How our writers will vote

Published 04 June 2001

Election 2001 - The New Statesman asked its contributors to reveal their intentions. Here are 69 replies, including 30 for Labour, 13 for the Lib Dems and seven for the Tories

I will vote Liberal Democrat because:

Barry Norman (film critic) I believe we need PR to introduce a modicum of democracy into this country. I believe, too, that we should take an enthusiastic part in Europe, instead of pussyfooting around on the fringes. And any party that admits it will raise income tax instead of pretending it won't (when we all know it will) has my full support.

Germaine Greer (author and academic) They would raise income tax. I could not vote for a so-called Labour Party that increases the burden of indirect taxation, which is felt more by the poorer sections of society than by people in the high-income group.

A N Wilson (novelist and journalist) I was going to spoil my voting papers or abstain, but an unwonted desire to be a good citizen has slowly grown on me since the "phoney election" began. I live in a safe Labour seat, so want to cast a vote that registers the strongest distaste for new Labour, with its warmongering, subservience to the United States and its failure to improve any public services. I'm pro-Europe. I do think more money should be spent on schools and hospitals. The logical thing to do, it seems, is to vote Lib Dem.

Brenda Maddox (journalist) I vote in Wales, in a constituency where the Lib Dems now hold the seat; and the sham reform of the House of Lords would prevent me voting Labour.

Anthony Sampson (journalist) I believe in closer links with Europe and better public services.

Corin Redgrave (actor) My party, the Marxist Party, is not standing in Tooting, so I have to look for another one. I would never vote Tory. I can't vote Labour. It has gone into this election a) using the Criminal Justice Act to deny the right of assembly to many demonstrators, b) supporting Bush's National Missile Defence programme, and c) declaring its intention to rewrite the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Vernon Bogdanor (constitutional expert) A Whig, John Maynard Keynes once said, is a perfectly sensible Labourite. A Liberal is anyone who is perfectly sensible. I shall be voting Liberal Democrat for three reasons. The first is that only the Liberal Democrats are prepared fully to engage Britain with the Continent. Our policy on Europe since 1945 has been one of endless missed opportunities and tragic self-deception. The second is that only the Liberal Democrats will give priority to the public services, and in particular the NHS. Labour, by contrast, with its newfound love for the rich, seeks to legitimise unlimited money-making. The third is that only the Liberal Democrats will truly defend our diversity and multicultural society. Labour's attempt to out-Widdecombe the shadow home secretary on asylum is sufficient reason for liberal-minded people not to vote for them.

Bill Greenwell (poet) My tactical vote in Devon will be for the Lib Dem Nick Harvey. Seems decent enough. I'm one frustrated Labour voter, committed to PR, the sooner the better. And I'm voting against the whingeing sentimentalism of the Save the Pound campaign. What next: Bring Back the Groat?

Stephen Bates (journalist) Living in Tunbridge Wells, where Labour has no chance, I shall vote tactically in the hope of unseating Archie Norman. Even if I were a Tory, I would think twice about voting for him, as he has proved a lamentable, absentee MP, with little involvement in the constituency and no family presence here. Actually, Lib Dem policies are growing on me, but the chief motivation remains the desire to give this squalid, bigoted, anti-European Tory party a good hiding . . .

John Tusa (managing director, Barbican Centre) We need a decent opposition; more Labour MPs is too awful to contemplate; and we need honesty about taxation and constitutional and electoral reform.

Judy Jones (journalist) It's the only radical party left.

Ian Hargreaves (professor of media studies at Cardiff University; former editor of the New Statesman) I vote in London's only Lib Dem-held constituency and wouldn't like them to lose it. In general, I strongly support the re-election of the Blair government.

Robert Chesshyre (journalist) In 1997, I voted for a candidate who unseated a Tory incumbent, making me feel that, for once, my vote had made a difference. I live in Richmond Park and the vote was tactical. I will vote the same way again. Although I am disappointed by new Labour, Conservative xenophobia and a triumphant Widdecombe at the Home Office are just too awful to contemplate.

