I got home from work today to find a pile of comedy election leaflets.

First there was the BNP with its slogans about “the new battle for Britain” and “British jobs for British workers” all illustrated with the photo of a Spitfire piloted by Polish airmen, the American workmen, and the Italian pensioners.

Next there was the UKIP leaflet, dominated by the slogan “Say no to European union” and a photograph of Winston Churchill who was advocating European union before most other people had even thought about it.  As a special bonus, the description of Nigel Farage says “He is Britian’s leading MEP…”

That’s right: they can’t even spell Britain!

At last there was the Green Party/Sarah Lucas laflet, like a breath of fresh air.  Obviously I would prefer people to support Labour.  I have met the top three candidates on our list: Peter Skinner is a good MEP already and Janet Sully and Bob Fromant are enthusiastic about Europe and what can be done within it.  Unfortunately a few (very) bad MPs have turned a lot of voters off the main parties, so if they are going to go out and cast protest votes I would rather they did it for a party with a positive agenda.

Apart from their more obvious shortcomings, the BNP would do nothing but go to Europe and complain about it.  Even if they were capable of achieving a positive outcome on any topic, they wouldn’t want to do that as it would lend credibility to the whole European Parliament.

UKIP are similar in that respect, and they make no secret of milking the MEP expense system for every penny they can so they can put it in their party funds.  Think a moment: would we forgive an MP who claimed expenses for  a house they didn’t own because he gave all the money to his party?   In the local elections would we bopther voting for a county council candidate who promises to turn up at meetings and just moan that the council even exists as an entity?

Conspiracy theories are doing the rounds that Green Party support is growing but unreported in the various opinion polls.  I would prefer that to the alternatives.