EARLY NEXT MONTH the British electorate will get the chance to send the Con-Dem coalition government a message.

For on May 5th various elections are being held in England, Scotland, Ulster and Wales. It’s also the day of the national referendum – and the National Liberal Party is campaigning to support the introduction of the Alternative Vote (AV) to replace the current ‘First Past the Post’ system.

We’re hoping that both the Tories and Liberal Democrats will get a real bloody nose at the polls – especially the Lib Dems who have betrayed some of the core promises made during the last General Election. Hopefully, voters will decide to punish both of them over their decisions to increase student fees and slash health, welfare, schools and transport services.

Whilst voters are busy hitting the Con-Dem government at the ballot box, they shouldn’t forget that the Labour Party also share much of the blame for getting Britain into such a mess.

The NLP is standing in Cuffley, Hertfordshire, where local elections are being held. Our candidate is well-known local man, Brent Cheetham. Brent has been a thorn in the Parish Council’s side for many years and is well-known for his hard-hitting, yet very witty, letters published in the local Mercury newspaper.

Recent examples included taking the Tories to task for pretending to be concerned at the plight of “hard pressed small businesses” whilst at the same time being “in the pockets of big business, the corporates and the multi-nationals.” Brent pointed out that Britain’s “small shop keepers have suffered as the result of unrestricted market forces which has had a deleterious effect on small shops and small firms” and called for locals to do their bit by shopping – where they could – with the small shops.

He also questioned the thinking behind changing the name of Anti-Social Behaviour Order’s (ASBO’s) to Community Safety Order’s (CSA’s). He noted that “the malaise that this country suffers from in the realm on ‘low level crime’ will not be resolved by mere tinkering with the wording of the law as the community safety order is an ASBO under a new name.” He concluded by saying that “what is needed is open public discussion on how we alter the trend in public manners that effects every one of us.”

At the moment, it looks like he’ll be elected unopposed but we’ll bring you more news after the election.

In the meantime, the National Liberal Party calls for the British people to say ‘Yes!’ in the referendum to change the voting system. As Havering Councillor David Durant (and NLP National Secretary) has noted:

“This is the first major reform of how we elect MPs for the last hundred years. For those of us who take our democracy seriously, anything less than a YES victory we fear will put back any further electoral reform for years”.

We also wish our friends in the United People’s Party the best of luck in any elections they contest.