Ziauddin Sardar (journalist) Could Charlie be my darling? I am quite impressed with Charles Kennedy's performance. And it is high time that someone stood up for public services in unequivocal and let's-pay-for-them fashion. We definitely need a Lib Dem opposition, rather than that unconscionable shower of opportunist scaremongers. But what to do about my natural Labour instincts? I have not left them; but has the Labour Party left me?

I will vote Green because:

Will Self (novelist and journalist) It's the only party with a defined position on environmental issues, sustainable development and globalisation, as well as a genuine commitment to wealth redistribution.

Amanda Craig (novelist and journalist) I'd rather recycle newspapers than Tory ideology masquerading as socialism.

John Madeley (journalist) None of the three main parties, in my view, is addressing the major issues of climate change, economic globalisation and the takeover of our economy by transnational corporations. So, after 27 years being a member of the Liberals/Lib Dems, and after standing three times for parliament for them, it is time to register a protest vote!

I will vote Plaid Cymru because:

Jan Morris (author) For all its faults and weaknesses, it is the only Welsh party. At Westminster, we in Wales badly need its voice to be heard; in the National Assembly, I hope it will one day be the party of government.

I am undecided because:

Bruce Kent (CND campaigner) I will not vote Labour because I am a Christian socialist, and will alternatively vote Green or Socialist Alliance if such candidates are available.

Tom Rosenthal (art critic) I shall be abroad and haven't yet decided whether to use my postal vote. Having always voted Labour (apart from a brief flirtation with the SDP in its heyday under the Gang of Four), I now feel disenfranchised. How can I vote for a party whose leader has chanted his mantra about "Education, Education, Education" with all the zeal of an estate agent preaching "Location, Location, Location", and then presides over the introduction of tuition fees for university students? Ugh. But the other parties seem even worse.

Margaret Drabble (novelist) I can't make my mind up. How can I vote Labour, for more privatisation of the NHS? But what else is there? I'll wait to see who stands in North Ken.

Phil Hammond (GP, journalist and broadcaster) I will not vote Conservative, but haven't decided between Liberal Democrat and Labour. I work in a sexual health clinic in one of the dirtiest and oldest teaching hospitals in the UK. We are in woefully inadequate temporary accommodation that is infested with fleas, and my consulting room has no natural light or ventilation. The smell can be truly appalling. I am embarrassed to work in such an environment and often apologise to patients. After seven hours in the clinic, I feel unwell, and it is easy to see how patients' notes and blood tests could be confused. There have been no improvements in our working environment in Labour's first term and none is planned in the foreseeable future. I support their plans to recruit more doctors and nurses, but they won't stay long in the NHS if the working conditions remain so dismal.

Charles Glass (journalist and broadcaster) Liberal Democrat or Green. Neither Labour nor the Conservative Party is fit to run a chip shop, let alone a country. Labour is doing what true Tories would do if they were in power: handing the state over to corporations and incarcerating more people who do not belong in prison.

Angus MacKinnon (journalist) I'm undecided, in a word. I've voted Labour all my life, but I'm largely disappointed by four years of Blair & Brown. Of course, it has been preferable to any sort of Tory alternative, yet it seems to have been one surrender of principle, one espousal of some crony or other, after another. And I don't believe for a moment in the likelihood of a "radical" (huh!) second term. I suppose one should be grateful, but I'm not.

I won't vote because:

Anthony Daniels (doctor) There is no settling the precedency between a louse and a flea.

Adam Boulton (political editor, Sky News) As usual, I will not be taking my own advice to others and I will not be voting. I hope I make a sufficient contribution to the democratic process through balanced TV reporting. I would find it much more difficult to deal with politicians impartially if I were planning to caress them or kick them in the ballot box.

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne (journalist; former editor of the Sunday Telegraph) Contemporary politicians need to be discouraged, or at least ignored.

John-Paul Flintoff (journalist and author) I will not vote, because governments use votes to justify whatever they like, and what they like more than anything - more than the welfare of the country - is the course of action that will get them re-elected. Bring back the hereditary peers.

