Ed West Drops Off My Christmas List

Ed West posts that he has joined the Conservative Party even though "........I disagree with the Tory leadership over almost everything – Europe, school selection, crime, immigration, the wearing of ties...." He also states "And whatever one’s grumbles about Team Cameron, we live in a two-and-a-half party system – outside of that duopoly there’s little that can be done."

I had, up to now, considered Ed West a journalist of note but with his latest post he has ruined his standing. What sane person joins a political party and with whom they have disagreements with a number of that party's policies? No Ed, we dont live in a two-and-a-half party system, actually we live in a multi-party system. The problem is that the two-and-a-half-party system has, with the complicit assistance of the MSM, managed to strangle any publicity for those other parties by, for example, refusing to debate 'the issues of the day' with them.

The idea that by voting for one party, even though their policies are disliked, purely to keep out another party whose views are even more disliked, is not the wisest use of one's vote. Why is it that a supposedly intelligent person is not concerned about loss of sovereignty, that those for whom he will vote will not be able to 'govern' the country, that the party he supports is actually lying to the electorate? If Ed West cannot understand important matters like the aforementioned, what chance Joe Public will?

If journalists will not 'inform' the electorate in a fair and independent manner, there is little hope for democracy. But then I suppose we no longer have a free and fair press and, I presume, even journalists can be 'nobbled'.