*grin* Purely personal p-o-v, Steve. I've never felt that my vote has counted for anything. Not under FPTP. First time I could vote (and did) was local council shtuff. Even back then... I didn't have any Greens, so I put down one LAB, one LIB, one CON. What I got was 67 LAB, 1 LIB, 0 Anything Else. It doesn't exactly make you feel like your vote mattered...

If memory serves, the first GE I voted in was against (yes, against...) Gordon Brown. I was fed up with being nannied by Noo LAB. Who incidentally wanted me to pay for everything under the sun (as an able-bodied white single male with no dependents, I am a cash cow for everything under the sun. Oh, plus I'm a car driver which makes me the Devil's Own Spawn. In general I don't mind being utterly ignored when it comes to vote buying, but I do object to having my nose rubbed in it!). I still feel slightly dirty when I admit that my X went into a Tory box, but I looked up the previous GE and the LIBs were such a distant third that an X there... I helped cut the LAB majority from 15K to 5K. Again, it doesn't make much of a diff, do it?

I am very firmly in the camp that says FPTP is past its sell by date. It has its virtues (simplicity being the principal one), but I don't think it's a good way of choosing a government of representing the wants of the electorate any more. I don't like the ERS's preferred AV system either. That, to me, seems to simply be a complicated FPTP. I'd much prefer PR on the German model. There, my vote adds a tiny little bit to the whole.

As for 70's Socialism, {grin} again, a purely personal p-o-v. I've always been dubious about "tax & spend" policy anyway. But in the modern global world I simply can't see how it will work. We're at the mercy of global market forces, we cannot isolate ourselves, and there's been no appetite in the UK for higher personal taxation since Milk-Snatcher got in (it's no good saying "but Denmark..." et al; we aren't them). It's been asked before - "Would you pay 1p on income tax if it went to the NHS?" 80% of the country answers "yes", the Tories run a scare campaign (remember "Labour's tax bombshell"?) and the Tories get elected again... I'm no lover of Tory govt's, even if I've no faith in LAB doing any better (it doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in!). But if LAB does want to get elected... For better or worse, Blair managed it. I can't see how JC will!