Peter Dunn (journalist) I have voted Labour for 35 years, but I'm not voting this time, even though my constituency, Hexham, has a Tory majority of 220-odd. Hague hasn't a prayer, of course, but I don't like, or trust, Blair's style, and I believe that a reduced Labour majority would be better for democracy and provoke a change of leadership, hopefully to Gordon Brown, who will bin Mandelson if the Hartlepool voters don't.

I will vote Labour because:

Alain de Botton (novelist and author) I will vote Labour because they are the most competent, imaginative and intelligent party in British politics at the moment. I have been deeply impressed by their achievements in their last term and find Blair an effective and inspiring figure.

Oliver James (media psychologist) TINA (there is no alternative).

Carmen Callil (publisher and author) I will vote Labour because I am not disappointed with them apart from on the NHS, trains and Tube, Europe and everything to do with foreign affairs. I always imagined they would be as they are - insufficiently radical for my tastes - but who cares about that after the Thatcher years? I like living under a Labour government.

Andrew Billen (journalist) They, rather than the Tories, deserve a second chance. Things can only get better this term, can't they?

David Lodge (novelist) It is the least imperfect government we have had in recent memory, and deserves another term; the alternatives are not worth even considering.

Richard Eyre (theatre, film and television director) Abstention is a pointless gesture and Labour - in spite of all their depressing lack of vision and self-belief - is the only party that will make life better for more people.

Ian Jack (editor, Granta) The prospect of the other lot is too tragic and my constituency MP seems decent (otherwise might vote for the Lib Dems). But along with most other people, I know I'll not be marching to the polling booth with a breezy or determined tread.

Francis Beckett (journalist) New Labour has forfeited the right to the automatic support I used to give to Labour, because it isn't a party of the underdog. Given the choice, it always instinctively sides with the rich and powerful. So I look at the candidates available in my constituency and decide whom I prefer, whatever party they are in. In Finchley, where I live, this reasoning will lead me to vote for Labour's Rudi Vis, an independent-minded and honourable MP who refused to vote for Frank Dobson as Labour's candidate for mayor, even though party bosses told him that his much-needed office space depended on it.

Claire Rayner (agony aunt, journalist and broadcaster) I hope Labour will take on board a recent MORI poll showing that 15 per cent of people who are already committed to a party, as I am committed to Labour, would be prepared to change their vote if that party refused to provide the same personal care for elderly and frail people as the Scottish government is prepared to give.

D J Taylor (novelist and critic) I shall be voting Labour with deep reluctance. The animating principle of the Blair government so far has been conciliation, or perhaps only appeasement. While there have been some encouraging signs in areas such as education, most of the decisions that need to be taken about the country's future direction - and in particular the maintenance of its social fabric - have simply been deferred. I doubt they will be addressed during the next four years.

Christian Wolmar (journalist) Labour has done much good, but its authoritarian streak, its lack of courage in the face of the Daily Mail, Tony Blair's refusal to use the word "redistribution", its readiness to support Bush's mad missile defence scheme and John Prescott's utter failure on transport mean that I will vote Labour oh so reluctantly.

Roy Greenslade (journalist) However sceptical I remain about the worth of the project, however disappointed by the failure to engage in a new political culture, however discontented by the continuing disparity between rich and poor, however distressed at the unethical foreign policy, however depressed by unsatisfactory constitutional reform, however dismayed at allowing the unionists to wreck the Irish peace process, the alternative remains wholly unacceptable.

Annalisa Barbieri (journalist) Just on what I've seen so far, I would be tempted to vote Lib Dem or Green if I thought they had any chance. In the end, however, I think I will vote Labour, because not voting solves nothing and four years isn't enough for anyone to work through the mess the Conservatives made. If only I could vote Vittorio Radice for prime minister. He is the managing director of Selfridges and I think he'd be brilliant. Sadly, he's probably too honest to get into politics.

