Can't decide how to vote? Publicwhip.org will tell you

Machines show you how to vote - you know how this ends

By John Ozimek • Get more from this author

Posted in Government, 17th May 2008 08:02 GMT

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As New Labour prepares itself for electoral meltdown in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, here's a site that might, as Peter Snow would have put it, be "just a bit of fun".

For all serious observers of the body politic, the main "Public Whip" site performs a useful service. It documents how individual MPs vote, together with who voted which way on the most significant issues in parliament.

Far more interestingly, it uses statistical algorithms to map the position of each MP relative to their own party as well as other MPs and parties. The members most distant from their party's ideological centre are Jeremy Corbyn (for Labour) and Ann Widdecombe (for the Tories).

(Technically, the Labour accolade goes to Phil Wilson, who won Sedgefield in 2007, following the departure of Tony Blair. However, this is likely to be a statistical glitch.)

The above link allows voters in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election to rate themselves on 14 key political issues of the day. Individual ratings are then ranked by importance. The result is a score explaining which party is closest to your own personal ideology.

As a lifelong Liberal, it was not surprising for me to find my preferred party is still the Lib Dems. Far more worrying for Labour is my partner's result. She has a mother and a sister who both live in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency - she was also at one time a member of the Labour Party. But according to the Public Whip, she, too, is now a Lib Dem – with Labour placed a poor third. ®

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