This election has caused me to think longer and harder about who I will cast my vote for than any other. Prior to the campaign getting in to full swing, my thoughts were restricted to a choice between the Labour and Conservative parties, with my thoughts on voting for the Liberal Democrats being that it would be a wasted vote (and look how wrong I was there).

I've been bored of our current caretaker PM for a long time, and I never liked the idea that there's someone running the country who I didn't actually vote for - and yes, before you comment, I know that I elected the party, not the prime minister - but my only perceived alternative always bothered me. I'm not really old enough to have experienced, first hand, the impact the last Conservative government had on our country, but my dad has enough vitriolic rhetoric on the subject to go round.

I want to try and make an informed decision, so given my recent interaction with him, I thought I'd scrutinise the MP that's done the job since 1997.

On the Digital Economy Act

James Plaskitt, our incumbent representative in the House of Commons, responded to my earlier email (see If you have a vote, make sure you use it!) asking for clarification on his voting practices that led to the passing of the Digital Economy Act:

I am keenly aware of the strength of feeling on this matter, and the campaign that the Open Rights Group has organised is to be commended. The House of Commons spent around 8 hours over two nights debating the Bill. This follows more than three months of scrutiny in the Lords. I watched the whole debate. I did not support the bill.

I'm not entirely confident in the ability of a body of unelected individuals, many of whom are largely unaffected by the bill, to effectively filter what got to the Commons. Perhaps that's just me, but my opinion is that the Lords have nothing to fear, as they aren't voted into or out of power.

As for debate in the commons, 8 hours was nowhere near enough.

What really bothers me is the weasely way in which politicians use phrases, such as James' last one of that particular paragraph. "I did not support the bill." But he didn't vote against it either.

I didn't vote against the Bill because that would have killed it off completely, which I don't agree with. There are important issues raised in the Bill, which need an adequate debate. So voting against the Bill would not allow these issues to be raised, either now or in the next Parliament.

I hope you don't think I ducked out of this vote - I was up until midnight on both nights of the debate! I decided I couldn't support the Bill (the 'main vote' is to decide whether it should proceed), so I voted against my party whip. But I was concerned that if the Bill had been defeated completely, then we would miss out on a chance to debate these issues.

This is an area where I have little knowledge in the process of debate of Bills and Acts, but surely it's better to debate laws before rather than after they've been passed? And, as I've stated before, I couldn't care less whether my MP votes with his party, it's about whether he's representing his constituents' wishes.

In the case of the Digital Economy Act, I feel let down. My MP didn't represent me at that vote, and by abstaining, he wasted my vote.

On the Iraq War

There are tons of great tools on the web that allow you to see what your MP is up to. Gone are the days when the public record was difficult to access, decipher or understand, and I suspect many traditional MPs are quite uncomfortable about having their voting record easily accessible to the public.

James doesn't like these tools either. From an email James sent to me on April 8th:

I would respectfully recommend that you do not rely on such websites. In my experience they are notoriously unreliable at presenting an accurate voting record. Their methodology tends to take an average of YES versus NO votes on any particular issue to produce a conclusion like "Voted Moderately in Favour Of..". This gives no consideration whatsoever to the content of the clauses. Theyworkforyou still says that I voted in favour of the Iraq war. I did not.

Now, in fairness to James, he didn't vote in favour of the war. He wasn't present for the vote on the 'weapons of mass destruction' fiasco. He voted in favour of requiring a second UN security council resolution, voted that the case for war was unproven, and that the case for war was not established. He did, however, also vote in support of the government.

So, technically, James did not vote in favour of the Iraq war, but in what looks like it could be a pattern here, he wasn't present for the vote on the declaration of war. He didn't vote against it either.

Sound familiar?

On other issues

So in the two cases above, I would posit that by not voting, James actually allowed his constituents' wishes to go unvoiced in parliament.

Saddam Hussein was a really, really bad person but, whilst I can't speak for the whole of Warwick and Leamington, I expect the majority of the conurbation was opposed to the war. And, likewise, I think if enough of my neighbours actually knew what the Digital Economy Act entitled the government and media corporations to do to them, I think they'd be opposed to that too.

James Harrison has created an excellent website called Politics Posters, which encourages local candidates to come and talk to you based on the voting history of the constituency's last MP. For instance, if you live in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, you can download James Plaskitt's voting history as a poster.

Based on this, James voted:

• Moderately against a transparent Parliament
• Very strongly for introducing ID cards
• Very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals
• Strongly for introducing student top-up fees
• Very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws
• Moderately for the Iraq war
• Very strongly for replacing Trident
• Moderately against laws to stop climate change

Oh dear indeed.

In conclusion

I don't know what the other prospective parliamentary candidates would do differently, but I do know what James has done in the past. I suspect digging into each of the items above on the Public Whip website would reveal that he either did vote as suggested or abstained. I'd like my MP to do things differently, so I'll be voting for someone other than James Plaskitt on May 6th.

If you live in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, I'd urge you to do the same.