Chris Riddell (cartoonist and illustrator) Labour. There is no alternative and I like seeing Tories cry.

Michael Leapman (journalist) Despite failures and disappointments - overstated, incidentally, by the NS and other media - they are still on the side of the good guys. And voting is about attitudes, not policies. I have always voted Labour at general elections, and don't intend to change that habit now.

Johann Hari (Cambridge student) I can see, in my own friends and family, how a Labour government has benefited us. For example, because of the working families tax credit, my sister has now found rewarding work and moved off unemployment benefit. My grandmother has benefited largely from the top-ups for poor pensioners. My nephews have gained nursery places. Several of my friends, because of the strong economy, have got jobs for the first time after long spells of unemployment. So I'll be proud to put my cross for Labour.

Hunter Davies (author and journalist) Why I'll be voting Labour: 1) Habit, innit. 2) I want little Leo to grow up in a certain, caring world. 3) And not supporting Man Utd or Liverpool or Newcastle like the rest of the chaps in the family. 4) Give Carlisle Utd a chance. 5) I honestly think, on the whole, they've done a jolly good job. 6) I live in hope that they'll abolish all fee-paying education. 7) Alastair Campbell is my friend. 8) Er, that's about it. 9) No, hold on. 10) I could never ever in a trillion years vote Tory.

Bill Hagerty (journalist; former editor, the People) An eternal optimist, I still think a Labour government might regain a grip on the principles in which I believe.

Adam Newey (journalist) Despite the failures, disappointments and evasions of the past four years, there is (under the current electoral system) no alternative - and I don't hold with the heavily cynical view that says new Labour are the old Tories in disguise. A few seconds' reflection on the prospect of Hague at No 10 is enough to make you realise there is a difference, and that it's a difference worth voting for.

Polly Toynbee (journalist and broadcaster) It is the party best placed to keep the Tories out in my seat, but I would vote tactically Lib Dem for the same reason in other seats, still hoping for proportional representation. Even if sometimes maddeningly pusillanimous, Labour has been the best government in my lifetime.

Geraldine Bedell (journalist) Though I am sorely tempted to vote for the Lib Dems because of their environmental emphasis and honesty about taxes.

Titus Alexander (chair, Charter 99) Politics is not a consumer choice between parties. While I disagree with specific policies, a new Labour government offers more opportunities for improvement than the alternatives.

Samuel Brittan (journalist and author) The present political divide has similarities to that which existed in the period up to the First World War, when a Liberal government was confronted with a reactionary English nationalist Tory opposition. The Liberal government of those days had many maddening faults; but it was far preferable to the Bonar Law Conservatives. I have never been any kind of socialist, not even what Tony Blair sometimes calls "social-ist". I was not one even when I was an official at the Cambridge University Labour Club. Nor, on a different level, am I enamoured of the influence of spin-doctors such as Alastair Campbell over the Prime Minister (so well illustrated in the play Feelgood). But a change to the Conservatives would be a leap to something far worse. They now stand for all that is most nasty-minded in British public attitudes: a simulated hatred of foreigners, a mean-minded punitive attitude to immigrants escaping from either oppression or poverty and hoping to find a better life. Their main approach to crime is to promise even more prisons than Jack Straw has done. All this goes with an intolerant attitude towards minority, unconventional or non-traditional lifestyles. Labour leaves much to be desired in all these matters. The present government has turned the clock back on penal reform, and would-be immigrants are deprived of the chance of working legally. There is room for more than one opinion both on the merits of the euro and on the wider working of the European Union. But there is no excuse for the way Tories have used these issues as an excuse to bang on the xenophobic drum and talk of Britain "becoming a foreign country". The English themselves are a mongrel nation who have thrived by absorbing wave after wave of immigrants, from the Danes and the Normans to the Huguenots and onwards. As for the United Kingdom, this is, in historical terms, a recent grouping of these isles, which have supported, as the historian Norman Davies has shown, at least 16 different states. Barring a miracle, the Tories will suffer a well-deserved defeat after a campaign as unpleasant as it is pathetic in its botched attempt to emulate Labour's spin-doctors. But I must do my tiny bit to make sure that the miracle does not happen.

