Going back up the thread to respond to Shimrod's post, the main reason there are so many Lib Dem placards on the local council estate boils down to one man - the very popular ex-councillor of the ward, Norman Lewis (the feller who looks like a Status Quo roadie) whose personal standing locally is such that he woud still havehis supporters even if he stood for the natural law party.

I won't pretend to look into the minds of middle class Labour voters in Chorlton, but I think his excellent article by Owen Jones sums up the difference between a vote for Labour and a vote for the Tories - the two parties are far closer than I'm comfortable with, but the differences are enough to make a vote for them worthwhile.

Meanwhile, I'll not be voting for our sitting MP, John Leech. He got voted into a historically Labour ward on the back of anti-Iraq War sentiment, and went on to either vote with the Tories or mysteriously absent himself at voting times. I'd vote Green if I was following my heart, but I suspect that by doing so I would be giving away my vote to the Lib Dems and potentially by extension to the Tories.

I find it sad that the Labour party has accepted the logic of the Tory agenda and joined them in demonising the SNP. Though I also suspect they don't want to form any kind of alliance with a party that will try to pull them to the left, more's the pity.

Parliamentary democracy. What a kerfuffle.