LibDem

When New Labour finally hit the wall in 2010, and Gordon Brown realised he had to call a general election as he couldn't eke out any more days as PM under current constitutional rules, I had only just turned 18. Imagine that! Voting at 18! I felt as though I'd finally made that final grimy step into being a proper adult, who voted and everything (little did I know that University was going to push me back down those stairs, but there we go). So off I went in my sixth form free period to the local primary school, where I handed my card to the unsmiling man, walked into the booth and marked an x in the box on the piece of paper next to where it said 'Liberal Democrat - David Chappell'.

After the coalition was agreed I felt immediately like a fool. Having been whipped up in Cleggmania, I never though that the man, of whom we all agreed with and who was the saviour of students, would cross over to the darkside. I mean, I'd nearly actually joined the Liberal Democrats as a member only a few days before; what the hell was I thinking? Then the media started laughing at him. He'd became Cameron's bitch, serving him tea while Dave got on with the important task of running the country. He was a sell out. Judas.

Or was he?

Having aged two and a half years since that bonkers May week, I can now look back with a strange hindsight. I had voted Liberal Democrat, and y'know what? I think I'll do it again and before you break out the pitch forks and flaming touches, I'll give you two reasons:

Now we all know the Tories have taken command of of some kind of cuts Death Star, destroying public services and vaporising vital benefits; wrecking thousands of people's lives without even giving the slightest hint of punishment towards the institutions that got us into the predicament in the first place (you know who). They wheel out the same old 'well we need to banks to prop the economy' nonsense even though it's pretty obvious to a four year old that the cuts aren't working as we've fallen back into recession. 

We also know that their ministers are deeply unpopular. Gove? Prick. Osborne? Posh twat and rightfully booed at the Paralympics. Lansley? Hated by NHS employees and for good reason.They seem to lurching the nation from one fuck-minded idea to the next, without barely noticing the effect it's having (devaluing GCSEs, destroying the NHS, putting a homoeopathy advocate in charge of health). But let's just think for a second, the Tories didn't actually win the election outright, so the LibDems are in that cabinet room too. Imagine how bad things would be if they had free reign. I'm not saying they've really gone on to achieve much (stop sniggering at the back about the voting referendum), but they are there and they're stopping things getting really getting out of hand. Really they are. Cameron also knows that if he does something to upset them and they leave, then he's going to be in a right mess.

My second reason why I'd vote LibDem again is much more simple. In 2010 my constituency had a swing away from the Conservatives for the first time in a long time, due to the LibDem vote. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but I'd actually been quite cleaver in voting tactically in a constituency that would never vote a Labour MP.

Oh and my third bonus reason for voting LibDem again is this: look at Labour.