Please rec to show your support for the people of France, England and Greece in

[mwooldri]

66. There isn't much choice in England I'm afraid.

The Welsh have a choice in Plaid Cymru. Northern Ireland parties are independent from British ones. Yes, the SNP is a sound choice in Scotland.

England I'm afraid is back to a two party system - Labour and Conservative. The coalition agreement the Lib Dems have with the Tories has killed them politically, right from the grassroots up - and the leadership doesn't appear to have recognised it yet, despite losing over 1,000 borough, county, and district council seats since the 2010 general election.

There's also another problem: England has too many seats where you could pin a blue rosette on anyone and put them up on the ballot in the general, and that person would win. On the whole, it takes Scottish and Welsh Labour seats for the Labour Party as a whole to have a majority in Westminster - unless Labour have a spectacular year (like 1997). Otherwise in a separate England as it stands there would be a perpetual Conservative government, at least until some people wake up in England and see what's happening.

So a vote for Labour is not ideal but it is better than the alternative... and in areas where Labour is a completely lost cause only a Lib Dem revival could do anything to dent the Tories. I foresee SW England turning back blue in the next general.

Mark.