The prospect of a government of national unity* – a coalition including both the Conservatives and Labour – is conspicuous by its absence. Instead both parties are courting the support of the third force in British politics – the Liberal Democrats – to make up the numbers they need to govern.

The situation has given the Lib Dems a rare opportunity to influence Government policy directly. Top of the Liberals’ wish-list is electoral reform – changing the first-past-the-post voting system to some kind of proportional representation. Unfortunately none of the options on the table offer them a realistic prospect of achieving this.

The Tories are opposed to electoral reform, as the current system favours them (disproportionately), while Labour’s death-bed conversion to the cause lacks both conviction and the requisite mandate to see it through. A Lib/Lab alliance would still fall short of a commons majority so it would require the support of a hodge-podge of minority-party MPs in order to get anything done. Such a rainbow coalition would be unlikely to provide stable government in the national interest, would exclude from government the party with the biggest share of the vote, and might disagree with itself so violently on other matters that it could even collapse before it managed to get anything done.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has become the first for generations to catch a whiff of government yet he has been presented with an agonising dilemma: to share power with the Conservatives he would have to abandon the most cherished ambition of his party and set aside the reason he says he went into politics in the first place.

Much depends on the detail of the power-sharing offer being made by the Tories however, when it comes down to it, Clegg will have to decide whether he thinks working with the Tories or against them serves the Liberal agenda best. In other words, will he choose to join a Conservative-led Government and fight within it for that in which Liberals believe, or will he choose to sit opposite a minority Tory administration and fight against that in which they do not?

On that point I think my previous advice applies.

But oh! The irony…

* With Cameron as Prime Minister, Brown as Chancellor and Clegg as Home Secretary, what could possibly go wrong?

After Labour’s famous victory in 1997 I was a bit despondent, however I went off to University anyway, and gradually realised the change in government wasn’t going to cause the sky to fall on my head. In fact as far as I could tell nothing much changed at all – though other people I knew were talking about good things happening in terms of jobs, public services and the economy. When the 2001 poll came round I still wasn’t very politically minded, however I saw that Labour wanted to scrap tuition fees for students, and this was enough to swing my vote. As a student myself and with a sister about to start University, where she would be charged for her own tuition at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds, this was a policy I could get behind.

So I voted Labour in 2001. Then everything changed – both personally and in terms of global politics. The twin towers fell four months into Labour’s second term. I’d flown back from the states just three days before and the week afterwards I was to start my first proper job as a graduate. Looking back now, it seems like this was the point at which the rot set into the Labour party, not from an economic standpoint but from a social perspective.

I started paying attention to politics after 9/11, and the more I did so, the more disillusioned I became with the Government. Never mind their broken promises on tuition fees – Labour were systematically dismantling our civil liberties. Aided by the media, they were exploiting the spectre of international terrorism in order to turn the UK into an authoritarian surveillance-state. As a result we now live in a society built on the politics of fear – only the Chinese and the Russians are more closely watched. Our Government no longer serves us – it controls us.

I voted Liberal Democrat in 2005. I became a member of the party in 2007 and I voted for them again in 2010. I want to live in a society that values privacy, liberty, freedom, human rights and democracy. In my opinion the Liberal Democrats are the only party that has consistently held these values, not as soundbytes, but as the very foundations of the party.

I hope this election marks the point at which the swing of the social pendulum starts to reverse – moving away from authoritarianism and towards libertarianism.

Whatever you hope, and however you’re planning to vote, I urge you to reject the politics of fear. Vote for what you believe in – not against something you don’t.

Happy General Election 2010!

British civil liberties have been dismantled systematically since 2001. The National Identity Register, biometric passports, the NHS spine, Contactpoint and the Vetting and Barring Scheme are just a few of the most egregious privacy invasions we have suffered.

Our every move is watched with suspicion by the authorities. ANPR systems record every journey we make. Video and audio Surveillance Systems (SS) watch us in every public space and many private ones too. Thousands of public bodies abuse their RIP Act powers to spy on us for trivial reasons. The police can stop us and search us arbitrarily, and they keep “pre-crime” databases on the innocent. Our private communications are monitored, analysed and recorded both by the Government and private companies.

Yet often MPs want one rule for us and another for them. The children of MPs can be “shielded” on ContactPoint to protect their privacy – but ours can’t. Very few MPs have an ID card even though ministers have been doing everything in their power to coerce the public into “volunteering” for them. Many MPs voted to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act, to protect their “privacy”, whilst passing laws that erode ours.

When it comes to liberty in Britain today, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. This hypocrisy has to end and the systematic assault on our civil liberties must be reversed.

The Power2010 campaign is conducting a letter writing campaign asking Prospective Parliamentary Candidates to:

…commit that, if you are elected, you will vote to repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006 and will defend our privacy as fiercely as you would defend your own and that of your family.

The above reproduces what I sent to Sheffield Central PPCs. You can take part in the campaign here.

I know there are many people in Sheffield who care passionately about the Internet. I have spoken to lots of local residents who wrote to their MPs opposing the Digital Economy Bill only to be ignored or fobbed off with form letters. The final insult came when the division bell rang and Sheffield’s so-called representatives were hearded by their party whips into the Aye lobby like sheep, deaf to the howls of protest from their constituents.

We can’t let that kind of slur go unchallenged. There is a General Election at hand, which means we have a chance to change our current party flunkies for representatives who are prepared to do just that: represent us.

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but if you feel let down by your MP, I encourage you to find one of their opponents and offer to help them get elected instead. There’s a list of Sheffield consituency candidates on the Sheffield Votes website.

Sheffield Central is the only marginal constituency in South Yorkshire. The Liberal Democrats are the only party with a realistic chance of winning the seat from Labour. Therefore I’ll be at Paul Scriven’s campaign office at 10:00 on Saturday morning to do what I can to get rid of Labour in Sheffield Central. If you’re reading this and you think the Digital Economy Act is a bad idea I urge you to join me.

Sign up here: http://www.pledgebank.com/DEActivateLabour

Frankly, I’m appalled. Any illusions I had about Britain being a representative democracy have been shattered. What’s the point of voting when the people we elect just ignore their constituents and do whatever their party whips tell them to? I find it especially hard to understand how an MP can vote on something without even bothering to take part in the relevant debates. Surely that’s a dereliction of duty? If they won’t scrutinise legislation on our behalf then what are we paying them for?

If any of these so-called “representatives” would like to explain themselves to the people of Sheffield we would love to hear their excuses in the comments.

Oh, and would the last person to leave Digital Britain please switch off the Internet?