Carole Stone (socialite) Labour. I think they've got the right ideas for the country.

Martyn Bedford (novelist and critic) Despite the temptation to abstain, in protest at the Blairite shift away from socialism, I know that, come polling day, my lifelong loathing of the Tories will get the better of me. But, this time I won't be celebrating the night away.

Kevin Maguire (journalist) It is a secret ballot and I want to watch Blair agonise over whether to risk bringing Peter Mandelson back a third time.

Richard Hoggart (cultural critic and former college principal) 1) I am a lifelong socialist. 2) I can't ever vote Conservative (least of all for the present lot). 3) Lib Dems: always possible, but not now, not yet. 4) I want to improve the present government's record in education, health and broadcasting.

Toby Mundy (publisher and critic) It represents the only serious progressive alternative to conservative reaction. The leadership's analysis of the British electorate and media may have the distinction of being impoverished yet broadly right.

Ben Pimlott (historian and warden of Goldsmiths College, London) Because I always do, and because there is no contender. There are also positive reasons. The years 1997-2001 have not seen a brilliant government, and the social landscape has not been transformed because of it. But it has nevertheless been an impressively competent one, with a serious commitment to the poor. Indeed, it has been a lot better than its often simplistic public relations have made it seem. Because it believes (wrongly) that you have to be tough on this and tough on that to get elected, there has been a furtiveness about its social conscience and about the quietly promising liberal-minded schemes it has promulgated. Will it be more substantially radical in its second term, making Blair the Campbell-Bannerman or Attlee of the 21st century? There aren't yet many signs, but I live in hope.

David Lawday (journalist) Although I am thoroughly dissatisfied with Tony Blair's failure to lead on Europe and the euro, which I believe Britain needs to join at once for a host of good reasons, Labour does seem a better European bet than the Tories.

Alistair Moffat (journalist) There is no alternative.

I will vote Conservative because:

Tim Rice (lyricist) Labour has achieved little beyond the unnecessary destruction of things that worked quite well in the first place (House of Lords, United Kingdom, etc). The only true belief is in a vicious, almost fascist, desire to stifle all opposition for all time. Spin and spite. Conservatives offer the only hope of radical reform of many creaking institutions that do need an overhaul - NHS, the entire education system, transport (notably in London) - and they realise that flinging money at the problem is not more than a small part of the solution.

Roger Scruton (philosopher) I am a Conservative, and have found nothing believable in any other political philosophy.

Malcolm Rifkind (former secretary of state for defence) I am the Conservative candidate for Edinburgh Pentlands and, in these circumstances, to vote for any other party would seem rather silly!

Quentin Letts (journalist) Distaste for 1) Blair, 2) Europe, 3) contrariness, 4) tax.

Martin Vander Weyer (author and journalist) I believe in personal responsibility, economic freedom and the integrity of the United Kingdom, and I don't trust Tony Blair not to bounce us into the euro for reasons of pure political vanity. Also, I'm a Conservative constituency chairman.

David Cox (journalist and forestry chief) As a lifelong socialist and democrat, I don't want Britain to become a one-party state. Our Labour government needs to be rescued from its current descent into complacency, cronyism and minor corruption. The possibility of opposition provides the most obvious means of achieving this.

Ned Sherrin (film and TV producer) I always have, and I'm not impressed by the other lot. Indeed, frankly dismayed.

I would rather not say because:

Joan Bakewell (broadcaster) As a journalist, I like to keep my own counsel.

Alternatively

Celia Brayfield (novelist and author) Stay home and read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, because J K Rowling has done a lot more for both single parents and authors than has Tony Blair.

Others

Geoffrey Wheatcroft (journalist) If I voted, I'd vote for myself. As it is, apathy and abstention are honourable responses.

Lord (Melvyn) Bragg (broadcaster and novelist) I can't vote. Perhaps this calls for a new motion in the House of Lords.

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