Every election blogger worth reading has linked to Vote Match, so why should we be any different?

In principle, we shouldn’t be. I think sites like this are a brilliant idea in any election, and always use them to check my voting intention against my beliefs and ensure I’m not backing the wrong horse. Vote Match is easy to use, presents the results clearly, and works really well.

But in the context of the Mayor of London election 2008, I think there is one problem with Vote Match: it’s built on the assumption that candidates’ stated policies are all that matters.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they don’t matter, but the problem is that this approach overlooks some of the most important reasons not to vote for Boris.

Boris is renowned for his unreliability, his lack of commitment and his liability to commit offensive and embarrassing gaffes which (unlike rival candidates quoting things Boris has written back at him) would demean the office of Mayor.

He also has a history of saying whatever he thinks will get him elected, regardless of what he really thinks or will really do when in office: in his university days, to get elected as Oxford Union president, he pretended to be a supporter of the then fashionable SDP, rather than declaring his true allegiance to the Conservatives. This leaves a large question mark hanging over anything he says now.

But it’s that unreliability, that buffoonishness, that is the main, clear reason why the Stop Boris campaign’s recommendation about using Vote Match is as follows: use it by all means, but if Boris comes out on top just ignore him and vote for whoever came next.

Whichever statements Boris claims to agree with – and he was the third most dithering candidate, answering ‘neither’ to five of the questions on big issues like Council Tax and unemployment – it’s important that we don’t allow people to forget that he fundamentally can’t be trusted to represent our great city or do a competent job as Mayor. It’s the idiocy, stupid!

This entry was posted on Saturday 12 April 2008 at 11.01 by Mr. Stop Boris and is filed under Other candidates, Voting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS2 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.