Well-thumbed indeed is the Observer books desk edition of So now who do we vote for? by John Harris.
It is the book of the pub rant that goes something like:
"I wept with joy in 1997. I had my doubts, sure, the abandonment of clause 4, the commitment to Tory spending caps and the promise not to raise income tax. But they were necessary evils to bury the ghost of Middle England anxiety over Labour's record on economic management, weren't they?.
But then tuition fees? foundation hospitals? LEA outsourcing? Iraq? ..... IRAQ!?"
The great thing is that Harris has done his homework. This is no polemic - it is an earnest quest to find a worthy recipient of a protest vote. It is worth a read just to see in print Charles Kennedy disgracing himself with inarticulate blather.
Decleration of interest: Harris writes regularly for the Observer - mostly about music - and the Guardian. In fact the Guardian ran an edited extract from this book. His most recent contribution to Observer Review was a piece about the Manic Street Preachers.
And the answer? Who to vote for?
Harris tiptoes around taking a punt on the Lib Dems (it's an anti-war thing), with the hasty caveat that Labour-Tory marginals must still be saved from the clutches of Michael Howard. Naturally, it's a bit more complicated than that. You'll have to read the book. Or at least read the review this Sunday.
And who does the Observer think you should vote for? We're working on that one. We'll get back to you.
