default position for decades. There are still some members in the party who represent the kind of ideals I admire.

Not just the obvious hard-left examples of Corbyn and co but also some of the less radical politicians who have social democratic politics buried deep in their guts. They tend to be older and lodged into specific positions that make staying in the party worthwhile but they do still exist and I admire their tenacity at hanging on in there - even if I don't envy them.

Lib Dems;

The Liberal Democrats have a less centralised culture than the other parties which is still resistant to Clegg's attempts to make decisions on everyone else's behalf. I think that's far more conducive to democracy than the 'love me or sack me' leadership model of the other parties.

It's also true that both the Lib Dem MPs I've lived under (Bob Russell and David Howarth) have been highly regarded as constituency MPs and have been very strong on issues like civil rights and immigration.

The Conservatives;

Now, well, um, I know this, it's on the tip of my tongue. The thing is... no, that's not it. What about, hold on... conviction politics?

Not Cameron obviously. Some of the others. Mind you, Hitler was a conviction politician so it's probably not that great. Not that they're fascists, I'm not saying that. Doing business with fascists, selling them guns, torture equipment and that does not make you a Nazi. Not at all.

Also blue's a really nice colour, don't you think?